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Nu-Luxury: Lightness, innovation and brands in an age of excess

Luxury, once a single segment at the top of the market, is now multi-layered, with different customers, marketing and prices. Reasons for its downturn are well-known: recession; SARS; Iraq war; rise of the Euro against the dollar; a massive tourism downfall; post-9/11 distaste for late 1990s ostentation; and cynical consumer feeling. Now, positive signs include rising stocks, increased luxury item sales, (the Japanese, responsible for 33% of luxury purchases, are travelling again), richer people in OECD countries and Russians, Indians and Chinese entering the ‘desire’ economy.

While the previous boom was driven by ‘celebrity’ culture, dot.com wealth and high-risk investment, a new market, ‘masstige’ (mass meets prestige) targets the aspiring middle market while top brands pursue ‘stratospheric’ luxury aimed at the super-rich.

And there’s a new luxury consumer with a ‘new slow’ or ‘deep living’ approach to life who wants sustainable, ethical and cultural-based luxury: eco-resorts, weekends in Bilbao at the Guggenheim museum and low–energy designer lights.

We show how luxury is no longer about assuming wealth is linked to consumerism, but about moving away from showiness to trading platforms based on sensibility.