Anya Hindmarch believes the days of people wanting big name luxury items are coming to a close.
The accessories designer travels a great deal for work and has noticed a change creeping in to buying habits lately.
More and more she believes it’s one-of-a-kind pieces that are coveted, not items which are emblazoned with logos.
“When someone asked me recently to name my favourite luxury brands, I realised that the luxury experiences I relish most weren’t really branded at all,” she writes in an article for British newspaper The Telegraph.
“These days the sophisticated customer wants that experience. They want their luxury purchase to be about them, not the designer. And that’s why luxury brands can increasingly be divided into two categories; those that offer what the new world wants, and those that provide for the established market.”
In countries which Anya describes as “newly-enriched populations”, she claims people are still interested in the latest It bag. She believes certain logos help people show they are wealthy, even if it means many people have the same items.
However, in places where designers have been popular for some time there is a change in the wind.
“There is a growing demand in the established luxury markets, such as in Europe and the US, from customers who yearn not to be members of a club, but individuals,” she claims. “This is a return to why people bought ‘luxury goods’ in the first place: they wanted something personal, something unique, something they had been involved in creating – something that has a story.” – COVER MEDIA
