LONDON — Is a cathedral the ultimate luxury status symbol? The medieval equivalent of a Rolls Royce Cullinan — massively impressive, flashily designed, horrendously expensive, slightly tasteless, and visible from space? One wonders what the Catholic Church was compensating for.
Nevertheless, the sight of Notre-Dame in flames in April united us first in horror, and then in a clumsy search for what it symbolized: The collapse of European…something?
The television footage made me realize how much I miss my time working in Paris. I miss excellent restaurant meals every lunchtime; I miss stealing my French colleagues’ cigarettes; and I miss the occasional frisson of wonderment when, slightly drunk and gazing up at a Haussmann facade, one realizes how beautiful a city it is.
Other responses ranged from genuinely touching (Parisians’ spontaneous vigil), to predictably moronic (Trump suggesting the French knock it down with water dropped from planes), to determined and statesmanlike (Macron’s vow to rebuild).
“Notre Dame is our history,” the French President pledged dramatically, flames roaring behind him. “It’s our literature, it’s our imagery. The place where we live our greatest moments, from wars to pandemics to liberations…I’m telling you all tonight — we will rebuild this cathedral together.”
The following Monday night, once the fire was finally extinguished, François-Henri Pinault, the owner of the luxury group Kering (Gucci, Saint Laurent, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen) announced a €100M donation. Within minutes, Bernard Arnault, the richest man in France, who heads LVMH (Celine, Louis Vuitton, Dior, Givenchy) pledged €200M.
“The LVMH Group puts at the disposal of the state and the relevant authorities all of its teams — including creative, architectural and financial specialists — to help with the long work of reconstruction and fund-raising, which is already in progress,” Arnault said.
These were, no doubt, genuine offers of support. Moreover, championing the rebuilding of an architectural masterpiece in the centre of Paris is precisely the kind of leadership luxury brands should demonstrate.
But I did find myself wondering whether it might have been better for this money to be given discreetly and without an accompanying press release. Is it more “luxury” to give quietly, or to make a grand gesture and seduce others into supporting the cause?
While accusations of these gestures being examples of “corporate virtue signalling” and “a luxury pissing contest” are over the top, it did remind me of the tension between understatement and ostentation that’s at the heart of luxury branding. The interplay between polar opposites is what makes that dynamic interesting: restraint versus flamboyance, minimalism versus maximalism, discretion versus flashiness, simplicity or, well…French Gothic.
For luxury brands — or brands borrowing luxury techniques — it’s very important to get this balance right. Whether you think luxury is a Canary Yellow Lamborghini or a debadged BMW M5, you need to know where you sit on the spectrum. You can’t be Jil Sander and Gucci simultaneously.
We often advise our clients that true luxury is about “making a strong understatement”. Which certainly sounds good, but is extremely hard to achieve in practice.
Yet maybe these stylistic concerns are slowly becoming less relevant.
Recent trends indicate a decrease in the importance of luxury brands as symbols of personal status, just as social media profiles become the lingua franca of influence.
Certainly, luxury labels are still abundant on Instagram. But equally as important is what you’re doing when you’re flashing those logos. This is why many “new luxury brands” are fitness-related brands. Fitness signals “I’m healthy, organised, competitive, confident, and I’m fit enough to ride up this mountain…oh and I’m wearing a £400 cycling jersey and I have a £15,000 bike”.
Luxury brands need to borrow more from outdoor and sports brands, instead of just styles and fabric. When experience is the new luxury, products needs to actually function. Moncler, for instance, gets this balance almost exactly right.
Today, status is determined as much by the experiences you have — and how you represent them in social media — as it is by what you’re wearing on your feet. Health, fitness, travel, friends, and the time to enjoy them all have become the currency of modern luxury.
Will my firm be pledging money to rebuild France’s Gothic masterpiece? Of course, I couldn’t possibly comment.
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Lean Luxe subscriber Luke Scheybeler is the co-founder of the cycling brand Rapha, co-founder of running brand Tracksmith and runs the consultancy Scheÿbeler. The views reflected here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Lean Luxe.
