Luxury Briefing.

I sincerely hope that, by the time you read this, the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico is plugged up and we can all breathe a big sigh of relief. Finally a reason to celebrate in the beautiful summertime without a nagging sense of subterranean anxiety, that palpable, atonal hum in the background that won’t go away even while we are picking posies and tra la la-ing around the summer resorts. And while sighs of relief – when they come – are very good for the body and soul and even, arguably, the planet, they don’t last long. There is always another breath to take and another step to take also, as we keep plugging away.

Now with the jarring lessons of the Gulf disaster slowly obtruding for all to ponder – that short-sighted decisions were made on quality and safety, that there was no effective emergency plan, that BP management could do no more than divert, experiment and sheepishly estimate since the explosion on Earth Day – what steps will now be taken by oil companies, by governments, by activists, by consumers? And in a portentous non-sequitur, what steps is luxury taking to enhance interest in its non-essential products, to insure brand sustainability and integrate with the fast-changing landscape of 21st-century values?

On the face of things, not much is new with luxury companies: more bags and shoes and freebies to celebrities. The tenor of avid accumulation, exclusivity and oblivious pleasure continues to de?ne the promotional imagery. Though there are noticeable brand alliances with high art and some fashionable charities, what was once seen as unassailable partnerships now seem disingenuous and dated in an ever-changing world that may soon forever be without sail?sh and blue marlin breaching on the swells!

Creative professionals I happen to know – both employed and unemployed – openly disparage the shameless chase after the billionaires by luxury companies and the merciless press on emerging markets. Both creatives, who helped to craft the luxury movement, and the early-adopters who turned it into an international zeitgeist, now seem to have lost interest in the machinations of replicating past formulas for the ?ve-years-behind rube in a polluted metropolis who still wants a ?ash watch. A little bored, somewhat appalled, perhaps unconsciously feeling abandoned, a large chunk of
consumers is about to be sloughed off the sales roster, clearly replaceable by the next wave of willing spenders, or so the thinking goes.

Meanwhile the very idea of luxury continues to morph and cut an edge somewhere off the prospectus. In the West Village of New York, for instance, luxury dining is being rede?ned by the chef Takashi Inoue who serves raw marbled steak on a heart-shaped shiso leaf with shredded Achilles tendon and dried tofu or kelp pasta, in a futuristic Japanese homage to Korean barbeque. The must-see summer fashion movie and Tilda Swinton vehicle, I Am Love, identi?es the new tone of luxury, obviated by the Jil Sander wardrobe and scenes shot on location at Villa Necchi, now a house museum in Milan, which Armand Limnander in the New York Times describes as a “modernist palate cleanser” with “both an air of grandeur and a strict sense of discipline”. The aesthetic of great wealth with a restrained sensibility can be achieved, incidentally, with far fewer accoutrements, a concept at great odds with the brands poised to slake the thirsts of the New Luxe-oisie. Damn those creatives, always moving things around on the playing ?eld! Who, by the way, can also see that beyond greater product distribution and sales, brands also need keen foresight in this day and age of unscripted events. Here’s a plug for of?ce think tanks headed by creatives, and ethical culture departments! And a thorough rearrangement of the of?ce community within the ranks, an unscrambling which may radiate a protective energy that will, in turn, garner greater success, perhaps even recall the early precepts of luxury businesses more purely steeped in service, and not the jargon that is known as customer service today. This is a much bigger (and more genuine) story than we have time for, but the story continues, a story that British Petroleum may wish it had grasped before it was too late. Wherever you are, please breathe deeply and step with joy and courage.

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