Behold the Enid, a handbag made from the softest goatskin, lined in vivid, peach-colored silk. Its silhouette "draws on the art of corsetry with its distinctive hand-stitched corded leather," according to luxury-goods house Smythson of Bond Street, which makes several tempting versions of the bag. The price tag: $1,660.
A year ago, the Enid would have been considered a splurge. The recession was mostly an unproven rumor, and consumption for consumption's sake was still in style.
But today, it's a different world. The Enid is most certainly not a splurge, according to Smythson. Instead, it's "this season's investment accessory of choice," a company advertisement says.
The international economy's implosion has blindsided the luxury-goods industry, and in the current vacuum of across-the-board spending, luxury companies have been scrambling to find ways to remain relevant in today's flat-lining marketplace.
One of the more visible and startling changes is in marketing semantics. As Valérie Hermann, the CEO of Yves Saint Laurent, recently told Women's Wear Daily, "There are still people with money, but we have to talk to them differently."
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Rewriting the script
In advertisements and editorials, there has been some remarkable script rewriting going on: Conspicuous consumption, which was all the rage in glossies and on billboards not long ago, is deeply passé. The new chic, even in the elite realm, is being a smart-value shopper. When the Louis Vuittons of the world co-opt the lingo of Wal-Mart Stores (WMT, news, msgs), you know you're in the middle of a business-culture shake-up."They're just changing the slogans," says Dana Thomas, the author of the best-selling book "Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster." "It used to be, 'Everyone deserves a little luxury and a little splurge.' Now that no one can afford the splurge, the business executives are all scratching their heads and saying, 'How can we repackage this again?' So now you're buying 'quality things that last forever.'"
Thanks to such repackaging efforts, 2009 appears to be year of the "investment," as seen in Smythson's ad for the Enid. The new verbal engine to which the luxury industry is attaching the rest of the train, the word "investment" is cropping up everywhere. Suddenly, consumers are being urged to build "investment wardrobes" as opposed to making trend-driven seasonal ones.
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Many magazines, which rely on luxury brands as advertising cash cows, instruct readers that there is no better time than the present to "invest" in the durable and expensive classics: a Burberry trench coat, a Cartier Tank Watch (an eventual heirloom for Junior) or a Chanel 2.55 handbag in caviar leather (which will never go out of style), etc.
This is a curious use of the term "investment." Editors and retailers appear to be saying that well-made "quality" (not "luxury") items are likely to carry you through several seasons or even decades, which is why they make good "investments," as opposed to dubiously made, flash-in-the-pan trend items that fall apart (or, worse, go out of style quickly).
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