Reflect upon the pursuit of luxury rather than its acquisition to truly experience its ephemeral soul, a universe of noble materials provided through nature and refined by human hands…
Luxury will never be found in its final form but rather is a permanent exercise in attempting to validate that the sum of its parts intrinsically has more worth than its individual components. For many, their ideal of luxury is realistically unachievable, a sort of mythical beast that roams a never-ending Labyrinth, constantly evading the grasp of the hunter but always fueling their need to stalk its essence. The archetypal lure that peaks its head around corners, inspiring greatness in those that seek its embrace. Whether it is the buttery softness of lambskin sculpted into sleek, perfectly fitted gloves or the honed sharpness of book-matched Calcutta Gold marble crafted into architecturally significant boltholes, the heady & intoxicating bouquet of femininity in the guise of a richly orchestrated eau de parfum or the exquisitely warm sands of an exotic island flowing through bronzed and immaculately sandaled feet… moments of excellence that have the power to transfigure the banal into an ephemeral but enviable elevation above the common.
This is where the true sense of luxury is found…in its pursuit through a holistic embodiment of excellence. As American scholar and novelist Catherine Bucknell once posited, “…once removed from the setting in which it was sold, once taken home and made familiar, doesn’t the consumer item lose its magic ?”
We need only reflect on the core lesson learned in an obscure children’s book entitled, “The Star (and George) by Gerald Potterton, to learn that sometimes no matter how hard we look to contain greatness in the captivity of ownership, its power overwhelms us and we are left scorched in its wake. Every generation has its pantheon of martyrs, sacrificing all to obtain the unobtainable. Every generation also has its novices that develop a refined understanding that the products, services and experiences inspired by luxury, motivate us far more than the undiluted elixirs; like Cassis diffusing its rich and syrupy sweetness into the bubbly crispness of champagne.
By momentarily touching the divine sphere of what most consider to be the ultimate expression of luxury, the sensorial symphony of tastes and textures so rare that only a few can afford to possess their beauty, we are infected by the need to want and desire more for our lives. We wish to elevate above the din of mediocrity and make statements about our tastes as a testimony to the importance of our brief sojourn on this planet.
Here luxury becomes not a cloned commodity to be flogged globally around the world to seduce the middle class, but rather a deontological pursuit which defines what it means to be truly human. Luxury, whether it is apparent or not, is a secular Eucharist that elevates the human soul far from its animalistic origins.
For some, the inherent value of a Birkin handbag can be perceived by the number of compliments that are received from admirers yearning for the recognition of their own sense of perceived taste; a vicious cycle of accolades that serves to bolster the ego of both the complemented and the complementor, the influencer and the influenced. A portable, streamable and self-proclaimed testament of one’s success, beauty, or savior-vivre.
Others may see the iconic bag, available in its plethora of exotic skins, custom dye-lots, and fine metal hardware as a symbol of power, privilege, and a person’s archetypal penchant for being unique; like a hoplite warrior’s shield sculpted and polished to bedazzled the enemy whilst creating an artificial barrier between them and the sacrificial frontline infantry unable to afford such luxuries.
For many a consumer, Birkin love lies beyond the extrinsic influence that it can provide. Theirs is an emotional and hedonistic journey into the richness of memories and their indescribable sensorial pleasures. Whether it is how light makes the palladium clasp dance with diamond-like sparkle or how the distinct perfume of birch-tanned leather becomes a subtle but powerful reminder of a mother’s presence, it is the romantic nature of brands like Hermès that evokes an indelible affinity to their products and the timeless mystique that envelops them. And just like a delicate heirloom that has been handed down from generation to generation, a collective admiration for a brand develops from mother to daughter, father to son.
This is the crucial shift we are witnessing today. As high-profile influencers like Lydia Millen-Gordon publicly sell off their current ‘it-bag’ wardrobes, the pursuit of globally distributed, instantly recognisable commodities is giving way to a more discerning reverence for local craft, unique provenance, and true quality. The focus is moving from accumulation to appreciation, from chasing the current trend to celebrating the fusion of human talent and nature’s perfection. This trend begs the question: What brands truly embody this holistic, ethical, and artistic definition of luxury, and for what essential reasons?
Rather than being tranced by a litany of logos and a dogma of design, should we not look deep within the craftsmanship of a brand to find its true purpose, that of achieving excellence? Is it not the quality of the materials then sculpted by ancestral techniques that transform the beauty of the world around us into an even higher level of divinity?
