Why luxury is so much in full pandemic?<

Carrie Bradshaw, her ultra sharp looks and her dressing room overflowing with Manolo Blahnik pumps are soon returning to the small screen in "And Just Like That". And, it's not just the favorite fashionista from "Sex and the City" who is doing wonderfully. The luxury giants announced exceptional results and the whole sector is more flourishing than ever.

In the first half of 2021, LVMH was pleased with a sales record of +64% compared to 2019. Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior and Celine, the group's key brands in fashion and leather goods, confirm this trend . Kering, its historic competitor, owner of Gucci and Saint Laurent, has also announced record sales since January, thanks in particular to customers from the United States and Asia. Some labels exceed their pre-health crisis levels. Last week, the call of Xi Jinping, the Chinese head of state, for a more redistributive economic policy first worried companies in the sector. After a brief and relative decline on the stock market, the three main luxury brand groups Kering, LVMH and Hermès rebounded by 3%. This announcement does not therefore seem to stem the trend. A nice rebound after a rather austere period? Not only !

The Covid, an ecological catalyst for luxury

It's undeniable that treating yourself to Chanel's two-tone slingbacks or a signature silk scarf from Hermès boosts the dopamine and serotonin of some people. . Real anti-depression vaccine, shopping for luxury items is the philosophy of Quang-Khiem, 25 years old. Stylist with an androgynous look, he collects pieces from the Parisian label Chloé. "I have two bags, a leather trench coat, a pair of shoes, rings, a bracelet... it's a bit of an obsession," laughs the loyal designer of the brand. If Gaby Aghion, the creator of the house declared in her time "I always wanted Chloé to have a positive spirit, and to make people happy", her maxim rings out today with even more acuity for Quang-Khiem. It is "the colorful and solar aesthetic", a remedy for this year and a half of pandemic, that the designer particularly likes.

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“The Covid has made us aware of the urgency of pleasing ourselves, but above all of the urgency of being responsible towards the planet,” says Marie-Cécile Cervellon, professor of marketing at the 'EDHEC Business School. More categorical, Greta Thunberg, in one of Scandinavian Vogue hammers "fashion can be important to express your personality but if you buy fast fashion you participate in the destruction of the planet". "I don't want to buy cheap pieces like Zara or H&M anymore, because these fast fashion brands feed a circuit that I find bad," agrees Quang-Khiem. Like him, "more than 60% of luxury consumers say they prefer a brand that cares about its social and environmental impact," says the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a strategy consulting firm specializing in the luxury sector.

However, “luxury brands are pioneers in many initiatives to protect the planet,” says the teacher-researcher. An implication that is often old. If the health crisis has had a catalytic effect for some, “Stella McCartney, for example, has been engaged for fifteen years in an ethical, eco-friendly and eco-responsible approach”, explains Marie-Cécile Cervellon.

If we remember the promises to respect biodiversity included in the Fashion Pact, signed in particular by Kering, Ferragamo and Moncler, and the donations of hydroalcoholic gel from LVMH during the pandemic, the initiatives have long gone beyond the questions green or toilets. The Italian house Gucci, for example, has been working with Unicef ​​since 2013 in favor of the education of young girls, with the global campaign “Chime for change”. "Consumers, especially young people, have become aware that luxury brands are committed to the good of the planet," explains Marie-Cécile Cervellon. It is this authenticity, in addition to the values ​​and history of the brand, that they are looking for when buying luxury pieces. »

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A younger clientele

Youth, precisely! Regular buyers of luxury products, Millennials (born between 1978 and 1992) or Generation Y, will represent nearly half of consumers in the luxury market in 2025, announces Bain & Company, international strategy consulting firm. The many collaborations between pop culture artists and luxury houses bear witness to this progress towards a new clientele. The LOEWE X "My Neighbor Totoro" capsule, the eponymous character of the Japanese animated film, and "gamified" collections at Louis Vuitton and Balenciaga which take up streetwear codes, are part of the marketing strategies of luxury houses to attract young consumers,” explains Tessa Masliah, art and luxury historian.

