The Definitive Definition Of Luxury? How Did Luxury Come Into Being?

There is still no definitive definition of luxury.

Wolfgang Latzler defined luxury in "luxury brings wealth": "luxury is a way of life that is wholly or partly perceived by its own society as luxurious, mostly determined by products or services."

At present, the common cognition in the world is that luxury goods, a kind of consumer goods that are beyond the scope of people's survival and development needs, are unique, scarce and rare. They are also called non life necessities.

If we look at these words, luxury can be interpreted as having a unique design, including the specificity of creativity and marketing; scarce material is an important material basis; the craft's curiosity is different from the key of conventional commodities; so far, the top handicraft has no machine to replace; of course, the most important thing is the enduring quality of the long river, including its material quality and design thinking concept.

Luxury is formed.

It is not the birth of a brand that the luxury industry suddenly comes into being.

Brand is a signal, but the formation of luxury industry has a profound foundation for human and commercial development.

Why are luxuries mostly born in Italy and France? We return to the origin of origin to see the true meaning of luxuries.

1. the introduction of Renaissance

In the Western cultural history, the renaissance after fourteenth Century has had an unusually profound influence, and even to a great extent, it determines the style of this era.

The artistic style of this period still has a profound influence on people's aesthetics. For luxury goods alone, many Renaissance masters are still seeing the shadow of Renaissance.

The Renaissance as a great change in the history of human civilization, its advocacy of humanism has brought new and lasting influence on culture, art, science and politics. This is the humanistic and economic foundation for the achievement of high-end fashion products.

2. the developed textile industry is the technological foundation.

The handicraft industry developed mainly in textile industry in Italy has always been in the leading position in the world, making Italy a technological base for becoming a luxury center.

In the textile industry of Italy, the textile industry in Florence began to take shape in twelfth Century and established a guild of wool processing industry.

At that time, Italy merchants bought wool products from Western Europe and shipped them back to Italy. They made use of the locally advanced technology to make woolen fabrics and then sell them back to Western Europe, becoming the best sellers at that time.

At the same time, leather products in Italy also have a long history. Leather products are an important category of luxury goods.

3. the influential class has deep influence.

The influence comes from two aspects.

First of all, there were several kings and queens in France who were obsessed with clothes and accessories. For example, Louis Xiv spent half a day making his hair, beard, and clothes everyday.

For guests who are required to meet, both men and women, young and old, regardless of the health of the disease, are required to wear according to etiquette.

They even politicize their dress as their own dignitary.

This affects the whole French demand for dress and taste and the popularity of fashion.

The pursuit of high quality clothing accessories comes from the court. Many later become luxury goods that are traded in the public. In fact, it is also derived from the demand of court.

Secondly, when Louis 16 was in office, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the incumbent finance minister, integrated the industrial ecological chain. He looked forward to making France the world luxury center.

He invites the best textile artisans from Italy to come to France for training; in the era of Rome, silk trade will be quite prosperous; Lyon will be a silk base; a textile industry association will be set up to regulate product quality and operation standards; and the law must be used to require people to buy products made in France.

4. the first department store appeared.

In 1838, the world's first department store, Le Bon Marche, was established.

The development of industry has played a vital role.

In fact, this also means that the business system has been established, the department store has brought more comprehensive commodity gathering, and at the same time, it has started a real marked price.

The former "court luxury" focuses on the finer material and technology, while in the Department's new business system plus the concept of marketing, the other meaning of selling luxury goods is "fashion".

In such a new public space, different people, or people from different strata, gather together to promote the spread of fashion thinking.

Shopping has become an experience that people enjoy.

5. the initial change of consumption concept

At that time, European aristocracy paid much attention to the etiquette and culture of different occasions. Afternoon tea, hunting, opera, dance or dinner, different dress etiquette on different occasions made Europeans generally pay attention to dress etiquette habits.

In addition to practical utility, material goods are more important to the European aristocracy as a symbol of social relations.

Consumption has been liberated from the function of things and become the self realization way of consumers at that time.

LV founder LV's first job was to pick up luggage for celebrities when traveling. The ladies' costumes of that era were mostly large skirts. In order to solve the problem of loading large clothing without causing folding and carrying light, the LV suitcase was designed.

It can be seen that the early luxury was serving the dignitary class. He saw the consumption power of the aristocracy early, and launched a large suitcase at the right time, made of superior raw materials, decorated with precious materials, and formed excellent reputation from inside to outside, from practical to beautiful.

In the book "Louis Vuitton:The Birth of Modern Luxury", we can see the tolerance and idea as standing in the top position of luxury brands.

The most simple thing is that LV's idea of designing boxes at that time is worth learning. In addition to its lightness and beauty, he believes that the most important thing is to let boxes serve goods rather than goods service boxes. This is probably the idea of putting the cart before the horse.

Where LV is strong, it is also the vision of business management.

In addition to the information we know very well, in 1988, in addition to the LVMH group development of the famous brand collection, their "old flower LOGO" was born in the second generation of the LV family.

They were inspired by the family emblem of Japan and Europe, and found that this pattern is recognizable almost by the whole world and by different cultures of the whole nation, without any derogatory meaning in any culture.

The universal degree and awareness of "old flower" is an important reason to become a classic LOGO.

From here we can see that LV had already possessed the advanced sense of globalization at that time.

