If there is one thing that defines our Anti-luxurian tribe members it is that they do not hold the old codes of luxury close to their heart, and switch off when brands identify as heritage or create campaigns about the craft-based, artisanal nature of a product. ‘What status and luxury mean has shifted. Old signifiers do not necessarily mean anything any more,’ Felix Petty, assistant editor at i-D magazine, tells LS:N Global. ‘There is a trend for authenticity and uniqueness.’
Our 2016 Luxury Index reveals that 23% of all respondents feel that traditional ads have no influence over their brand preferences and buying behaviour today, while 41% say that they value greater levels of honesty from brands, as well as humour and light-heartedness (21%).
Athleisure, the number one-performing fashion category, is defying a global downturn in sales of apparel and its popularity signals a clear shift towards new dress codes. First Insight anticipates further growth in the sector with an ‘overall emphasis on incorporating performance technologies into workwear and streetwear’. For Anti-luxurians, it’s all about performance over aesthetics.
Gucci is a key pioneer of the Anti-luxurian attitude with its playful and experimental approach. ‘It has embraced people who would traditionally be considered outside the luxury industry who wouldn’t be the perfect luxury consumer,’ Pia Stanchina, the former industry manager for digital acceleration of fashion and luxury retail at Google, tells LS:N Global. ‘They understand that the luxury consumer is a multifaceted being – one might be into skateboarding, while another might be into art.’
It is these people beyond the traditional luxury target market that make up our tribe of Anti-luxurians. Madrid-based fashion designer Paty Abrahamsson, 30, pushes the limits of what is acceptable with her mawkish sense of humour. Novembre magazine editor Jeanne-Salomé Rochat, 30, represents the move towards purist, high-performance athletic gear among luxury consumers, and Andrew Grüne, 32, founder of e-boutique PRMTV, is passionate about functional technical gear and dystopian digital worlds. Together, they point to a future where luxury is less about wealth, physical objects and excess, and more about digital and immaterial experiences.
Anti Luxurians is part of our new Luxury Tribes Report. If you have already purchased the Anti Luxurians report, you can watch the original case study video below - you can find the password to the video inside your PDF report.
To get an exclusive glance into the homes and mindsets of your future luxury consumers, and unlock all four videos, download all of the Tribes: Luxury Collection reports.
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