As luxury brands, once solely the purview of those in the know and the money, become as ubiquitous as Woolworths, it’s easy to forget that most of the more prestigious labels you are (no doubt) currently wearing began life as small, family-run affairs. This is as true for Vuitton and Gucci as it is for Prada and Cartier.
Largely because of the luxury good sector’s misguided insistence on allowing the ephemeral and the superficial (read: celebrities and the cult of the designer) to make them attractive, it’s also easy to forget that it’s not that distinctive horse-drawn carriage stamp that makes your Hermès so must-have-able; it’s the history, tradition and most importantly, the quality behind the brand.
When you buy a Birkin, for example, you do so knowing that several well-heeled generations before you have happily done the same and as you fork over your seven-odd thousand dollars, you are aware that it is built so well, it will probably be around long after you.
If this aspect of luxury – the craftsmanship – is only tangentially evoked by most of the big houses, it is precisely what attracts Jonathan Lobban and Jason Michael Lang most.
Editor and photographer, respectively – though neither title fully does either gentleman justice - Lobban and Lang have worked with some of the biggest names in the publishing world, from GQ and the New York Times, to Vogue and Condé Nast Traveller. Their current project, a “coffee-table app series” entitled Origins of Luxury is an attempt to share their love of what lies behind the brands with the rest of the world.
Shot in Lang’s trademark cinematic style, the apps are aimed primarily, although certainly not exclusively, at the emerging Chinese luxury market – Russian, Portuguese and Arabic version are planned for the future - and are designed to provide the Mainland’s million-odd millionaires with a simple, beautiful tool to simplify the scramble for sophistication. While the principal focus is on clothing, food, restaurants, wines and spirits also focus, making the series as epicurean as it is sartorial.
“It’s really aimed at two types of consumers. One is the new consumer and this is why we’ve chosen to launch in the Chinese market,” Lobban explains. “But the other is the aficionado, they are frequent travellers to Paris, London and New York, they are very familiar with luxury, they are brand loyal. Origins of Luxury allows them to see the soul of each firm, to see the faces of people that maybe they’ve encountered in stores or factories and to see the product they’ve got in their home, celebrated.”
Beautifully shot and carefully-worded, the apps, which are either place or sector-specific, operate a little like guides, introducing readers to the skill, the passion and the artistry that goes into making our objects of desire and in the process, shining a light, as Lobban puts it, on the ordinary people who make a brand special.
“Our creed is ‘ethics, aesthetics and savoir faire’. Origins of Luxury is our approach to the tangibles and intangibles of luxury, to the heritage, the history, the provenance and mainly, to the small town artisans who practice skills that have been passed down generations,” he continues. “For us, the real beauty is the culture behind these goods. The aesthetic is really just a wonderful by-product.”
WHAT Origins of Luxury
WHO Jonathan Lobban and Jason Lang
WHY A lovingly-crafted visual testament to the artisanal skill, passed down from generation to generation, behind the making of some of the world’s most coveted luxury goods.
