The financial crisis of 2008 had pushed for the internalization of luxury and promoted a new wave of brands pioneering intrinsic values over opulent goods and services. Sitting in the peculiar intersection of humanism and luxury, humanistic luxury is a novel subcategory of ethical consumerism, one that combines social development and materially derived prestige. With a promise to preserve dying arts and crafts and uplift impoverished but deserving artisans, a new form of inconspicuous prestige consumption was born. This novel badge of honour, however, also introduced unprecedented considerations to the global social fabric. Humanistic luxury, an oxymoron that is too often overlooked, may help eliminate artisan vulnerability, but it also cements social hierarchies confirming who is ‘worthy’ and who is not, ultimately hindering social mobility on both local and global levels. Based on fourteen deep interviews conducted with humanistic luxury consumers across eleven countries, this article is tracing the origins of this new segment, exploring the social dynamics that set it in motion, outlining its social impacts and guiding academics to further research and industry professionals to a critical understanding of development and commerce. Humanistic luxury, as the findings of the research demonstrate, is a synthesis that arises from two oppositional ideas and serves as a reconciliation between haves and have-nots, ultimately providing a compromise between social sensitivity and vanity-driven status-seeking, affixing the same social hierarchy and related beliefs they already possess. While this symbolic segment yields consumers with the agency to improve the life of vulnerable populations, it ultimately fails to deliver on its promise of creating an egalitarian society, as it exclusively works with the ‘distant other’, maintaining local and global social order and the access to resources, as we know it.
{"title":"Humanistic luxury: The illusionary vehicle for change-making","authors":"Sara Emilia Bernat","doi":"10.1386/ipol_00013_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/ipol_00013_1","url":null,"abstract":"The financial crisis of 2008 had pushed for the internalization of luxury and promoted a new wave of brands pioneering intrinsic values over opulent goods and services. Sitting in the peculiar intersection of humanism and luxury, humanistic luxury is a novel subcategory of ethical consumerism, one that combines social development and materially derived prestige. With a promise to preserve dying arts and crafts and uplift impoverished but deserving artisans, a new form of inconspicuous prestige consumption was born. This novel badge of honour, however, also introduced unprecedented considerations to the global social fabric. Humanistic luxury, an oxymoron that is too often overlooked, may help eliminate artisan vulnerability, but it also cements social hierarchies confirming who is ‘worthy’ and who is not, ultimately hindering social mobility on both local and global levels. Based on fourteen deep interviews conducted with humanistic luxury consumers across eleven countries, this article is tracing the origins of this new segment, exploring the social dynamics that set it in motion, outlining its social impacts and guiding academics to further research and industry professionals to a critical understanding of development and commerce. Humanistic luxury, as the findings of the research demonstrate, is a synthesis that arises from two oppositional ideas and serves as a reconciliation between haves and have-nots, ultimately providing a compromise between social sensitivity and vanity-driven status-seeking, affixing the same social hierarchy and related beliefs they already possess. While this symbolic segment yields consumers with the agency to improve the life of vulnerable populations, it ultimately fails to deliver on its promise of creating an egalitarian society, as it exclusively works with the ‘distant other’, maintaining local and global social order and the access to resources, as we know it.","PeriodicalId":55901,"journal":{"name":"Luxury-History Culture Consumption","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"73681761","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In this foreword to Luxury Studies: The In Pursuit of Luxury Journal, Gjoko Muratovski addresses the following questions: What do people expect from luxury brands right now? How is this market changing? What motivates people to buy luxury goods? What is the relationship between luxury and sustainability? And finally, are luxury goods good?
