Is Luxury but a Slogan?
by Rana Ballout
Luxury is not what it used to be. Over the last few decades it has morphed from being the privilege of the few into the bounty of the many. What used to be the pearly playground of a handful of trust-fund babies and self-made millionaires, is now open to back-water ‘superstars’ who made it big on very little talent but much marketing appeal. Just think of Britney Spears or her Middle-Eastern twin by default – the effortlessly charming yet eternally redundant Haifa Wehbe. These two vedettes of the new century, to name but a few, are now our benchmarks for haute-couture fashions, automotive trendsetters and luxury icons. Something smells rotten in the kingdom of class.
In pretty much all aspect of our modern popular culture arena, stars and their stylists are creating sophistication out of a chaotic sense of style. Somehow fashioning trainers, track suits and I-shirts with a diamond ring, watch, bracelet, necklace and even a diamond tooth and somehow this is the epitome of elegance. I may be exaggerating a little but there is a trend out there that transforms what was once a valued gem into every day wear and a statement of someone’s street credibility.
Nothing proves this point more than the red carpet at award ceremonies. I was recently at the Dubai Film Festival which, you would think, being in its infant stages, would’ve managed to look and feel a bit more serious than its Los Angeles high-profiled counterpart. No such luck. The stars that turned up were decked-to-the-nines in sponsorship deals, quite literarily. Similarly to the Oscars, they were paid by haute-couture houses and jewellery kings to don their creations.
Out of frustration at the lack of personal style, I took a bite out of a bar of Galaxy’s ‘luxurious’ line of chocolates that I had picked up earlier that day. Promising a more upscale Godiva-like cocoa experience, it predictably fell short, tasting exactly like its more ‘common’ sibling. I thought to myself, has luxury become so mass market that it no longer has value?
At the risk of sounding like a snob, the answer is yes. Very few of us actually look for the more unusual and hard to find luxuries. We are more impressed with the name on a label than with the actual quality of the livery itself. It’s a sad day when the branding of a B-rate celebrity puts a sub-standard product on a level playing field with less mainstream greats. We live in an age where diamonds are not just forever but for everybody.
Which is all well and good, most of us reside in thriving capitalist economies and have worked hard to be able to live an opulent lifestyle. But somewhere down the line, we lost the sense of uniqueness that comes with it. There is a solution to this dilemma though, and it lies in the richness of the English language. There is a word that allows for a truer expression of luxury. It encompasses old school traditions with our contemporary search for niche exclusivity. Bespoke. Try it on for size. You might actually like the way it sounds – or more poignantly – the way it feels. At the very least, it’s not a slogan slovenly worn by every Tom, Dick and Harry.
