The language of luxury
“The next generation is seeking a more intense life than the last one,” said Alexandre Arnault, the 25-year-old son of Bernard Arnault, who founded the LVMH empire, speaking for his generation of millennials as he opened the 2018 Condé Nast International Luxury Conference in Lisbon. The theme of the conference, ‘The Language of Luxury’, embraced even more than the CNI Luxury team originally imagined, as speakers such as Federico Marchetti, CEO of the YOOX Net-A-Porter Group, described a brave new world online; entrepreneur Adrian Cheng divulged his in-depth knowledge of the Chinese consumer; and futurist Sophie Hackford envisaged a world controlled entirely by computers. Movie star Hilary Swank, who manufactures a significant part of her ‘luxe leisure’ line of clothing in Portugal, summed up the current retail landscape: “Customers can sense authenticity – it’s a universal language.” What’s next for the industry? Uche Pézard, the founder of business resource platform Luxury Connect Africa, shared her deep belief that the luxury industry needs to embrace a location that not only has an eager clientele, but also has the potential to create a new kind of luxury – the African continent, which has a burgeoning industry of fine fashion made by hand. We agree. That’s why the fifth Condé Nast International Luxury Conference, ‘The Nature of Luxury’, will take place in South Africa, April 9–11, 2019. For tickets, visit cniluxury.com. Suzy Menkes, international Vogue editor