{"title":"What makes luxury goods good?","authors":"G. Muratovski","doi":"10.1386/ipol_00009_2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/ipol_00009_2","url":null,"abstract":"In this foreword to Luxury Studies: The In Pursuit of Luxury Journal, Gjoko Muratovski addresses the following questions: What do people expect from luxury brands right now? How is this market changing? What motivates people to buy luxury goods? What is the relationship between luxury and sustainability? And finally, are luxury goods good?","PeriodicalId":55901,"journal":{"name":"Luxury-History Culture Consumption","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84042966","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In Canada we struggle to recognize homegrown fashion talent, and our benchmarks for identifying quality work are based on imported luxury brands. Paradoxically, however, where we are most successful is when we are at our most Canadian. The Arc’teryx label, for example. This brand that grew from a passion for rock climbing, and whose gear subsequently expanded into luxury athleisure, has a uniquely Canadian DNA, one that actively engages with the natural world, the elements, and whose design and manufacturing directives are guided by a deep respect for sustainable principles. The goal of this research is to examine Arc’teryx to see how a successful fashion label has chosen to incorporate sustainable principles into their daily operations. The methodology for this article draws upon interviews with a key company employee, and it also examines the manufacturing model employed by Arc’teryx and how the fundamental corporate ethos drives decision-making. Theory for this article is adapted from technology and social critic Ursula Franklin’s prescient 1989 Massey College (University of Toronto) lecture series (‘The Real World of Technology’) wherein she examined the social shifts that were being catalysed by ascendant technology. Historically, Canada has been a locus of colonial imports and of raw resource export; perhaps now, the cultural values of Canada can constitute another valuable export commodity. One that is sorely needed as the fashion industry as a whole – in its current structure and practices – is massively destructive to the environment and the workers who manufacture our fashionable luxuries. For Arc’teryx, there may not be the same cachet of status-based cosseted luxury or aspirational identification with a rarefied clientele that a European haute-couture fashionable item carries. Conversely, this brand may illustrate that there is more to the ontology of luxury than just the narrow parameters of the Faubourg Saint Honoré or 5th Avenue. For Arc’teryx it is more about an athletic, holistic aesthetic, one that espouses the ‘luxury’ of a strong, healthy body that actively engages with a pristine, natural environment. Worthwhile aspirations that can have much wider implications when applied to a business model.
在加拿大，我们很难发现本土的时尚人才，我们识别高质量作品的基准是基于进口奢侈品牌。然而，矛盾的是，我们最成功的时候是我们最加拿大的时候。例如Arc 'teryx标签。这个品牌源于对攀岩的热情，其装备随后扩展到豪华运动休闲，具有独特的加拿大DNA，积极参与自然世界，元素，其设计和制造指令以对可持续原则的深刻尊重为指导。本研究的目的是考察Arc 'teryx，看看一个成功的时尚品牌是如何选择将可持续原则融入其日常运营的。本文的方法论借鉴了对公司一位关键员工的采访，并考察了Arc’teryx采用的制造模式，以及基本的企业精神是如何推动决策的。本文的理论改编自技术和社会评论家厄休拉·富兰克林在1989年多伦多大学梅西学院(University of Toronto)具有先见之明的系列讲座(“技术的真实世界”)，其中她研究了由新兴技术催化的社会转变。历史上，加拿大一直是殖民地进口和原材料出口的中心;也许现在，加拿大的文化价值可以成为另一种有价值的出口商品。时尚产业作为一个整体，在其目前的结构和实践中，对环境和制造我们时尚奢侈品的工人造成了巨大的破坏，这是迫切需要的。对于Arc’teryx来说，它可能没有欧洲高级定制时装所承载的那种以地位为基础的奢侈或对高端客户的渴望。相反，这个品牌可能说明，奢侈品的本体论不仅仅局限于圣奥诺弗雷德郊区或第五大道的狭窄范围。对于Arc’teryx来说，它更多的是一种运动的、整体的审美，一种支持强壮、健康的身体积极融入原始、自然环境的“奢侈”。有价值的愿望，当应用于商业模式时，可以产生更广泛的影响。
{"title":"Arc’teryx and the luxury of disruption: Sustainable drivers of a fashionable brand","authors":"M. O’Connell","doi":"10.1386/ipol_00012_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/ipol_00012_1","url":null,"abstract":"In Canada we struggle to recognize homegrown fashion talent, and our benchmarks for identifying quality work are based on imported luxury brands. Paradoxically, however, where we are most successful is when we are at our most Canadian. The Arc’teryx label, for example. This brand that grew from a passion for rock climbing, and whose gear subsequently expanded into luxury athleisure, has a uniquely Canadian DNA, one that actively engages with the natural world, the elements, and whose design and manufacturing directives are guided by a deep respect for sustainable principles. The goal of this research is to examine Arc’teryx to see how a successful fashion label has chosen to incorporate sustainable principles into their daily operations. The methodology for this article draws upon interviews with a key company employee, and it also examines the manufacturing model employed by Arc’teryx and how the fundamental corporate ethos drives decision-making. Theory for this article is adapted from technology and social critic Ursula Franklin’s prescient 1989 Massey College (University of Toronto) lecture series (‘The Real World of Technology’) wherein she examined the social shifts that were being catalysed by ascendant technology. Historically, Canada has been a locus of colonial imports and of raw resource export; perhaps now, the cultural values of Canada can constitute another valuable export commodity. One that is sorely needed as the fashion industry as a whole – in its current structure and practices – is massively destructive to the environment and the workers who manufacture our fashionable luxuries. For Arc’teryx, there may not be the same cachet of status-based cosseted luxury or aspirational identification with a rarefied clientele that a European haute-couture fashionable item carries. Conversely, this brand may illustrate that there is more to the ontology of luxury than just the narrow parameters of the Faubourg Saint Honoré or 5th Avenue. For Arc’teryx it is more about an athletic, holistic aesthetic, one that espouses the ‘luxury’ of a strong, healthy body that actively engages with a pristine, natural environment. Worthwhile aspirations that can have much wider implications when applied to a business model.","PeriodicalId":55901,"journal":{"name":"Luxury-History Culture Consumption","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85495322","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The global luxury market faces challenges from multiple sources. The landscape has changed with a shift towards more online selling. While this helped the luxury goods sector during the pandemic it also exposed consumers to more choices, allowing them to discover new brands and exposing them to competitive pricing. Shifts in consumer attitudes around sustainability and ethical consumption can have an impact on the desirability of products, particularly leather goods. As luxury brands rely so heavily on leather goods this can put them at a disadvantage as consumers delve deeper into the environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) performance of luxury brands. A shift to alternative raw materials is underway and this will offset risks, benefitting the larger groups.
