Millennials & Gen Z reshape luxe market

Are millennial and Gen Z driving luxury sales? According to Fortune.com, “Millennials feel better about their future earnings than older consumers and spend more on luxury goods. That’s according to a survey of more than 3,000 consumers across China, Europe and the US by UBS Group AG Eighteen to 35 year olds have contributed 85 per cent to growth in the luxury market last year and will represent 45 per cent of total high-end spending by 2025.”

According to the survey Gucci and Louis Vuitton have emerged to be Millennials’ new favourite brands. Not long ago Marco Bizzarri, President and CEO of Gucci in an interview with Imran Amed, Founder and CEO of The Business of Fashion had shared, “Connection and engagement and interaction and the way in which we approach digital and approach social make the Gucci experience today,” he adds. “Our culture and our way of connecting people and being authentic and passionate and joyful is really speaking to a crowd that cannot grow enough growing forward.”

Be it #GucciGram, the label’s collaboration with Instagram’s best visual artists or #TFWGucci which used memes to sell wristwatches — the brand has been at the forefront of digital movement.  

Dolce & Gabbana, too, have time and again redefined a new idea of luxury that includes representation for the millennial and Generation Z consumers using millennial spectators and models like Christian Combs, Gabriel-Kane Day Lewis, Amelia Hamlin, Delilah Hamlin, Talita Von Furstenburg and Coco Konig among others. “Fashion is highly obsessed with youth,” says stylist Prayag Menon.  

Chiara Ferragni (left); and Bryanboy

A case in point being Maharaja of Jaipur Padmanabh Singh, who recently walked the runway for Dolce & Gabbana SS 19 show in Milan and Prince Nikolai of Denmark, who opened the runway show at Kim Jone’s debut show for Dior Men. The Dior saddle bag had a spectacular launch with digital doyens like Bryan Boy and Chiara Ferragni sporting them on their Instagram feed. “These influencers add new elements to the brand imagery and vocabulary. Most of them are individuals with strong personalities which ties in with the brand they associate with. Also, some design houses like to put new faces to their campaigns to reach out to a newer audiences,” says stylist Akshay Tyagi.

NO FIXED CLIENTELE

The youth fetish has been one of the key foci of luxury brands and labels across the board have been itching to reinvent to appeal to that elusive and jaded fashion palette.

Stylist Aastha Sharma observes that brands have realised that there can’t be fixed clientele. “Millennials are aware and difficult to please. If they like something, they really like it or they just reject it. All in all, they are smart buyers and quite price conscious. If they want to invest in something they want to think about it. The new lot — the cool kids of the moment — looks for some fun elements as opposed to something classic hence brands are adding quirky elements to their offerings,” says Aastha.

Gucci SS 18 x Ignasi Monreal; (inset) Dolce & Gabbana Men’s #DGMillennials collection Fall 18

The recent collaboration between Grace Coddington and Nicolas Ghesquière for Louis Vuitton inspired by their love for their dogs and cats comes to mind instantly. It’ll be interesting to see how luxury offerings reshape their course in the coming seasons.