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Chinese shoppers walk past a Prada billboard outside a shop in Beijing, 19 June 2007. China is expected to be the world's largest luxury market in the next few years. / Yonhap |
By Cathy Rose A. Garcia
Staff Reporter
 For anyone obsessed with luxury brands, ``Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster'' and ``The Cult of the Luxury Brand: Inside Asia's Love Affair with Luxury'' are must-reads.
In ``Deluxe,'' Newsweek fashion writer Dana Thomas takes the reader on a trip down the ``dark side of the luxury industry to uncover secrets that Gucci, Prada and Burberry don't want us to know.''
What are some of the secrets she spills? Thomas reveals that many luxury handbags are mass-produced in China. The average markup for a luxury handbag is ten to 12 times production cost, and Thomas says Louis Vuitton's markup is up to 13 times production cost.
``Luxury is a necessity that begins where necessity ends,'' Coco Chanel once said. While luxury may have once been for the elite who can afford elaborate couture gowns, luxury is now for the masses.
Throughout the book, Thomas laments the ``democratization of luxury.'' She notes how family-owned companies that used to create exquisite bags, shoes and clothes, have been taken over by multi-billion dollar conglomerates, which want nothing more than profits.
``The luxury industry has… become part of our social fabric. To achieve this, it has sacrificed its integrity, undermined its products, tarnished its history and hoodwinked its consumers. In order to make luxury `accessible,' tycoons have stripped away all that has made it special. Luxury has lost its luster,'' she writes.
Consumers have fallen prey to the trap of buying ``luxury goods" with easily recognizable logos to enhance their status and ``buy into the dream."
Thomas calls Louis Vuitton the greatest example of ``democratic luxury." ``It's big, it's broad reaching and it sells widely expensive stuff that nobody really needs,'' she said.
In demonstrating how luxury brands have gone global, Thomas discusses the luxury market in Japan, where 40 percent of all Japanese own a Vuitton item. The Japanese luxury market is quite powerful, as the Japanese people's tastes influence the companies' products, designs and strategy
Thomas also traveled to a factory in China, where she saw Chinese girls make luxury handbags, using Italian craftsmanship techniques. Production in China is not as cheap as one might think, and the quality is still good. However, she reveals some ``tricks'' used by luxury brands of removing the Made in China label and replacing it with a Made in Italy one.
But don't think ``true luxury'' is dead, Deluxe satisfies readers' curiosity about how the famed Hermes Kelly and Birkin bags are painstakingly made in workshops in France; and how the classic perfume Chanel No.5 is created using the finest ingredients.
She also cites ``luxury refugees,'' or designers who are disillusioned with the compromises and greed of the luxury corporate world, and have started independent businesses ``to create the best that money can buy.'' Among the luxury refugees are former Gucci designer Tom Ford, and French shoe designer Christian Louboutin.
By the end of the book, Thomas still ponders on the future of the luxury industry, which she feels has lost its soul. ``Was there enough integrity or value left in these brands to allow them to continue to call themselves 'luxury','' she asked.
Thomas writes in an easy-to-read style that won't bore readers. Anyone interested in luxury brands and fashion will find ``Deluxe'' a delight.
If you always wondered why Asians are so crazy over luxury goods, you can check out ``The Cult of the Luxury Brand'' (``Luxeplosion'' is the Korean title), which attempts to shed light on Asia's ``luxeplosion.''
Authors Radha Chadha and Paul Husband delve into the psychology of Asian consumers, and why they have succumbed to the lure of Louis Vuitton and Gucci.
In a telephone interview with The Korea Times, Chadha said she became fascinated with Asians' love for these goods when she moved to Hong Kong ten years ago.
 ``Luxury brands are used everywhere in the world. But Asians are much more passionate about it. Asia is now the biggest market for luxury brands, which is strange because the U.S. and Europe are wealthier,'' she noted.
The book provides new insights into the luxury markets in Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China, South Korea and other Asian countries. It is interesting to find out what drives Asian consumers, from high school students to the wives of tycoons, to gobble up luxury goods.
While consumers in different markets have distinctive tastes, they are all part of the ``cult'' of luxury goods addicts. Louis Vuitton is the best example of how to succeed as a luxury brand in Asia. ``Vuitton knows how to create exclusivity at the top, while simultaneously delivering luxury to the population at large. Pamper the elite, delight the office lady _ elitism and democracy in the same breath, managed harmoniously,'' they said.
The book's chapter on South Korea examines Koreans' opposing views on luxury consumption, noting the ``tension between the reality of growing prosperity and the prescription of frugality can never be reasonably resolved.''
The Koreans' national obsession with beauty, credit card spending and an innate competitive streak are cited as the forces behind the growth of the luxury culture in Korea. Koreans' penchant for fake items is also mentioned, along with Itaewon and Dongdaemun as places where to find these high-quality reproductions of luxury brand handbags.
Chadha and Husband noted South Korea is ``a case study of how swiftly the cult of the luxury brand can establish itself in an emerging Asian country.''
The book also offers a ``Luxeplosion model,'' which the authors say is a tried-and-tested formula used by luxury brands to create a cult in Asia. Using high profile celebrities, influential media and VIP customers to create a buzz for the brand is one of the key elements.
After the buzz starts, the brand becomes the talk of the town. Soon, the masses will flock to the stores to buy the hottest items.
``Luxury brands have become a cult when people act on the buzz, when they pull out their wallets and buy the stuff. When you see large numbers of people carrying Murakami bags. When Gucci watches start ticking on wrists. … Your brand and the looks you promote are adopted by the masses. It's the culmination of the process, the sale consummated, the cult created,'' they said.
cathy@koreatimes.co.kr | |
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