Entries from Janus Thinking tagged with 'luxury'
Tiffany and Swatch in 20 year pact
This week Tiffany and the Swatch Group announced a new partnership lasting at least 20 years that will expand Tiffany's small watch business into “one of the most important watchmakers in the world in the next five to 10...
Luxury for the Art Lover’s Mind
The Courtauld Institute of Art, located in London’s famous Somerset House, is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. The Courtauld Gallery has just launched a new membership organisation called the Samuel Courtauld Society, which gives its members greater access...
Times Luxx
Hot on the heels of The Economist's foray into a luxury quarterly magazine (Intelligent Life), the Times of London has this month introduced Luxx, a quarterly lifestyle magazine "dedicated to luxury and all the best things in life." They've...
Book: Cult of the Luxury Brand
The Cult of the Luxury Brand: Inside Asia’s Love Affair with Luxury – published earlier this year by Radha Chadha and Paul Husband – looks at how Western brand retailers are increasingly meeting their bottom line by marketing to...
Deluxe
Dana Thomas recently wrote Deluxe: How Luxury Lost its Luster, a well reviewed book about the history and transformation of the luxury goods industry from bespoke simplicity to global commoditization. We've already mentioned an excerpt of the book that...
Tasteless or Just Desserts?
A hotel in Sri Lanka is offering a luxury dessert for its luxury clientele--for $14,500. Is offering the dessert simply a publicity stunt to build awareness of the hotel, or is the dessert worthy of such a price on...
Why Counterfeit Goods are Bad
As we mentioned in this recent post, buying a fake handbag can feel like a victimless crime. The buyer might feel good about saving money--perhaps even bragging to friends about it--and think that the luxury company won't miss the...
Vodka: the new handbag?
Two articles worth sharing from the Sunday Times of London this past weekend; they both concern the idea of "buying status" through the purchase of expensive spirits and handbags. Ordering a spirit and mixer at a bar in posh...
Fake News
Counterfeit goods are a major problem for luxury brands. They remove the exclusivity that luxury brands carefully cultivate and in many cases take the place of goods that affluent people would otherwise purchase. It feels like a victimless crime...
Resorting to Sustainable Luxury
While many items or experiences considered luxurious are scarce or rare, a new class of 'sustainable luxury' items and experiences aims to be as exclusive as traditional luxury while preserving and respecting the environment. We've already seen hybrid cars--now...
"Ice" and Water
Two followups-- One: what goes perfectly with your diamond-encrusted Mercedes-Benz SL Roadster? Why, a diamond-studded gearshift knob of course! I'm not sure where this is from or who the target audience is, though I don't think the producer/seller is trying...
All Wet?
When we mentioned fancy and expensive waters on Janus Thinking before, I hoped it was marking a trend (spending posh amounts on a common commodity) in decline, but this doesn't seem to be the case. This week Luxist brought...
Bankers admit diamond lending risks are too high
Antwerp Facets newswire builds on the arguments I have outlined before in their post on on the advent of diamond derivatives. Apparently Bankers are delighted that speculators will bear a stock-financing burden that has become too risky for them. But...
More Philosophy of Luxury
Isaac's Mostovicz's philosopy of luxury challenges us to examine the 'Why?' of luxury...rather than just the 'What', or the 'How'.... Don't ask 'What's luxury?'. Ask Why do we seek luxury? Isaac is very clear that luxury is a good, not...
New highs (or lows?)
Following Isaac's post questioning whether we use luxury for the right purpose, today the Associated Press published a story about the booming luxury market and skyrocketing prices for unique luxury items. Exclusivity is in--logos and brands are important, but...
A Philosophy of Luxury
With regard to philosophy generally, we have a tendency to mix the "what" with the "why" and "how" questions. For example, a Rabbinical college that I chair is known to be unique in the way it forms its students....
Pondering Luxury: Time, Exclusivity, Eternity
Earlier this week the Financial Times hosted its third annual ‘Business of Luxury’ conference in Venice. The event brought together some of the world’s most senior luxury executives, financiers and corporate decision-makers to discuss emerging trends and business models...
Diamond Skull. The Thisness of Diamonds
Damien Hirst's skull, entitled 'For the Love of God' is supposed to evoke a sense of our own mortality - in contrast to the eternity that diamonds endure. Does it do that? Is it beautiful? Is it macabre? Is it...
Lux Populi
This week I came across an excellent essay by James Twitchell from the Winter 2007 issue of the Wilson Quarterly, a publication by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington DC. Lux Populi describes the commodification of luxury in...
On Luxury Marketing
This week Echelon Marketing Group released a study about marketing luxury items. I haven't had the chance to review their data in depth (so I don't know the size of their sample or whom they were talking to), but...
