Transcription
So, I hear a lot of things about Loud Luxury coming back into Vogue. Apparently, there's this um, there's this corner of Tik Tok called Rich Talk. Do you know it?
No, but I want to be on it. I mean, as part of it, no. Is it I haven't seen this. No, no, it it's apparently I've I've seen one or two of the videos. Apparently, it's not the usual nonsense of um, you know, these people who hire Lamborghinis and they talk about how they, "So cringe me and my Lambo," and stuff like that, or they take, you know, photographs of themselves behind a very suspicious Dubai laptop, Dubai backdrop, which doesn't actually move very much. There doesn't seem to be any wind or any movement.
Um, but no, these are the real thing, apparently. Children of billionaires and the odd bored housewife and some nepo babies. Mhm. All filming themselves in their houses that are the size of the Ritz and being very unapologetic about the whole thing. Well, good for them. So, I suppose the question is whether this does herald the return of Loud Luxury. I mean, I do love how you say that as if Loud Luxury kind of ever really went away. It's like, I don't know, um, bad eyebrows. They kind of ebb and flow, but they're always lurking, ready to just reappear, you know.
Yeah, that's true. That is true. But the aspiration has shifted though, isn't it? I mean, 10 years ago, um, the desirable pose was stealthy cashmere and, "Is this expensive or is it just beige?" That sort of aesthetic, you know.
Yes. Beige babies thing. Yeah. Exactly. You know, quiet money was having its was having its moment. And if you turned up with a Gucci monogram tracksuit or whatever, you looked like you'd got lost leaving Essex, didn't you? I mean, whereas now you've got 21-year-olds in private jets, haven't you, saying, "I'm just popping to Milan for lunch." And it gets millions of views, you know, and that's fascinating because it's not subtle in the slightest. It's not even um, aspirational in the old sense, you know, and most people can't even rent that lifestyle for the weekend.
I remember being 20 and darting off to Milan for lunch. It was huge fun. But you know, you're exactly, you're absolutely right. I mean, and I suppose that's meant to be the point, isn't it? Loud Luxury today isn't about signaling to your neighbor that you can afford Hermes. It's about making sure that the entire planet knows that you're operating on a completely different economic stratosphere. The old rules of taste don't matter when you're, you know, essentially a Bond villain with a ring light.
Bond villain with a ring light. That's an image, isn't it? I suppose it's kind of like um, the performative aspect that's different. In in therapy, I would often talk about how people kind of create identity online and these rich kids are creating theirs through hyper visibility. Um, it's really interesting because there's no shame and there's no playing down. It's it's this declaration.
Yeah. And I mean, the declarations work, you know, we saw the same thing with Rolex in the '80s. Um, you know, you remember all the the films. You you know, you weren't you weren't just telling the the time. You were announcing your net worth, weren't you?
I suppose what's curious. Yeah, exactly. Yes. And I suppose what's curious now, though, is that people are are getting entertainment from watching the daily mechanics of wealth. "Here's my driver ironing my Hermes tie." It's not even glamorous. It's banal wealth, which I suppose perversely makes it even louder, really, doesn't it?
Well, it does, really. And it's almost, I mean, it's almost voyeuristic, isn't it? And I I wonder if that makes it kind of oddly palatable, you know, more palatable. Sort of watching someone swan around a villa is is a kind of detached fantasy, but seeing them choose a pair of Chanel trainers to wear feels more intimate somehow. It kind of pulls you into their world maybe, even though it's totally unattainable.
Yeah. Yeah. It it humanizes the absurd, doesn't it? You know, you can't understand owning a yacht, but you can understand deciding between two different handbags. So, the the spectacle of Loud Luxury then is is softened by the relatability, I suppose, at the at the micro level.
That's so true, you know, and then of course then you get social media like Tik Tok. It it's amplifying it. And if you'd done that on television 20 years ago, you'd have looked like you were being, I don't know, this crass bragging o, you know, whereas on Tik Tok, it's content. And it's content um that is actually currency.
Yeah, for sure. Which I think is why Loud Luxury is not only back, it's mutating. You know, in the '90s. Yeah. Loud mint gold Versace shirts and supercars outside nightclubs. Do you remember? Um, you'd see them lined up outside Annabel's. Now it's or driving up and down the King's Road in a Porsche.
Um, I was one of those people. I was about to say I wasn't going to call you out. I thought, but now it's I suppose the the casual, "Oh, this old thing?" But that old thing is like a £100,000 watch you've dropped on the counter like a bro. Yes, like boom. And actually, yes, it's this ridiculously expensive thing. And it's an anomaly, isn't it? That kind of that it's loud in understatement and it's loud by normalizing what's abnormal.
