.png)
“Can you remember who you were before the world told you who you should be?” - Charles Bukowsk
Individuality: (noun) The quality or character of a particular person or thing that distinguishes them from others of the same kind, especially when strongly marked.
“I dress with style and individuality.”
So many persons stand loud and strong on their individuality, yet sacrifice their taste and that hard-fought individuality for a state of belonging, the need to fit in.
The must-have at all cost, aspirational luxury items that scream look at me I am rich, the logo turned to make sure it is noticed, the drowning in head-to-toe expensive, logo, luxury items.
Can we claim individuality, or be our authentic selves (another overused phrase) while slinging the latest Gucci, Pucci, and Louis Vuitton?
Don’t get me wrong I too have succumbed to the hype of a Chanel bag here or there, the Louis luggage (I have pieces over 40 years old. So I will stand on the argument that I buy them for the quality, LOL).
Yet I am one of those underrated individuals who welcome the resurgence of “quiet luxury”. Where your clothing, your accessories, and your lifestyle whisper instead of shooting with a bullhorn.
But let me not loose sight of “your individuality” and if you are a shouter so be it, no need to fit in when you can stand out vivir en coz alta (living out loud), draped in the sometimes enviable, sometimes misleading signs of wealth. After all, we do it in the name of being true to ourselves, expressing our right to copy everyone else.
Quiet luxury made its way back into our consciousness with the success of the addictive series Succession, with labels like Loro Piana, The Row, Bruno Cucinelli. Quiet luxury is nothing new it has always been the hallmark of real wealth, old money (but let me be very clear, I am all for new money especially in vulgar quantity, especially if it’s mine) it’s that nod of appreciation, signalling “when you know you know”. It is rooted in the choice of fabric, the cut, the tailoring, the finish…The quality.
Again I will insert individuality, this time, my own, and what true luxury means to me.
True luxury for me is a lifestyle not only a price tag. It’s about the confidence to wear a label or a piece from H&M beautifully styled, a piece or 2 or 3 from an independent designer who is passionately working to make it to Paris or New York fashion week. Imagine being able to say “I wore him/her when.”
True luxury is lifting without fear of being replaced.
True luxury is freedom of choice.
True luxury is the freedom to be…seen or not.
P.S. In the search for ‘individualism’ aspirational customers are said to have spent approximately $387 Billion United States dollars, in 2023 (source Bain and Company).
‘‘When you don’t dress like everybody else, you don’t have to think like everybody else.’’
- Iris Apfel:
American Business Woman + Interior Designer + Fashion Icon
29th August 1921 to 1st March 2024
Comentários