Brands have been trading on tangible luxury forever, tempting customers with buttery cashmere and leather, showy logos and gemstones, but tactile and visual thrills are no longer enough, which is why they are now looking to capture high-end customers’ hearts, minds and souls with more thoughtful fare.
They’re no longer relying on handmade products, immersive retail or physical experiences — expensive trips, Michelin-star meals or one-on-one meetings with designers and tastemakers — to woo their most discerning customers. The luxury brands now have added cultural nous, feasts for the mind and, in some cases, the promise of inner peace.
They’ve become commercial gurus, taking their customers to higher planes that transcend retail and exude brand essence.
In early December, Mytheresa opened Maison Mytheresa, a clubby space in Saint Moritz where it’s been offering a variety of experiences for VIP customers holidaying in the resort. Over the next months, Mytheresa is planning events including a poetry workshop, and love letter-writing lessons in time for Valentine’s Day.
A rendering of the lobby of Maison Mytheresa in Saint Moritz, which will run until April.
Mytheresa isn’t the only brand in a literary mood. For his first season as creative director of Dior, Jonathan Anderson has also taken a literary turn.
He’s transformed the brand’s logo-covered Book Tote into a series of Book Cover totes with embroidered designs inspired by classics including “Dracula,” “Ulysses,” “In Cold Blood,” “Les Fleurs du Mal,” “Les Liaisons Dangereuses,” “Madame Bovary” and “Bonjour Tristesse.” The totes will take center stage when Dior moves into the Selfridges Corner Shop in January.
In November, Rituals, the bath, body and home fragrance brand, opened a concept spa called the Mind Oasis on the lower ground floor of its new London flagship on Oxford Street.
Treatments include a “brain massage,” where customers recline in a zero-gravity chair inside a private pod. There is guided breath work, light therapy, synchronized 4D sound and haptic vibration with the aim of guiding the brain into a deeply relaxed, meditative state.
There is no doubt that the air around luxury is becoming more rarefied.
In its latest Global Affluent Collective report, “Worth Beyond Wealth,” brand consultancy Team One found that 88 percent of the global affluent now say status is earned through knowledge, not possessions, while 95 percent consider continuous learning their ultimate luxury.
A Dior Book Cover tote by Jonathan Anderson. A selection of totes will land at Selfridges Corner Shop later this month.
Heikki Kaski/Courtesy of Dior
Mark Miller, chief strategy officer at Team One, said the study’s most provocative finding was how the world’s wealthy “have moved beyond asking ‘What do I own?’ to ‘Who am I becoming?’ This transformation demands an entirely new approach from premium brands.”
Amrita Banta, managing director at Agility Research & Strategy, a global consulting firm specializing in affluent, high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth consumers, said that at the top end of the market there has been a recalibration of what feels genuinely valuable.
“For many HNWIs, material saturation is real. They already own the best of everything they need. But the deeper driver is scarcity. What’s truly scarce today is time, privacy, access, intellectual stimulation and experiences that feel personal rather than mass-produced. Once lived, experiences hold their value as memory and story,” she said.
Banta added that “demand is growing for experiences rooted in access to closed worlds, thoughtful curation and cultural or intellectual enrichment, rather than simple indulgence.”
A meditation pod at Rituals’ new Mind Oasis at the London flagship on Oxford Street.
She said these more thoughtful experiences include “private museum or archive access, time inside ateliers or direct engagement with master craftspeople and artists, sporting events with the coveted seats. Another [experience] is proximity to excellence: being inside elite creative, culinary, sporting or intellectual environments rather than observing them from the outside.”
There is also strong demand for mastery and transformation, where people leave with new skills, insight or perspective, Banta said.
“The flex isn’t what you can afford, but what you understand — history, craft, context. So collecting expertise is high on the desirability list. Community also has become a form of luxury, where the value lies as much in who you meet as in what you do,” she added.
Moe Krimat, director of creative and strategy at Seen Studios, which specializes in retail design, would agree. He said luxury brands are now having to speak to consumers who are “culturally fluent,” who need good reasons to make a purchase, and who are craving ideas, inspiration and originality.
“Luxury has always been about context. It’s not just about the object, but about the room it sits in, and that room doesn’t look like ‘retail’ anymore. It’s more intellectual, it’s more cultural, it’s more emotionally engaging,” he said in an interview.
Inside the new JW Anderson flagship, which is filled with art, antiques, creative collaborations and Jonathan Anderson’s “personal obsessions,” most of which have nothing to do with fashion.
“With luxury brands right now, we’re looking at something that looks more like a temporary cultural immersion. Brands are giving people the ingredients to imagine the world the brand stands for, and a sense of what it feels like to belong. Creating that sense of belonging and community is so interesting because you have to go so deep into your audience to actually create an experience with depth,” he added.
Krimat pointed to the new JW Anderson flagship in Pimlico, a concept store and tribute to designer Jonathan Anderson’s “personal obsessions” including art, antiques, sculpture, objects for the home, high-end jewelry and collaborative work with craftspeople and makers.
Walking into the store “is like entering the mind of the ultimate tastemaker. It’s not seasonal, it’s not trend-led, it’s not even product-led. You’re looking at objects, fashion, art, interiors ‘in conversation’ in this space,” said Krimat, adding, “It’s about entering a world of taste — and taste is one of the scarcest things right now.”
Not every brand will be able to create such a sophisticated “of-the-moment” environment. Only those brands and designers that know their customer intimately, and that have a rare self-confidence, will succeed, he said.
“I don’t think the majority of brands are going to have the privilege of creating to that kind of degree, or the confidence to drive culture and be tastemakers. You’ll see variations of it, but I still think a lot of brands are doing it wrong,” he said.
According to Banta, brands that are getting it right include Aman, which she said is often cited by HNWIs as the gold standard of luxury.
“Beyond hotels, Aman curates private cultural access, wellness journeys and invitation-only experiences that extend far beyond a stay. For its most valuable guests, the relationship feels less like hospitality and more like belonging to a discreet global circle,” she said.
Chef Matteo Panfilio at Aman Venice.
Courtesy of Aman Venice
Banta added that in spirits and wine, Macallan Scotch whisky stands out for building an “entire ecosystem around private tastings, access to rare archives, collector communities and invitations to distillery moments that most consumers will never see. Ownership becomes secondary to participation and knowledge.”
In automotive, she added, “Ferrari has long understood that its most valuable customers are not just buyers, but members of a highly curated world. Track days, factory access, racing events and invitation-only gatherings create a sense of identity and community that goes far beyond the car itself,” Banta said.
At the end of March, the Italian brand will roar onto London’s Bond Street with its first fashion flagship, offering products ranging from one-of-a-kind and made-to-order Atelier pieces, such as the Maranello clutch inspired by the lines of the Daytona SP3, to knitwear, small and large leather goods and Cavallino sunglasses.
Most importantly, the store is also hoping to offer “Ferrariness,” to the 180,000 Ferrari owners, and the millions of fans who are just happy to breathe in that rarefied Ferrari air.