Right. Exactly. Yes. That's exactly it. The greatest flex now isn't shouting. It's being so blasé um about the absurd. I suppose that wealth becomes the background noise almost, which I think is why these Rich Talk videos feel different. But also they're not trying to sell anything. You know, they're not even trying to be tasteful. They're just they're just existing at a level of wealth most people can't fathom. And I think that's probably the attraction.
Yeah, I would say you're right. And then here's something else. We're starting to see that generational difference too. Kind of the parents of these kids have built their fortunes during an era where discretion equaled safety, really, right? Some public wealth managers always said, "Never let anyone see um the watch and never let them see the car." Yet their children are live-streaming the Ferrari collection on Tik Tok. You know, it's crazy.
It's true. And it's very telling because for the first generation, discretion was survival, wasn't it? Yes. And then for the second, ostentation, which is what it is, there's no other word for it, is identity. And I think the interesting behavioral point in all of this is that when you inherit wealth rather than build it, you can afford to be careless because you're not afraid of losing it because you've never had to fight to gain it.
That makes it even more provocative then. For sure. Because the videos then aren't just entertainment, they're power displays, right? They say, "We've we're so far removed from your economic reality that we can flaunt it with zero consequence."
Yeah. And that's what draws the crowd, though, isn't it? It's that it's the behavioral equivalent of rubbernecking at an accident. You know, when you see an accident on the M25, people are both horrified and transfixed. So they'll complain about a tone-deaf billionaire while simultaneously following every single billionaire's account.
I It's so true, cuz they do. And outrage is this like form of engagement now, right? Everybody loves to be outraged. Oh my goodness me. But that makes the content spread faster. And now you've got Rich Talk as a thing.
Yeah, this is true. And I think brands should be paying really close attention to this because if visibility and volume are becoming fashionable again, you know, those delicate whispers about heritage and craftsmanship, they're going to be drowned out by customers demanding logos or size of billboards. So the the the pendulum swings and right now subtle isn't trending.
I mean, you you sound a little bit wistful about the beige cashmere years. Yeah. I mean, I suppose I am a bit. I I've never really been a big logo person and beige cashmere is very forgiving. But the reality is that aspirational customers will follow the loud signal. So, if Rich Talk normalizes brashness, brands who refuse to play the game, they risk being sidelined completely.
Yeah, 100%. But I I'd argue that there is room for both, right? There's Loud Luxury and Quiet Luxury and they don't have to be mutually exclusive. They're parallel languages almost. I mean, some clients want the Birkin bag and others want the Loro Piana that coat that only other insiders are going to recognize.
I agree to a degree. But I I mean, Loro Piana isn't the "if you know, you know" brand it was five years ago because everyone knows it now, don't they? In fact, it's actually become the Loud Luxury trumpet player for Quiet Luxury. It's weird. Um, but yeah, since LVMH took over. But psychologically, loud periods, I mean, they tend to dominate culture, don't they? Think about think about the '80s. Right. Now, I know neither of us grew up in the '80s cuz we were too young, but let's get that in there in case anybody thinks that we actually grew up in the '80s. We were really young kids in the '80s. So young, but people still wore Savile Row, but you know, Savile didn't go away during the '80s, but the era is remembered for Gordon Gekko's braces and "greed is good" because that became shorthand.
Yeah. Okay. And maybe Tik Tok kind of accelerates these swings. You know, what would have taken years to shift culturally is now happening in months, right? So that means Loud Luxury might burn hotter, but it also might fade quicker.
Yeah, it's very possible. But you have to remember the audiences are so global nowadays that it could even embed more deeply. So when a billionaire's daughter in Singapore, for example, posts about her Dior shoe wardrobe, it gets seen in Mumbai and Stockholm within minutes, seconds even, almost. And but that kind of reach gives Loud Luxury much more cultural staying power, I'd say.
Yeah, I can see that. And I suppose for the individuals posting, it becomes addictive, kind of that dopamine hit of the attention, the kind of reinforcement of their identity, the validation that their wealth is entertaining. It's a it becomes a cycle, which should be one of the key takeaways for luxury professionals. Never assume that taste is static. You know, we've spent the last decade training staff to whisper, to talk about craftsmanship, to avoid logos. Now, the same client may want precisely the opposite. So, you know, flexibility is survival.
100%. And being able to read the client in front of you, too. Because if she's quoting Rich Talk trends, do not start waffling about artisanal stitching. Well, this is precisely it. You know, luxury, it's a mirror and sometimes it reflects back discretion and sometimes it reflects back spectacle. The job is to know which reflection your client actually wants to see.
So with that then, is Loud Luxury coming back? I think it is. M. Although I suppose it never really left, did it? It just went into hibernation for a while. I mean, Chanel trainers and Tik Tok lighting while the driver irons the Hermes, the Hermes tie. I mean, some things never change, Paul, do they? Right.