The changing face of luxury fashion

What is Luxury

Luxury can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. For many people Luxury is seen as an unattainable aspirational goal, to one day ‘live in luxury’. For the lucky few it was about standing out from the crowd by demonstrating ones wealth. ‘True luxury is timeless yet current, unique in its presence but fits in with it`s surroundings. An antidote to the tasteless and void of narrative.’ Well who are the taste makers, who are the ones to say if something is luxury or not?

“To me, luxury means value system. To a younger group of people, you could replace the word ‘luxury’ with the word coveted” Virgil Abloh

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“To me, luxury means value system. To a younger group of people, you could replace the word ‘luxury’ with the word coveted” Virgil Abloh

How is Luxury evolving?

In the 2010s we witnessed a game-changing identify crisis. High fashion didn`t want to be high fashion anymore. With the traditional fashion cycle running dry, designers had to look elsewhere for inspiration. And they found it on the street. Marc Jacobs, the then creative director for Louis Vuitton tapped Kanye West to design a capsule collection of luxury sneakers with the esteemed Maison. This was a sign that street culture had made it. West had crossed the line of being a consumer of luxury good to a creator of them. Instead of high fashion trickling down this was street culture trickling up. The appointment of Virgil Abolh as Men`s artistic director at louis Vuitton was a huge shift for luxury fashion. With a background in Art, Architecture, engineering and whose own label, Off White, is one of fashion’s most talked-about breakout brands, Abolh did not come to play by the rules. Especially as the first designer of colour to hold such a high-profile position (Cochrane, 2018). This injection of street style could suddenly be seen across the luxury fashion market. With hoodies, puffer jacket key feature on the runways. “Old luxury” was being superseded by a movement built on inclusivity, access and knowledge. The brands, artists and designers cut from this new cloth understood how to cultivate desire and followings, because they were the fans themselves. They legitimised street culture by turning luxury into more than an industry, but a platform for culture (Fischer, 2019). Complementary to this the growing strength in youth culture has proven a real driving force for this new luxe. Although a lot of young consumer don`t have the disposable income to big ticket items of these luxury brands as frequently as their older counterparts, by engaging with them they are creating a cult following of future customers.

The Luxury Consumer

Augmented reality is becoming a big part of fashion. Department of new realities is a creative agency that specialises in augmented reality. They developed a book for Moncler Genius project with augment reality content, 3D immersive experiences which are triggered by the printed pages bring a new perspective on the traditional book layout.

Through the Moncler Genius AR Lens app you can reveal a 3D multiverse behind each collection. This kind of technology changes the way we view and interact with fashion.

Digital denim jumpsuit by digital fashion house The Fabricant.

Digital clothing can cater to any size. This can also benefit people with disabilities, finding clothing to fit over prosthetics can be difficult and often disheartening. Digital clothing can be manipulated to fit your body unlike a typical filter. Digital fashion can be positive way to access fashion without the negative impact on the planet. As the clothes aren’t physically manufactured there is no carbon footprint. This is a really interesting concept for influencers. Often wearing the latest clothes and carrying out hauls of popular brands this is a more eco-conscious way keeping up with fashion.

This evolution of a social media persona is leading to the rise in digital fashion. For young, creative, image conscious consumers digital fashion is something to be taken seriously by brands. However, for the majority of consumers their love for fashion is in the physical rather than the digital (I-D, 2019).

“I think as a designer you have an obligation to consider what you are doing and why; ultimately, we want to make strong, sustainable choices that provide our customers with a completely unique and desirable product” CHRISTOPHER RÆBURN