DEFINING 21-ST CENTURY LUXURY

Luxury, the holy grail of retail. The dream world of the ever-thirsty consumers. A £20k handmade bag in an exotic reptile skin with engraved personal initials. A Lamborghini in a 6.5litre superfast engine and single digit mpgs. A private vacation on the Maldives, pardon your own island. A 20 bedroom mansion in Saint Tropez.

Bling-bling. Heaven for most ears. This is, however, luxury a decade ago, expensive and somehow old-fashioned.

Cheeky marketing brains have turned this coveted word into a gold mine as luxury has stepped down to the high streets so everyone can chop its own deluxe piece. “Limited”, “Exclusive”, “Finest”, “Superb” and “Excellent quality” shout in a fierce battle from Louis Vuitton through Gap to Tesco.

But is luxury really possible in a world when big brands are nothing more than monopoly supermarkets for designer goods?

Is luxury really a designer watch made under a licensee company with other brands’ watches under the hood?

The BIG question is: How is the luxury market evolving when nothing is hardly that rare anymore? What is actually 21-st century luxury?

Oxford Dictionary gives a simple definition: “Something difficult to obtain”.

In a world of endless consumption, there’s no doubt in one thing – nothing ever seems difficult to obtain. And if it is, it’s quickly copied by other players as not to miss their share from the cash cow a.k.a. the current trend.