{"title":"Luxury leather goods and alternative leather: Risk and growth opportunities","authors":"L. Solca","doi":"10.1386/ipol_00010_1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1386/ipol_00010_1","url":null,"abstract":"The global luxury market faces challenges from multiple sources. The landscape has changed with a shift towards more online selling. While this helped the luxury goods sector during the pandemic it also exposed consumers to more choices, allowing them to discover new brands and exposing them to competitive pricing. Shifts in consumer attitudes around sustainability and ethical consumption can have an impact on the desirability of products, particularly leather goods. As luxury brands rely so heavily on leather goods this can put them at a disadvantage as consumers delve deeper into the environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) performance of luxury brands. A shift to alternative raw materials is underway and this will offset risks, benefitting the larger groups.","PeriodicalId":55901,"journal":{"name":"Luxury-History Culture Consumption","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85724821","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/20511817.2022.2224496
Joanne Pei Sze Yeoh, Min Gin Han, Charles Spence
Abstract A study is reported that was designed to investigate the influence of various kinds of sonic accompaniment on consumers’ perception of a high-end luxury sports car. Using a between-participants experimental design, groups of 40 participants viewed a short car ad. The groups heard either classical music, pop music, sound effects, or listened in silence. The results revealed that participants perceived the car’s power, driving excitement and engine technology to be highest when the ad was paired with sound effects. Meanwhile, participants perceived the car to be most elegant and indicated the highest price for the car when the ad was paired with classical music. Those participants who watched the ad in silence rated lowest for all aspects of the car’s characteristics, including indicating the lowest price for the car. Interestingly, the participants admitted that music/sound effects influenced their perception of the advertised luxury sports car. This implies that specially curated sound design may help to highlight specific characteristics of a car.
{"title":"The Impact of Musical Fit and Sound Design on Consumers’ Perception of a Luxury Car Ad","authors":"Joanne Pei Sze Yeoh, Min Gin Han, Charles Spence","doi":"10.1080/20511817.2022.2224496","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20511817.2022.2224496","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract A study is reported that was designed to investigate the influence of various kinds of sonic accompaniment on consumers’ perception of a high-end luxury sports car. Using a between-participants experimental design, groups of 40 participants viewed a short car ad. The groups heard either classical music, pop music, sound effects, or listened in silence. The results revealed that participants perceived the car’s power, driving excitement and engine technology to be highest when the ad was paired with sound effects. Meanwhile, participants perceived the car to be most elegant and indicated the highest price for the car when the ad was paired with classical music. Those participants who watched the ad in silence rated lowest for all aspects of the car’s characteristics, including indicating the lowest price for the car. Interestingly, the participants admitted that music/sound effects influenced their perception of the advertised luxury sports car. This implies that specially curated sound design may help to highlight specific characteristics of a car.","PeriodicalId":55901,"journal":{"name":"Luxury-History Culture Consumption","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46515986","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/20511817.2022.2205044
Armano Linda
Abstract This study aims to highlight the use of the peculiar interconnection between two different production sectors, specifically the diamond and the food sectors, in order to show the cultural interpretations given to the certification of diamonds presented by consumers. These latter, while buying Canadian diamonds, have little knowledge of the real working conditions of miners in mines in Canada. Thus, they passively accept as truthful the jewellers’ claims in presenting ethical diamonds on which they base the moral purchasing decisions that also enable them to distinguish ethical diamonds from other non-certified diamonds. Drawing inspiration from studies on framing related to the analysis of language, the study shows how “frames of familiarity” linked to cultural ideas of food production sectors managed to incorporate “frames of novelty” in relation to Canadian diamonds, which are still niche products in Italy, on the part of a socio-cultural community of consumers who were thus able to increase the perception of trustworthiness with regard to these products. Thus, this research demonstrates that interpreting the certification of Canadian ethical diamonds through the lens of organic food produced in Italy, which is a label that generally refers to meanings of careful, respectful, and high-quality processing, allowed the Italian consumers interviewed to perform an act of acculturation of diamonds mined in Canada.