The successive confinements have also forced the luxury industry to adapt, to keep the link with its historical clientele as well as with the “digital natives”. "Brands have paradoxically innovated a lot thanks to the pandemic," says the historian of branding strategies in the arts and luxury. To reconnect with their customers, they have created new links that did not exist before, such as digital Fashion Weeks, Zoom or virtual shopping sessions, ”list Tessa Masliah. This shift from luxury to social media is particularly evident on Instagram, where brands have greatly developed Reels and IGTVs to reach out to their followers and help them make the purchase with the “shopping” feature. With Possible conversations, the Italian label Prada invited personalities like the poet Amanda Gorman throughout the summer of 2020 to discuss the place of fashion in the world after.

“Brands have diversified their product portfolio, and therefore the profiles of their customers,” confirms Delphine Dion, professor of marketing at ESSEC Business School. And with the pandemic, we are seeing an extreme democratization of luxury for new or used purchases. Millennials and Generation Z (born between 1993 and 2001) are big fans of eco-friendly second-hand and luxury vintage. This market is also growing by +12% per year according to BCG experts. Acquiring a second-hand Burberry trench coat on the Vinted app or Balenciaga sneakers on the resale site Vestiaire Collective is a springboard into the world of luxury for these young consumers. “With the pandemic, my clientele has become extremely large and younger, I have many more clients aged 25 and 30,” rejoices Karen, owner of HK Vintage, a consignment store for luxury items in the 17th. For this haute couture enthusiast, "buying vintage and second hand has become hype with the Covid".

For influencer and blogger Léa-Marie Grotzinger, a.k.a. @mysweetcactus on Instagram, finding more affordable designer bags is a real treasure hunt, which she shares with her 84,000 followers. Her latest find: "Le Loulou de Yves Saint Laurent", a mini quilted black leather bag, a nod to one of the designer's muses, Loulou de la Falaise. "I bought it with a discount of €500 on Farfetch, but it's thanks to my relentlessness, I updated the site every morning", laughs the fashionista. “Very reasoned”, she no longer swears by this sales platform for major brands, “which makes luxury much more accessible”, and the Codressing site, offering the rental of designer clothes and accessories at very low prices. She also found a frilly blue Magali Pascal dress there, rented for €45 a day, when it was worth €525 new. Enough to discover luxury houses without regret and imagine yourself in Cinderella's pumps for an evening.

The desirability of know-how and values

While some customers will treat themselves to a Saint Laurent shopping bag on Vestiaire Collective, others will buy the latest Gucci belt in store with the emblematic GG buckle, or still others will invest in several Kellys, the famous trapezoidal bag from the saddler Hermès. Because the younger generations do not perceive luxury only as a consumer good but as an investment or a transmission good. “I have a lot of friends who inherited luxury bags from their grandmother or their mother, remembers Théa*, influencer on Instagram who has just over 52,000 subscribers. It's a really precious heirloom because these pieces have a family history. His latest favorite purchases, to celebrate his first year on the social network, are “Chanel's Timeless in navy blue grained leather” and “Dior's Saddle in black leather”. She will take care of them "to give them later to [her] children because they are timeless and timeless". "Luxury houses, which are inherently based on sustainability, offer pieces that can be passed on from generation to generation or that can be resold because they have increased in value," explains marketing professor Marie-Cécile Cervellon. Given the uncertain context caused by the Covid, buying luxury is a sure guarantee of know-how and quality,” recalls the expert in luxury marketing strategy.

Maryline*, a 28-year-old lawyer, never leaves her "Pearl Gray Phantom, Phoebe Philo era of course". What fascinates her in the pieces produced by the big houses? “Their history, their heritage and their heritage”, even before the style, influenced by the vision of the artistic directors. His next purchase? “Chanel costume jewelry”. These precious jewels created in the 1920s, with intertwined Cs and often adorned with camellias, "were originally reserved for 'women of little virtue', Gabrielle Chanel radically transformed and liberated their use". A great admirer of the stylist Yves Saint-Laurent, she plans to buy one of his famous tuxedos because in 1966 "it was he who democratized the trouser suit and he allowed the emancipation of women in the haute couture version", says the fashionista.

In the 19th century, in his “Theory of Moral Sentiments”, Adam Smith denounced the superficial nature of the consumers of luxury, the aristocrats and the wealthy bourgeois. A slightly Manichean analysis far removed from the diversity of motivations of buyers in the 21st century. Good news, no need to feel guilty when you fall for Carrie Bradshaw's latest it-piece in the reboot of the cult series "Sex and the City".

*names have been changed