Faking Luxury
all that glitters ...
I grew up stuck between two worlds miles apart, bonded by a surprising similarity. On one side, my Russian relatives were enjoying the recent influx of money into their revolutionized country. I was a first-hand witness to the mad rush to establish “New Russia” in the berth of luxury. On the other side, I attended a New England private school where every student found it equally necessary to establish their “old money” rank using luxury brands.
The language, the professions, the culture, the fashions—everything was different. Still, everywhere I went the brands were the same: Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Gucci, and Prada. It is a universal language. New Money, Old Money, and almost no money scramble to imprint the famous logos on whatever surface possible.
The number of excessively rich in the world is exponentially increasing, so it is not surprising that luxury products are becoming more widely attainable. But what are the implications of this increased accessibility for the fashion industry?
The brands we cherish so much today, such as Louis Vuitton, Cartier, and Hermès, have their roots in the 18th and 19th centuries, when the brands’ skilled founders began creating individual and exceptional works for the aristocracy. The same brands still boast the values of artisanship and non-industrial production in ironically large and grandiose advertisements found everywhere in magazines and store windows. The culture of luxury has grown to include boutiques in every major city, advertisements in every major magazine and celebrity endorsements on every major red carpet. Which leaves one to ask: what is so luxurious and unique about contemporary luxury brands?
On a recent visit to the Bloomingdales on 59th Street and Lexington Avenue, I was drawn to a gaggle of girls gathered around a small glass case near the front of the Louis Vuitton boutique. The girls were ooing and aahing over some small Louis Vuitton change purses, the kind that fits a student ID, at roughly $300 a piece. The large purses with the Louis Vuitton logo were too expensive to attract their attention but the change purses were just right. Nowadays, we pass those girls off as silly label whores. However, they are part of this new culture that seeks out the imprint of luxury, which often in the process sacrifices the actual element of luxury.
No one near the Chanel cosmetics counter in Bloomingdales stops to ponder the quality of the product; they are assured that its value is sanctioned by its brand name. People like the idea that if they can’t afford a Chanel tweed suit or a $400 pair of Chanel sunglasses, luxury is accessible in a $25 tube of lipstick.
The corporate tycoons have taken advantage of this trend. They are buying out the luxury brand houses and bringing them into the competitive open market. Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Stella McCartney, and Balenciaga are all owned by François Pinault. Pinault’s son François-Henri, chief executive officer of the company, is engaged to actress Salma Hayek, who wears predominantly Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent and touts those brands on the red carpet. So it all comes full circle: the tycoon, the luxury brand, and the obsession with fame.
Harper’s Bazaar warns its readers about the harms of buying knockoffs, claiming that such purchases aid an industry that underpays and abuses workers in Asian countries. Ironically, the factories that make these knockoffs are located next to the outsourced factories that produce the actual “luxury” goods. The producers of luxury goods are becoming exceedingly aware that brand-name power has the potential to outweigh the allure of a product’s actual quality. The emphasis has shifted away from the rarity and uniqueness of quality pieces to the profitability of marketing expensive items under the general title of “luxury.”
The luxury brand has gone from producing objects valued for their purity to producing items gilded over by labels and expensive price tags, where appearance replaces quality. So the next time you are eyeing that Coach wallet or those Chanel sunglasses, ask yourself if you are looking at luxury or the label. \\\