{"title":"The Acculturation Process of New Products through Known Products. Interpreting Ethical Certification of Diamonds through the Lens of Organic Food Produced in Italy","authors":"Armano Linda","doi":"10.1080/20511817.2022.2205044","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20511817.2022.2205044","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This study aims to highlight the use of the peculiar interconnection between two different production sectors, specifically the diamond and the food sectors, in order to show the cultural interpretations given to the certification of diamonds presented by consumers. These latter, while buying Canadian diamonds, have little knowledge of the real working conditions of miners in mines in Canada. Thus, they passively accept as truthful the jewellers’ claims in presenting ethical diamonds on which they base the moral purchasing decisions that also enable them to distinguish ethical diamonds from other non-certified diamonds. Drawing inspiration from studies on framing related to the analysis of language, the study shows how “frames of familiarity” linked to cultural ideas of food production sectors managed to incorporate “frames of novelty” in relation to Canadian diamonds, which are still niche products in Italy, on the part of a socio-cultural community of consumers who were thus able to increase the perception of trustworthiness with regard to these products. Thus, this research demonstrates that interpreting the certification of Canadian ethical diamonds through the lens of organic food produced in Italy, which is a label that generally refers to meanings of careful, respectful, and high-quality processing, allowed the Italian consumers interviewed to perform an act of acculturation of diamonds mined in Canada.","PeriodicalId":55901,"journal":{"name":"Luxury-History Culture Consumption","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42422457","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/20511817.2022.2185927
Mario D. Schultz, Peter Seele
Abstract This study explores the ethicality of displaying luxury items in social interactions, integrating conspicuous consumption theory and functional theories of attitudes. We conceptualize the phenomenon of changing ethical perceptions (gestalt-switch) toward conspicuous consumption, building on data from two quantitative studies (N = 280). Study 1 employs ‘functional theories of attitudes’ (value-expressive and social-adjustive) to explore the link between social attitude functions and peoples’ ethical perception of luxury watch display. Informed by study 1, study 2 investigates how social attitude functions explain the ethical perception of wearing a luxury watch in specific interpersonal contexts. Using regression analysis, the study indicates a link between peoples’ ethical perception of conspicuously consuming luxury watches in social interactions and social attitude functions. Surprisingly, attitude functions cannot explain peoples’ ethical perceptions in social interactions with a transactional character. The results highlight that the attitude toward a luxury watch can change from desirable to undesirable (gestalt-switch), such that the bearer perceives the watch ostentation as unethical. Theorizing on this attitudinal change, we offer a contribution by emphasizing the conspicuous consumers striving for a harmonious gestalt or context-value-consistency when expressing personal values through a luxury watch.
{"title":"Gestalt-Switch of Luxury Products: Exploring Pitfalls of Inconsistent Value Expressions in Conspicuous Consumption","authors":"Mario D. Schultz, Peter Seele","doi":"10.1080/20511817.2022.2185927","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20511817.2022.2185927","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This study explores the ethicality of displaying luxury items in social interactions, integrating conspicuous consumption theory and functional theories of attitudes. We conceptualize the phenomenon of changing ethical perceptions (gestalt-switch) toward conspicuous consumption, building on data from two quantitative studies (N = 280). Study 1 employs ‘functional theories of attitudes’ (value-expressive and social-adjustive) to explore the link between social attitude functions and peoples’ ethical perception of luxury watch display. Informed by study 1, study 2 investigates how social attitude functions explain the ethical perception of wearing a luxury watch in specific interpersonal contexts. Using regression analysis, the study indicates a link between peoples’ ethical perception of conspicuously consuming luxury watches in social interactions and social attitude functions. Surprisingly, attitude functions cannot explain peoples’ ethical perceptions in social interactions with a transactional character. The results highlight that the attitude toward a luxury watch can change from desirable to undesirable (gestalt-switch), such that the bearer perceives the watch ostentation as unethical. Theorizing on this attitudinal change, we offer a contribution by emphasizing the conspicuous consumers striving for a harmonious gestalt or context-value-consistency when expressing personal values through a luxury watch.","PeriodicalId":55901,"journal":{"name":"Luxury-History Culture Consumption","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43725127","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/20511817.2022.2183542
Christopher J. Berry
Abstract My book The Idea of Luxury: A Conceptual and Historical Investigation was published in 1994 (still in print). While what follows is bound to be self-referential and also presumptuous in that it is premised on there being some interest in these reflections on the book a quarter of a century plus later. The partial defense is that the book has been extensively cited and widely acknowledged as an important and influential contribution. In the period since its publication I have written (often by invitation) some papers that take, sometimes tangential, aspects of the book’s discussion as their cue but have not revisited the book as a whole. This paper aims to take an, albeit still selective, overview of the book and reply to some of the criticisms to which it has been subject. I divide the paper into three sections. In Sections 1 and 2, I consider separately the two elements in the book’s sub-title before in Section 3 making some general remarks on the book’s implications for aspects of the contemporary study of luxury.
