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Intellect is pleased to announce that the latest issue of Design, Business & Society (4.2) is now available. For more information about the issue, click here >> https://bit.ly/2F6LrIN

Special Issue: In Pursuit of Luxury

Contents

Foreword

Authors: Christopher J. Berry 
Page Start: 123

Editorial

Authors: Veronica Manlow 
Page Start: 127

Fur and sustainability: Oxymoron or key to ‘deeper’ luxury?

Authors: Fabian Faurholt Csaba And  Else Skjold 
Page Start: 131

This article explores the notion of deeper luxury, which insists that ‘real’ luxury should involve sustainable practices in the production and consumption of luxury goods. It traces historical and recent developments in the field of fur to understand the implications, uncertainties and ambiguities of luxury’s confrontation with sustainability. Considering fur in relation to future standards for luxury products, we raise questions about moral problematization and justification of luxury in terms of sustainability. We first examine the encounter of luxury with sustainability and explain the significance of the notion of ‘deeper luxury’. After taking stock of the impact of sustainability on luxury and various directions in which sustainable luxury is evolving, we discuss concepts of sustainable development in relation to the history of moral problematization of luxury. This leads to the case of fur as material used to establish social distinctions from at least medieval times to the present and subject to moral condemnation and controversy. Our case inquiry reviews recent research projects and industry initiatives that seek to determine whether fur can be seen as sustainable or not. The article discusses whether fur is about to lose or reclaim its legitimacy in an era of sustainable luxury, and concludes with reflections on depth and sustainable luxury.

Peace of mind: The quintessential luxury

Authors: Sue Thomas 
Page Start: 151

Phoenix-like the luxury sector renews itself, whether by innovation in design, or in response to social changes and consumer psychographics. It is an intriguing anomaly: enacting sustainability methodologies and practices like ‘slow make’ (production), low waste and careful garment care. But it excludes potential customers due to the price and availability of the product, which could be perceived as opposite to the perceived holistic inclusive tenets underpinning sustainability. International luxury fashion corporations and labels like Kering who own Gucci, Bottega Veneta, Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, Brioni and Prada, have begun to refocus their priorities, and lead change with their published sustainability goals via reports and websites. Inherently luxury references the highest quality fabrication, design, make and service. Yet across the fashion industry, consumers are experiencing unease or cognitive dissonance, fuelled by media reporting ethical dilemmas. In the luxury end of the market understandably the client/customer will desire both the luxury product and the confidence of an ethical supply chain. Logically, with their established resources the luxury sectors’ interpretation of sustainability, responsibility and ethics could offer to their clients the quintessential luxury: peace of mind. In the past the sustainability discourse has been predominately located around fast fashion in middle and lower markets. Whether a recent addition, or a deeply embedded (previously unmarketed) inherent value, the ethical intent of a sustainable supply chain presents a strategic facet of future luxury. This article is a speculative analysis and overview of both the relationship and proximity of luxury and sustainability focusing on ethics. Specifically, applied ethics within the luxury sector (examined in 2016 and 2018) are one of the highly desirable outcomes: the peace of mind of their clients will be discussed. In the light of the Paris Agreement (2015) from COP 21 and the UK Modern Slavery Bill (2015), ethics are no longer only the playing field of the enlightened. It is timely, as there are changes to be mapped and lessons to be applied and methodologies to be modelled and shared. Undoubtedly, there is a potentiality for courageous concepts of ethics within luxury; thus it is vital to speculate and reflect on the future of ethics in the luxury sector.

Personalization, customization and bespoke: Increasing the product offer

Authors: Shaun Borstrock 
Page Start: 171

It could be said that true luxury products are defined through skill, connoisseurship, rarity, craftsmanship and innovation. Luxury brands on the other hand are defined by illusions of luxury, fashion, authenticity, lifestyle, aspiration, the global market and profit. Increasingly luxury brands have introduced options to customize and personalize their products to enhance their offer and thereby creating the perception that the customer is purchasing something individual. However, these options within the realms of the luxury brand do nothing more than offer variations on a theme. Component pieces within an existing product range are produced and offered for sale as part of an existing product category. Offering a customized product changes the perception of the consumer. They believe they are buying something different, but this is far from the reality. Luxury brands offer customization to attempt to diversify and add value to their product offer. If one considers craftsmanship and innovation as core components in creating differentiation between luxury and luxury branded products, it could then be argued that traditional crafted products and the integration of digital technologies challenge the status quo. As customization and personalization are already occupying a place of growing significance and include viable modes of industrialized production, the product offer lacks the integrity that would be associated with a handmade luxury product.

Designing the geography of luxury: Online perceptions and entrepreneurial options

Authors: Federica Carlotto And Simon O’Leary 
Page Start: 189

This research applies the Design Thinking approach to explore the online perceptions of luxury and place experienced by potential purchasers and other interested parties. A netnographic study, encompassing observations and interviews, was conducted using a product purity framework developed from the analysis of over 3000 online-posted commentaries. The findings indicate that online users perceive luxury product purity and place of origin in three principal ways. First, uncertainty can breed scepticism of product purity. Second, some users expand their horizons to embrace the reality. Third, some use the information to develop their own definitions of luxury product purity. Designing suitable models to map the complexity of product purity is likely to enhance the effectiveness of companies and operators in managing the place-related perceptions surrounding their products, resulting in an increased brand equity value and a more effective responsiveness to the market.