The End of Luxury As We Knew It

Luxury lost its meaning somewhere between the third price increase and the collaboration with a streetwear brand nobody had heard of two years ago.

Fendi Kitten Heel Sandals

The word doesn't mean what it used to. And the brands selling it are counting on you not to notice.

What Luxury Used To Mean

Luxury was a contract. You paid more and got materials that lasted, construction that mattered, and scarcity earned through skill, not manufactured through hype. A Hermès bag took artisans days to complete by hand. A Loro Piana coat used

fibers sourced and processed in ways nobody else could replicate. The price reflected the process.

That was luxury. Tangible. Justifiable. Rooted in craft.

Now? Luxury is whatever a brand decides to call luxury. And they've decided to call everything luxury.

The Inflation Problem

Leading luxury brands raised prices on core leather goods by 50 to 70 percent between 2019 and 2024, according to Fashion United. Chanel's classic flap bag more than doubled in price over a decade. During that same period, EU labor costs in manufacturing rose by around 20 percent.

The math doesn't work. The increases weren't matching improvements in materials or construction. They were matching demand. Brands were testing how much people would pay before they stopped believing the story.

Business of Fashion reports that around 80 percent of luxury market growth between 2023 and 2025 came from price increases, not volume gains. That's not growth. That's extraction. You're charging more for the same thing and hoping nobody notices the seams aren't finished as cleanly as they used to be.

Walk into a luxury boutique in 2026 and you'll find $3,000 handbags with plastic edge paint instead of hand folded leather. Unlined blazers at $2,500. Visible glue marks where stitching used to be. The construction details that justified the price have quietly disappeared while the price kept climbing.

When luxury becomes performance instead of substance, it stops being luxury. It becomes theater.

What Consumers Are Doing Instead

Millennials and Gen Z now drive over 50 percent of luxury sales, according to Who What Wear's 2025 Luxury Report, and they're not buying blind. They value expertise and quality above branding. They can tell when a product has soul and when it was made for show.

They're gravitating toward brands that still honor craft: Loewe under Jonathan Anderson, The Row, Bottega Veneta. They're also buying vintage. The secondhand luxury market grew from $34.79 billion in 2024 to $37.95 billion in 2025, a 9 percent increase reported across major resale platforms.

 Hermès Kelly bag

Why? Because a 1990s Hermès Kelly bag, made before the brand scaled production to meet demand, is often better constructed than a 2025 version at three times the price. Because vintage Céline under Phoebe Philo represents a creative vision that contemporary luxury, designed by committee, can't replicate.

And here's where it connects to something larger: the same consumers buying $50 Quince cashmere instead of $400 "luxury" cashmere aren't choosing cheap over expensive. They're choosing honest over inflated. When the $400 version no longer feels $350 better, the entire premise of luxury pricing collapses. The dupe economy isn't about affordability. It's about calling out the lie.

Value matters again. But value doesn't mean cheap. It means honest.

Where Luxury Actually Lives Now

Real luxury moved. It's not gone. It just stopped announcing itself.

It lives in brands that vertically integrated production to preserve artisanal skills. In houses that acquired stakes in their leather suppliers to strengthen quality control. In ateliers that still finish seams by hand because machines can't achieve the same drape.

Luxury lives in transparency. In brands that tell you where the fabric came from, who made the garment, and why it costs what it costs. Not vague language about "premium materials," but specifics: the mill, the artisan, the process.

Hermès saw 16 percent growth in 2024 while Chanel slowed to 3 percent, according to Marvilano's analysis of luxury brand performance. Brunello Cucinelli, embracing "humanistic capitalism," posted record profits. Loro Piana is growing 15 to 20 percent annually. These aren't outliers. They're proof that consumers aren't rejecting luxury. They're rejecting fake luxury.

The brands thriving aren't the ones raising prices. They're the ones that never abandoned what luxury actually meant.

The Bottom Line

Luxury didn't die. It just stopped being democratic.

The word used to have standards. Now it has marketing budgets. The gap between what luxury claims to be and what it actually delivers has never been wider.

As we move through 2026, the luxury correction is no longer a prediction. It's a reality visible on every balance sheet. Consumers are buying vintage because it's better made. They're supporting smaller ateliers that still care about construction. They're demanding transparency because vague promises about "craftsmanship" don't mean anything anymore.

The brands that survive this correction won't be the ones with the biggest logos or the loudest collaborations. They'll be the ones that remember what luxury actually meant before it became a performance.

Materials that last. Construction that matters. Scarcity earned through skill, not hype.

That's luxury. Everything else is just expensive clothing with good marketing.

*end of luxury*