Has luxury lost its glamour?

Reuters

LOSING LUSTRE? Victoria Beckham seduced by the concept that expensive equals status, dangled her handbag in front of the zillion cameras, thereby creating the everlasting image of a woman over-excited by her own bag.

Relevant offers

Fashion

One pair of jeans enough Cardy a fashion essential Help at hand for style-challenged Inspiration behind summer designs Vintage gowns to go down the aisle again Hobby now thriving venture for Kat Gee Fashion house chuffed by show Big jewellery big again The hair you have to have Scholarship for Lonely Hearts

This year, the luxury goods industry is said to be worth $US157 billion, writes Kate Fraser.

What was she thinking? There she was, posed in front of the Los Angeles soccer pitch, tiny frame, tiny frock, enormous shoes but still, for Victoria (Posh) Beckham looking almost elegant.

Then whammo she lost it. Silly Posh seduced by the concept that expensive equals status, dangled her big rich famous name handbag in front of the zillion cameras, thereby creating the everlasting image of a woman over-excited by her own bag.

It may well be that her hoard (horde?) of luxury handbags is bigger than Becks, but one of her minders should have passed on the information she was personifying the point made by journalist and author Dana Thomas, in Deluxe, her best selling book: "luxury has lost its lustre."

Deluxe has it that most luxury goods – think handbags and shoes – are simply big business making big money out of suckers who are still born every minute.

Dana Thomas has been a fashion, arts and culture writer for the Washington Post, Newsweek and The New York Times magazine. An American, she lives in Paris and has ready access to the main players in the fashion industry.

Deluxe is as crammed with information as a textbook for Economics 101, but it flows smoothly. It could have been a gossipy read, but the topic is commerce, not celebrities.

There are plenty of side-stories of fashionista foibles but even then Thomas says research "was impeccable".

She did, however, hire her own proofreader to recheck every fact, every figure. "I had to be right. With so much commercial information there was no room for error."

She reveals the ruthless side of the luxury industry and the power of men such as Bernard Arnault, of Louis Vuitton Moet- Hennessy (LMVH), and Patrizio Bertelli, of Prada (and owner of Luna Rossa, the America's Cup yacht).

On the other side of the coin, she went to factories in China and saw the cheating, Made in China labels being hidden inside pockets or stamped on the outer plastic covering of bags.

She tells how one brand of bags is shipped back to Italy minus handles which are then attached in the mother factory with Made In Italy labels. Then there are the shoes with the tops made in China and the soles attached in Italy. No guesses as to where the Made In Italy label is glued.

The two sides of the counterfeit industry are unearthed: the horrors of child labour in factories manufacturing for the huge worldwide counterfeit market; the cynical comment from an intellectual property rights lawyer who sees it as advertising working.

"You will never see something counterfeited of a brand you have never heard of."

In the early 1900s when immense fortunes were being made in heavy industry, the business of supplying luxury items changed. What was once available only to a few, was demanded by the many who now had serious money.

Then as now there were those whose display of their luxuries often reduced its status. A correlation in Britain today is the rise of chavs. The word is coined from the Romany (gypsy) word for children – "chavi".

Thomas describes chavs as "a working-class sub-culture", and, "the undesirable side of mass marketing luxury goods". Given that chavs are said to be badly educated young people, hanging out in malls/shopping centres decked out in sometimes real, usually fake designer labels (Burberry, Prada, Dior, Nike ...) the movement has clearly spread worldwide.

There are still plenty of customers for the genuine item, however.

"There has been not so much a shift in mood as a shift of consumer," says Thomas, quoting the new acronym BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) as the happening marketplaces for Prada, Versace, Dior and their ilk.

"Materialism, consumerism – is taking off in Russia and China, because for most of last century the people of these countries were repressed. That has changed."

Alongside the surge in materialism in hitherto virgin markets, she sees a corresponding movement towards sustainability.

"I think the idea of what constitutes luxury is being rethought," says Thomas. If concerned consumers are asking themselves "is the bag (shoes, watch, fur) worth the price" what are the new luxuries?

Fendi's mink-lined pushchairs? Supersoft cashmere coats made from hair combed from the bellies of baby goats?

A jewellery casket made to order at Louis Vuitton (no logo), a private jet flying you to a couture fitting, a private curator for your own art collection? Or, it could be the new luxuries are those Thomas is newly appreciative of.

"Time with my daughter, eating a vine- ripened tomato, taking a walk in the park."

Not shopping for a new handbag, shoes, furs? "Never."

* Deluxe. How Luxury Lost Its Lustre by Dana Thomas. Published by Penguin Group, rrp $37