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When I was a kid, one of my older cousins proudly bought a Buick Riviera with power steering, power windows and air conditioning all of which could be found only on a luxury car. Now you find those features on the lowliest heap, so what constitutes a luxury car in 2007? A $50K car now has the same carpet and paint as a $25K vehicle. Real estate mogul and Los Angeles Clippers owner Don Sterling advertises the most luxurious apartments in Los Angeles. I don’t know what is in them, but I think it takes a lot more than granite counter tops and his & hers sinks to help a boxy apartment rise to the luxury level.
Luxury used to be defined as “beautifully crafted, hideously expensive and unashamedly elitist.” There are brand masters such as Ralph Lauren who spend hundreds of millions of dollars per year to convince you that their clothing ranks right up there with the world’s finest and that wearing it welcomes you to a luxury lifestyle. But perception and experience can sometimes be very far apart. Rodeo Drive is crawling with people who know the names of all the brands that have successfully positioned themselves as luxury, but can any of them tell me what makes for luxury in a purse, shirt or shoes other than simply expensive?
I admire the small business owners who’ve learned to create the goods and services that fulfill the wishes of those who know real luxury. Somehow fine leather and luxury seem to go together. An example is Glaser Designs in San Francisco who make handmade leather bags, and the same can be said for T. Anthony in New York. Yes, Jimmy Choo shoes were once made in small quantities. Well-made items lead some people to feel poetically rapturous about them. In Milan, Italy there is Valextra, another leather goods maker, and here is a description of their overnight bag which won a best luggage competition sponsored by Travel & Leisure magazine:
The jury is extremely gushy about this bag: Relaunched this year, the luggage from the Italian house of Valextra is beautifully tactile and practically glows with handmade elegance. In no way innovative, the company's designs, like this small-braided, straw-grained leather overnight case, are instead idealized versions of classic shapes, made transcendent in their detailing: the pale-green stitching, the platonically perfect handle. This bag's lined interior is divided into sections, one suited to hold a change of clothes, another for a laptop and documents. It is as practical as it is luxurious.
Luxury, you bet, but with a price of $3625 I’m not so sure about the practical part. Personally, I think that luxury is having the resources to ensure freedom of choice and to be able to translate wishes into reality. The middle class can flirt with luxury, get close to it and occasionally taste it, but can’t really live a full luxury lifestyle. In the past year, thanks to the kindness of friends, I’ve travelled by private jet and dined while served by household staff on a 60-acre estate. By just about any standard I’d have to accept that as luxury at a level that I’m fortunate to even glimpse. Those kind friends live and breathe luxury with the rare combination of a wonderful level of taste as well as copious financial resources.
There are plentiful opportunities for entrepreneurial thinkers at the small end of the luxury marketplace. While many well-known enterprises are stretching themselves in attempting to appeal to a broad swath of consumers with worldwide brands, I think there is great potential to serve a narrow, moneyed and discerning group. In modern life, knowledgeable service and fundamental quality are becoming luxuries in and of themselves. To walk into a small shop in any city and be served by a person who thoroughly knows the merchandise and how to make customers feel special is a treat. That brings the kind of repeat business and word-of-mouth advertising that propels commerce in the luxury market.
During the past easy money decade a lot of people could dabble in the luxury end of the marketplace thanks to loans. But even with the sub-prime mess submerging hopes and ambitions, catering to what used to be called “the carriage trade” is still a viable business model. As one clerk on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills said, “The people who really have money always have money.”
If you have a definition of luxury, I’d like to know about it.
nelson@MakingItTV.com
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