‘BRANDS WILL NEED TO STAND FOR SOMETHING’

What is luxury in a post-Covid-19 world? It’s a world that has been turned on its head; in which we have had to confront the invisible threat of a deadly virus and perhaps connect it to the chaos that could be wrought if we do not address the issue of climate change. It’s a world in which we were forced, almost overnight, to learn to work, communicate, grieve, engage and entertain ourselves in new ways, and in which things we had taken for granted were suddenly stripped away. It has forced us, collectively, to stop and think.

As Dr Saliha Afridi, clinical psychologist and founder of The LightHouse Arabia, points out on page 40, the pandemic has offered many of us the luxury of “stillness”, something that, in the age of the glorification of busy, has become all-too rare. It has afforded us a break from balancing long commutes and packed social lives and constant travel and a never-ending barrage of emails and calls and social media notifications. There is hope that from this stillness, change can be born.

In this issue, we look at the ways in which that experience could shape the future of the luxury industry. We’ve asked a series of questions, and invited architects, academics, authors, designers, business owners, hoteliers, researchers and even mental health experts to weigh in on the answers.

We ask whether this crisis could lead to an overhaul of the current fashion system, signalling the end of fashion seasons and shows as we know them. An open letter from Gucci’s Alessandro Michele, which includes the quote on our cover, suggests that the winds of change are already blowing through the world’s biggest fashion houses. “The collections will certainly be less, but better,” Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana tell us on page 16.

Could the lessons of the past few months give rise to a more conscious and mindful consumer, who will align with brands that have a clear and strong set of values? As the global conversations around race a er the murder of George Floyd have shown, there is little tolerance for grandstanding in the current climate. Brands will need to stand for something – and actually “live that cause”, as Milton Pedraza, chief executive of The Luxury Institute, says on page 40

– if they want to survive. It is up to us as consumers to hold them accountable.

So, what is luxury in a post-Covid-19 world? It will, as ever, mean many different things to many different people. But hopefully, we will no longer take for granted the things we temporarily lost – the freedom to move across borders or to have face-to-face contact with the people we love – as well as the things we gained – a cleaner planet and more time to reflect.

It is also true that human beings have short memories. So it is possible that we will quickly slip back into our old ways. The choice is ours.

Selina Denman