The term luxury has been completely abused in today’s context. Until two years ago, from a sari to an apartment to food was said to be minimalist with complete disregard for or a lack of understanding about whether what they portrayed was actually minimal or not. The same is now happening with luxury. It has become a hollow term.
Luxury was reintroduced into the international design world after years of it being dominated by minimalist style. It came as a sorbet to clean the palate of minimalism. It allowed people to see that they were able to reintroduce elements of design, such as ornamentation, back into their design ethos.
Luxury was meant to give people a chance to reinterpret their ethos in a more individual way than minimalism allowed. It led to a real loss of inhibition. But now, instead of moving beyond that transition point to a new design idea, everyone just throws their designs under the luxury blanket without even understanding what that term means.
Luxury is not just a price point; it’s not just a brand. Luxury is something that is not necessarily accessible, nor should it be. But people are doing the tackiest apartments with air conditioners stuck on the wall, straight-lined furniture, a few accessories—and calling it luxury. The worst part about it is that two years ago, the same design would have been called minimal. It’s just a buzzword people use to recycle the same poorly designed products, but packaged in a new term in an attempt to trick people into buying it. And people do because we’ve failed to create a strong design dialogue that helps explain terminology.
Before buying something labelled luxury or before labelling something luxury consider a few key points:
Does it fit your idea of beauty?
Is the quality truly impeccable?
Will it withstand the test of time?
Is it unique and worth waiting for?
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