Looking at the sales figures of luxury brands, and sales and market forecasts, only a single conclusion can be drawn: The luxury sector is doing well. And I mean: really, really well. Double digit growth is not a rarity – a far cry from anything else we hear these days.
The facts talk very much for themselves. Here a teaser to what is available data-wise:
- In post-earthquake-with-tsunami Japan, with a safely progressing deflation and ‘special’ budgets approved for economic recovers, the luxury market is this year, and for the first time in three years and has lost 14% of its market since 2007, back in the growth zone (+2%).
- In the US, the luxury market is nearly back to the level it was before the big crash from three years ago, and grew with 11.6% in 2011. Amazing considering that consumption in the US otherwise struggles with an ongoing slump.
- Bain & Co. estimate in their yearly luxury market study an 8% growth of the luxury market for 2011, and a continued growth of around 6% until 2014, with China developing at around 4-times that rate..
- The same research suggests that online luxury sales are to rise by 25% in 2011.
- The French luxury accessories brand Hermès expected in 2011 a growth of around 14% but has already announced an expected raise of this target to between 15% and 16%
- LVHM – short for Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton – recorded a 13% revenue increase in the first half of 2011, equalling an organic revenue growth of 15%.
The Fashion & Leather Goods section of the group had a 14% revenue growth in the first half of 2011, while the the Watches & Jewellery business grew by 27%. - The Richemont group‘s sales grew by 41% for jewellery, and 34% for specialist watchmaker watches.
Conclusion: People that buy these products, don’t care about the price tag
– either because they are thoroughly intrigued by quality, a big name, a master design, a degree of rarity due to limited numbers being produced etc.
– or because it is a once-a-decade and long-saved-up for purchase, and it is about the emotion and feel good effect that the purchase will cause
– or because they have no taste, but their social peers buy these products, and so do they as long as they are exclusive.
Another aspect, and to some extent more fascinating, is that all of the well known brands are engaged in preserving luxury craftsmanship. For instance:
- Chanel, for instance, bought ‘House of Lesage’ a couture lace maker; Massaro, a traditional shoe maker; Lemarié, a designer of flowers and feathers; Michel, a milliner; Desrues, a button- and costume jewelry maker; and Goosens, a goldsmith and silversmith.
- Louis Vuitton and the LVHM group lets the public experience, through a couple of open days at their specialist workshops a year, the expertise hidden in their products.
The reason? If the skills of all these specialists were to disappear “There would be,” so Karl Lagerfeld apparently wrote once in an email, “no haute couture any more.”
What it striking however, certainly when thinking of many a discussion happening in the bigger picture of sustainability in fashion, is: craftsmanship, quality – the latter supposedly synonymous with luxury fashion brands -, and a unique story to each product, if you care to learn about it, are three of the principle pillars of sustainability.
In short, the type of craftsmanship and quality required for true luxury goods, certainly at the couture level, comes with a ‘traceability certificate’ by the way of design.
[Note: Of course it goes without saying that some brands have opted to downgrade (read: popularise) their products by way of a 'Made by [brand] in [Europe]' label that conveniently leaves out the 'via China' part, churning out lower quality, more affordable but certainly anything but traceable products. And others are just plain non-transparent by conviction as the ‘Style over Substance’ report by the Ethical Consumer illustrates well.]
Taken all these things together, the evident question that remains to be asked if, by chance, being ‘luxury’ would be the most realistic way for ethical fashion to gain ground, to make a point in case, and to lead the way towards innovation.
Granted, the high street won’t be neither able not willing to pay for it right away.
However, the consumer on the high street’s eternal longing is aspirational: Being like the VIPs in Vogue, on the red carpet, in the clubs. That’s way Louis Vuittons has become the house hold name it becomes. In this time and age, the same people shop for their (more affordable) £800 a piece bags, as stack up on discardable T-shirts at Primark later in the day.
When it comes to the high-street, put pressure onto the retailers and make them responsible for greening their supply chains. They never will be A-class designers, and as such it’s all about sorting out the nitty-gritty at production level. Very little aspirational beauty in this.
But at the top end, where dreams are being created, and best-of-class designs are what the game is all about, telling a unique story, and delivering extraordinary craftsmanship is where ethical fashion brands can change the rules of the games. Or rather: they can play along with the rules by just being themselves.
And as every marketing expert knows: Authenticity goes a long way in creating goodwill and attracting interest, and while neither quick nor easy, it creates word-of-mouth, reputation and eventually sales.
