Luxury Shame

Speaking from experience, as a member of a disadvantaged generation, a generation in which you are not simply handed a job with a retirement fund and medical aid. A generation of university graduates, who have been forced to work outside of their chosen fields most probably at one point or another winding up as a cater waiter or video store assistant trying to make some money while working as an intern for next to nothing for companies that don’t have the money to pay them. Welcome to the recession. Finding a job is difficult, but trying to start a career is almost impossible. This might sound a bit defeatist, but its not, personally I have found the experience character building . Character building in such a way, that we question, everything, wary of yet another empty opportunity. It is this hard-earned wariness that makes me wonder about the success of the luxury markets during these uncertain economic times.

LVMH, the iconic luxury brands company, Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy, reported an increase of €1279 million in revenue for their Fashion and Leather Goods sector from 2009 to 2010. Representing legendary luxury brands such as De Beers, Dior, Fendi, Emilio Pucci, Givenchy, Bulgari, Guerlain, Marc Jacobs and Loewe. One of LVMH’s most lucrative brands remains Louis Vuitton, with Marc Jacobs currently at the helm as creative director. Within a decade, the number of Louis Vuitton stores worldwide has grown from 251 to 450 stores, an astronomical increase taking into account that we are still reeling from the effects of the recession. China shows great potential in becoming the leading global luxury brand market, with estimates that it will account for20% of the market by 2015.

The research agency Bain & Co. has identified a fragmentation of the luxury customer base, resulting in 2 key audiences. Euromonitor have named them the ‘Blingtastics’ and the ‘New Ascetics’. The ‘Blingtastics’ are characterized as being outer-directed, influenced by the outside world and remain strong in markets with a deep cultural tradition of ostentation and emerging markets where luxury is a social badge of success. However, the audience I am interested in, the ‘New Ascetics’, are plagued by the Bain & Co. coined phrase ‘Luxury Shame’.
Karl Lagerfeld accurately identified the sentiment: “The whole crisis is like a big spring house-cleaning both moral and physical.Bling is over. Red carpetry covered with rhinestones is out. I call it the ‘new modesty’.
Luxury has been established as the immoral and unacceptable side of greed, excess and conspicuous consumption. The new luxury consumer is expected to act with a certain degree of responsibility and waste defiance. The Marketplace of Responsibility (Futures Company Report Dec. 2009) have identified the fact, that in the US and UK 70% of consumers seek brands with a superior environmental record.

Louis Vuitton’s hauntingly beautiful core values ad campaigns focus on sustainability. With impressive celebrity involvement from Mikhail Gorbachev pictured in front of a piece of the Berlin Wall. Buzz Aldrin, Sally Ride and Jim Lovell, former astronauts looking up at the Moon. Diego Maradona, Zinédine Zindane and Pelé partaking in a game of Foosball. Angelina Jolie pictured on a barge in Vietnam, sans make-up, with clothes from her own wardrobe and her personal 6 year old Alto carryall. Or Bono and his wife, Ali Hewson, getting off a plane in the African grasslands wearing their own ethical fashion line Edun, founded to encourage the fashion community to work in Africa.
Photographed by Annie Liebowitz who supports Al Gore’s Climate Change Project, each campaign has its own story of responsibility.
Bono and his wife donated their appearance fees to their Edun ethical fashion line and the Conservation Cotton Initiative. Liebowitz contributes to The Climate Project and the astronaut campaign was in honour of the 40th anniversary of man landing on the Moon. Angelina Jolie talks about the jaded past of Vietnam.The Louis Vuitton brand has taken to heart the telling of a story, of appearing to be a responsible brand if only through image.

My question, as always, is are they really being responsible? Sustainable? Ethical? I venture to refute these claims.
Aren’t they, one of the most successful luxury brands, merely pandering to the sense of guilt of the ‘New Ascetics’? Covering all their bases to ensure that no-one feels left out? In terms of raising awareness, are the celebrities not merely raising awareness of themselves as law-abiding, thoughtful, ethical people? In an age, when celebrity means everything, even when using it for someone else’s benefit, are we really focusing on the issues? These types of campaigns, while beautiful, seem to be the lifeline of luxury brands. In a 2012 Warc briefing on luxury they summarise it perfectly: “Like the process of natural selection, only the brands that stick to their core luxury essence– delivering the fundamentals extraordinarily well and consistently advancing their unique point of view will thrive.” These campaigns act as a response to the difficult economic situation, it is a business strategy to come out ahead. Various references are made about the causes that they support, but very little, if any information is given about actual results, actual contributions. It’s all well and good to talk about the problems of the world, but if you say you’re doing something about it, I’d like to know what precisely has been done.

When it comes right down to it, I much prefer the ‘Blingtastics’. At least they’re honest.