New luxury: Personal approach instead of brand power

Mass production and the crisis of 2008, which forced the world to reconsider their values, destroyed the traditional concept of "luxury". We have already talked about how the middle segment brands have become a new luxury. Danila Antonovsky thinks further. In his column on Look At Me, he explains why a cozy sweater, sunset and personal communication became more expensive than Maybach and Birkin bags.

Text: Danila Antonovsky

DANILA ANTONOVSKY journalist, creator of hairdressing chop-chop and ptichka

In the mid-2000s, when several years remained in the United States before the mortgage crisis, glossy magazines were still in vogue, and the concept of overconsumption seemed the only true one, one of my friends witnessed a funny scene. The couple studied the assortment of the Ralph Lauren store in Tretyakov Passage. The woman asked to take to the cashier three bags of crocodile skin - exactly the same, but in different colors. 16 thousand euros each. The man made a timid attempt to stop her: "Honey, maybe you don't need three identical bags? We recently bought five pieces of Hermes." The woman sighed heavily and patiently, as they talk with seriously ill patients or children, explained: "Dear, do you really not understand? They are on-to-e."

Notice how the attitude to this story has changed. Now we shrug our shoulders in bewilderment, and some five years ago she caused almost affection, because with all her anecdotism she incredibly accurately described time. Happiness and success in life were then determined solely by the value of the things purchased. The nightclub walls were encrusted with precious stones, the phones were made of gold, and managers with a salary of five thousand dollars a month took loans to buy Rolexes. The luxury market flourished, and it seemed that the light it gave gave life a special meaning. And then something broke.

Having five bags of crocodile skin has become unfashionable - and it is fashionable, on the contrary, to have one and buy the second only when you give it to your first daughter. And most importantly - it has become absolutely incomprehensible what luxury is.

HAVE FIVE BAGS OF CROCEDILE LEATHER BECOMES NON-MODERN

How was it arranged in the XIX-XX centuries? Belonging to the category of "luxury" is determined by its quality. Creating a good jacket required more human time, labor and talent than creating a crappy jacket. The buyer had a choice - to pay one ruble or one hundred rubles, but at the same time he knew for sure that the first jacket would be rubbed on the elbows in a year, and the second would never be rubbed off. The price and the invisible stigma of luxury, which was automatically glued to the product, was an absolute guarantee of quality.

Mass production and globalization have destroyed this cozy scheme. The sweater that you wear can cost you a hundred dollars, or maybe a thousand, but at the same time both are sewn in Romania and have the same chances to be covered with pellets two weeks after the purchase. In one restaurant, a serving of pasta costs three hundred rubles, and in the other, one thousand three hundred, but this does not mean that the second is tastier or made from the best products. And in an expensive and cheap hotel a maid may knock on you - despite the fact that you hang the Do Not Disturb icon on the door.

Speaking of hotels. Several years ago I was told a wonderful story about a Russian woman who came to Paris and stayed at the Plaza Athenee, one of the most expensive hotels in the city. When she - sorry for the detail - went to the toilet, she found that the flush does not work. She had to take a silver champagne bucket, fill it with water from the tap and pour it into the toilet.

All this perfectly illustrates the general confusion that is happening in the market for goods and services. It is caused by the fact that the old consumption system has collapsed, and the new one is just beginning to form and grow into its own laws. They are pretty simple. Time is more valuable than money. Self-expression is more important than money. Happiness is not in Maybach, but in the ability to watch the sunset with a glass of good wine in hand. And the word "luxury" in this coordinate system has a very different meaning.

New luxury is not super quality, not the price and not the magic of the brand. New luxury arises when there is a minimum number of intermediaries between the producer and the consumer, and the idea of a product or service is heard without qualitative distortions. That is, dinner at the Nobu restaurant is not a luxury, because there are several thousand employees between you and its owner, who, in general, do not care what happens and who want the change to end as soon as possible. And dinner at Uilliam's restaurant is a luxury because its owners tack between tables, add wine to you and listen to complaints about how much latte can already be served in glass glasses.

TSUM is not a luxury, but FOTT is quite. GQ - no, FurFur - yes. Sorry for the indiscretion, but Chop-Chop is a luxury, because we stick out there every day, offer visitors coffee and blow dust from the window sills.

The most popular thing is not the magic of the brand (and even, hand on heart, not quality), but the feeling of belonging. The feeling of man-made. The feeling that the product or service was created specifically for you. Ability to exchange a couple of phrases with the owner, while he pours you coffee. And here it turns out quite an interesting thing - that the whole world gradually comes to the naive formula of Antoine de Saint-Exupery: "The only real luxury is the luxury of human communication."