Although Louis Vuitton is constantly seeking new ideas in modern times, its history is a typical development history of luxury goods.

How does "light extravagance" come into being?

HSBC's managing director, Erwan Rambourg, is a luxury.

The chief analyst, in his book The Bling Dynasty, answered many questions about the relationship between luxury goods and China.

He also drew up the luxury brand Pyramid map, explaining the positioning of light luxury goods. We can see that light luxury is the lower price of luxury goods.

"Affordable luxury" is light luxury.

Fashion professionals believe that "light extravagance" is a false proposition. The business mode of low price changing market conflicts with the inherent attributes of luxury goods, but it is undoubtedly a revolution for the market.

And the leading force in this revolution is the United States and China.

Among them, the United States is the original market, creating the concept of "light luxury".

Although the United States does not have history of royalty and aristocracy, its domestic market is huge, and extravagance is only a small part of the huge market that is adapted to economic development.

At the same time, the department stores and commercial systems in the United States are very mature. The United States can provide the foundation for brand expansion and terminal sales, while China is a potential market for consumption.

When we describe "light extravagance", we use "between..."

It can be understood as a characteristic of moderation.

It can not only serve as a daily consumption of the rich class, but also serve as a personal consumption of the middle class. The quality and technology of the products are not divorced from the high requirements of luxury goods, but also draw on the fast fashion of the people and the comfort concept.

In today's fashion market, consumer classification and demand, product category and price are all refined, which is the objective condition for the emergence of light luxury.

In addition to the changes in the socioeconomic and consumption concepts, there is no reason to ignore the new possibility of Digitalization for the development of luxury brands.

On the one hand, light luxury brands need to build up their pure image of luxury as a high-end image. Apart from the products themselves, they also close to the traditional luxury goods in the store's creation and service. On the other hand, they create a new consumption space and habit through social media to open up the consumer market.

This mediocre feature is not only the objective development of the market, but also the discovery and expansion of the new field of vision by practitioners in the fashion industry.

Light luxury representative Coach

Coach originated from the small family workshop in Manhattan in 1941, and was also started by making leather products.

Interestingly, Coach's original inspiration came from softball gloves. The founder Myers Kahn wanted to use softball gloves to make leather products more practical and smooth.

Later, because of its practical and beautiful features, it has become a favorite commodity of American consumers.

Frank, Ford's second founders of Coach, led Coach to create "accessible" luxury handbags and accessories in North America.

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He invited designer Reid Krakov to inject the famous 3F new product concept (Fun, Feminine, Fashionable) into the core of Coach brand.

Reid Krakov gradually adopted nylon cloth instead of leather and launched a lightweight and bright bag to the market.

The handbag made of pattern weaving is raw and lightweight. It also greatly saves costs and improves company profits.

Coach as a "luxury" positioning is ingenious, it removes the distance on the price, and can maintain the high-end brand image at the same time, so as to drive light extravagance into people's life.

The historical background and cultural environment of the United States have made Americans different views on luxury goods. They have a special understanding and understanding of luxury brands. They are full of open, inclusive and pluralistic spirit of New York. It is also the reason why Coach can grow.

After all, the meaning of extravagance.

The emergence of light luxury comes mainly from the lower edge of luxury development, but the emphasis is still on "luxury".

Last July, another brand named Michael Kors, who was considered as a luxury representative, announced the acquisition of British luxury.

Brand Jimmy Choo, which indicates the pformation of light luxury industry management mode, still needs to pay more attention to the "luxury" part.

Consumers will choose better traditional luxury brands based on products and services, and value the cost performance of product services and prices. For the future of brands that are labeled with light luxury, the upgrading of products is imperative.

Although, with the change of consumer demand, diversification and individuation are becoming the direction of luxury goods pformation.

But in order to show its higher value, the energy of luxury brand will also turn back to its customized business, and even customization will be industrialized and large-scale.

Just like LV has insisted on customized business for more than a hundred years, many luxury brands are redeveloping their customization, and some of the brands now sell 70% of their sales results from customization.

The radiation range of luxury goods is more and more extensive. It is no longer the exclusive of a few people in concentric circles. Besides the change of social and economic development, the definition of "luxury" itself is also changing. It seems to have more symbolic meanings, representing the awakening of most people's lives.

Before we talked about luxury, we must refer to high-grade leather bags and luxury jewellery. In today's society, we are attracted by quality content and experience. It is sensory perception, such as vision and hearing, which can be understood as new luxury brought by new technology.

Looking at the development history, we know that luxury goods are most close to the creation of artworks in spirit, which results in a premium on their products. When we pay for this premium, we pay much more than the value of the material itself.

Although luxury is a creature created by mankind, it is a blessing in this creation. It protects the refinement of culture, depicts exquisite language, and contains multiple and connotative ideas.

Anthropologist Claude Levi Strauss wrote this passage: "thousands of years of standards, human enthusiasm is ambiguous.

The flow of time has not increased or reduced the love and hatred that human beings feel, their devotion, struggle and desire.

Whether in the past or today, human beings are always the same.

The elimination of ten or twenty centuries of history will not affect our understanding of human nature.

The only irreparable loss is the work of art born in these centuries.

Human beings are different because of their works, or even exist.

Only works of art can be proved. In the flood of time, something has happened to mankind.