Coco Chanel once said, “Luxury must be comfortable, otherwise it is not luxury.”
The sentiment sounds obvious enough. Of course, truly luxurious products, experiences, and services should feel good—to the skin, the eye, and the soul. The dictionary definition of luxury, after all, is “the state of great comfort and extravagant living.”
But the idea of comfort as a necessary facet of luxury has largely been lost in the last few decades—replaced by a kind of frantic global consumption of logo-laden tokens of affluence such as designer handbags, watches, and cars.
But luxury—the word and the idea—is in a state of transition.
Classic “luxury” items remain popular with a certain segment of consumers, of course, but the market is softening for top-tier designer brands. LVMH, the largest luxury conglomerate in the world, for example, reported the slowest gr