72 Austere luxe

Austere luxe

Luxury brands are recalibrating in the face of China’s “common prosperity” policy.

During China’s 2021 National Day holiday, a market in Shanghai became the center of a social media frenzy. Thousands descended on the Wuzhong wet market in the former French Concession to buy fruit, vegetables and eggs—but these basic foodstuffs were encased in Prada-branded wrapping and carrier bags.

The high-low pop-up celebrated the launch of Prada’s fall/winter 2021 campaign “Feels Like Prada.” This could be seen as a successful marketing campaign—selfies abounded and stallholders ran out of bags and wrap—or a sign of gentrification, or, as Zhu Tianhua, an assistant researcher at Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, told Sixth Tone, “a kind of consumerism of daily life.” However it is viewed, the campaign struck an appropriately austere chord at a time when the world continues to grapple with crises from COVID-19 to climate change to yawning economic inequity.

In mid-2021, Chinese President Xi Jinping, after a months-long crackdown on the country’s biggest technology firms, announced a new “common prosperity” policy, urging businesses and entrepreneurs to narrow the country’s wealth gap.

The government pledged to lift more workers into the middle class and make basics such as schooling, housing and health care more affordable. Some of China’s biggest billionaires have since agreed to donate billions of dollars to charity.

Outside China, there are also signs of a bling backlash. In November 2021, a Vietnamese minister was pilloried on social media after a video showed him being hand-fed gold-plated steak in London at the Knightsbridge restaurant of Nusret Gokce, a celebrity chef also known as Salt Bae.

Kim Kardashian, the queen of conspicuous consumption, appeared at the Met Gala 2021 not in customary glitter and gloss but fully encased, face and all, in a clingy black sheath.

Why it’s interesting The personal luxury goods market rebounded in 2021 to €283 billion, up 29% from the trough of 2020, according to Bain & Company’s “Luxury Study 2021.” That rebound was driven by China, which now makes up 21% of the global market. But the pandemic has provoked a reassessment of what luxury means. “The emergence from the COVID crisis comes as a renaissance for luxury brands,” says Claudia D’Arpizio, lead author of the Bain study. “Where once it was all about status, logos and exclusivity, luxury brands are now actors in social conversations, driven by a renewed sense of purpose and responsibility.”