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Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1080/20511817.2022.2194039
Juliana Luna Mora, J. Berry
Abstract This article examines how luxury fashion houses Chanel and Alexander McQueen have mobilized the “spirit” of their founding designers to become part of the commercial brand’s founding myth and vocabulary. Pierre Bourdieu highlighted how within the field of fashion, the creative vision of the designer which should be irreplaceable is in fact replaceable where their products and business can live on long after their death through the succession of another designer. We present the case studies of Chanel and Alexander McQueen as examples of how luxury fashion labels strategically assimilate new designers (Karl Lagerfeld and Virginie Viard in the case of Chanel and Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen) into the mythology of the brand. We develop the phantasmagoria succession framework to explain how founding designers of luxury labels are systematically conjured as “spirits” that inhabit the brand’s seasonal commodities. To establish a link between the past and the future, the “spirit,” “essence” or “aura” of the founding designer is transmitted through the ritual means of the fashion spectacle to a successive designer. We demonstrate here how the mythology of the original designer’s “spirit” is summoned and reproduced by the brand through: the use of mystified storytelling in the fashion press; the consecration of particular fashion products as a chest of symbols; and the ritual acts and spectacular theatricality of catwalk presentations.
{"title":"Creative Direction Succession in Luxury Fashion: The Illusion of Immortality at Chanel and Alexander McQueen","authors":"Juliana Luna Mora, J. Berry","doi":"10.1080/20511817.2022.2194039","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/20511817.2022.2194039","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article examines how luxury fashion houses Chanel and Alexander McQueen have mobilized the “spirit” of their founding designers to become part of the commercial brand’s founding myth and vocabulary. Pierre Bourdieu highlighted how within the field of fashion, the creative vision of the designer which should be irreplaceable is in fact replaceable where their products and business can live on long after their death through the succession of another designer. We present the case studies of Chanel and Alexander McQueen as examples of how luxury fashion labels strategically assimilate new designers (Karl Lagerfeld and Virginie Viard in the case of Chanel and Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen) into the mythology of the brand. We develop the phantasmagoria succession framework to explain how founding designers of luxury labels are systematically conjured as “spirits” that inhabit the brand’s seasonal commodities. To establish a link between the past and the future, the “spirit,” “essence” or “aura” of the founding designer is transmitted through the ritual means of the fashion spectacle to a successive designer. We demonstrate here how the mythology of the original designer’s “spirit” is summoned and reproduced by the brand through: the use of mystified storytelling in the fashion press; the consecration of particular fashion products as a chest of symbols; and the ritual acts and spectacular theatricality of catwalk presentations.","PeriodicalId":55901,"journal":{"name":"Luxury-History Culture Consumption","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45352313","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/20511817.2022.2124749
Thomaï Serdari
As the field of luxury studies is expanding, the questions that lead contemporary research are distinguished by methodological innovation. The opportunity to ask a new question or to focus on one that had been articulated before by earlier scholars and re-shape it would not be as exciting today without the imagination and criticality that allows scholars to combine methods of research that stem from other disciplines. The journal LUXURY: History Culture Consumption is a platform that remains open to and actively seeks out the new voices in the study of luxury. Specifically, the journal encourages new approaches to academic inquiry and new ways to bridge theoretical conversations with practice, as well as academic breakthroughs with professional applications that make the field of luxury one of the most exciting places of work. In this issue of LUXURY, scholars Mario D. Schultz and Peter Seele undertake a methodologically innovative study that combines netnography, qualitative interviews, and secondary research in the business literature as they focus on elucidating the role of luxury watches at work and their impact on the image of the organization. Netnography is a Thomaï Serdari is Clinical Associate Professor of Marketing and Director of the Fashion & Luxury MBA at the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University. ts307@stern.nyu.edu
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