What happens to luxury after a pandemic worldwide? Is luxury a compromise for our changed lives under covid or is it compatible? Luxury can be external. But, luxury is often internal. Luxury can also include theater, such as the elegant gown that wows the crowd or the stunning car that glides past passers-by, or the Instagram-worthy vacation. Luxury is a part of the attraction of admiration, envy and even desire of others.
Luxury can be considered a group sport. It involves participation from an audience that recognizes and values distinctions in quality or exclusivity. The field is seldom level in this sport because distinctions among things lead directly to divisions and distinctions among people. This can enforce hierarchies based on wealth, privilege, taste or knowledge. Luxury is a social communication channel, a language with meanings which can be agreed upon by the collective and upheld. This is how luxury signals operate.
These signals were disrupted by the pandemic. This pandemic isolated us from each other, making it harder to enjoy our luxuries. Travel was stopped or severely curtailed. Also, many parties, openings galas and other occasions to gather and display were also cut. Is luxury doomed to disappear without social interaction?
It turns out it’s not. In fact, luxury sales overall have risen during the pandemic, as the wealthiest have grown wealthier, and even the less-than-billionaire class, having been stuck at home, has accumulated more cash to spend and more time to spend it.
The search for luxury lifestyle during pandemic has expanded, not only in terms of a growing market in traditional luxury goods but also in more inward-focused forms of luxury and novel digital methods of presenting luxury theater that are safe from pandemics. Luxury has never been more important to our culture. It has found other ways, just like a river blocked by rocks.
The Latin term “luxury”, which denotes offensiveness in an ethical, moral, or carnal sense, is where the word “luxury’ gets its origins. Elizabethan English defined luxury as adulterousness and lechery. Claudio ridicules Hero’s sexual chastity by saying: “She knows what it is like to lie in a luxurious bed.”
Although luxury pursuit is no longer viewed as a sin, it still links to our senses of bodily or sexual delectation. Given that covid can be a physical illness, this has inevitably altered the relationship between luxury & our bodies.
The pandemic has made personal healthcare a hot topic. Although accessing the best medical care and treatments is a privilege, luxury in health extends far beyond this. It has always been considered a sign of privilege to be in good physical condition — for example, a perfect Pilatified figure. Fitness can also be a sign of privilege in times like this pandemic.
An active body is symbolic armor that provides protection and escape routes from diseases. Patrizia Kalefato, an Italian historian, says that luxury… challenges the idea about death. But that protection, that cost, can be very expensive. Or, as Leslie Ghize of Tobe TDG forecasting firm puts it, “Wellness… The luxury of keeping yourself in good health” (Ghize serves on the Parsons School of Design’s Board of Governors. I am also the School of Art and Design History and Theory dean.
While affluent people opted out of expensive gyms, trainers and group classes (the industry lost $13.9billion in 2020’s second half), upscale alternatives gained popularity. Over $2.3 billion in sales of home fitness equipment was generated during the pandemic’s first seven months.
Even the simplest accessories for your workout can turn into luxury. For $3,000, you can get Louis Vuitton weights made of lustrous steel and engraved with the LV logo. Yves Saint Laurent dumbbells made from hand-cut black marble are a steal at $2,000. All of them are appealing enough to double as home decor after you’re done.
Maybe this is what luxury looks like in a pandemic. It’s about attending to our bodies, while simultaneously escaping or transcending them.
“Connected Fitness” is a trend that exploded during the current pandemic in the world of home exercise. Equipment-plus-digital-subscription systems such as Peloton (with a $32 billion market capitalization) and Mirror (bought by Lululemon for $500 million in 2020) have attracted huge followings. You can not only get gym-quality machines that cost thousands of dollars, but you also have access to online classes and instructors for a premium fee. Virtual fitness was not invented before covid. However, virtual fitness sales have exploded in the past year. (Peloton saw its stock rise by 440% in 2020, even though it has seen a decline in recent months.
The attraction of virtual fitness is so compelling that Christian Dior decided to develop a line of digital fitness devices called Dior Vibe. A collaboration was made between Maria Grazia Chiuri (creative director) and Technogym, an Italian high end fitness equipment company. Couture lovers no longer have to wear Dior. Now they can run on wired-in Dior treadmills.
Digital systems such as these can promote bodily exercise without the presence or interference of any other body, which dematerializes the experience and removes the physical risk. Your trainer, your classmates, and even the gym are reduced to pixels. As you continue to focus on your human body, you find yourself in an alternate space. This luxury, too, is one that is rooted within escapism.
Hydra Studios, a gym in Manhattan with two branches, as well as others in Miami, Los Angeles and Miami, elevates escapism. Hydra was established in 2020 by Marie Kloor and Dan Nielsen who were Wall Street professionals. It specializes on “personal, non-materialized” fitness. Members can rent small to medium-sized studios in private, closed rooms with heavy curtains. These small gyms can accommodate only one person. Each unit contains a digitally-connected cardio device like a Technogym machine, Hydrow rower or “smart”, as well as iPads connected to the machines. This allows you to create a structured workout with virtual options such group classes or digital landscapes.
Hydra’s neutral and modernist decor feels calming, even soothing. The dark corridor is hard to discern if there are others in the room. The effect is disorienting. It feels like you are at the gym, but it’s not. You could be with other people or not. You’re riding or rowing through fantasies (the Caribbean! The Alps ), but in reality, sitting indoors in a space as small as a bedroom.
This is perhaps how we “do” luxury during a pandemic: attend to our bodies while simultaneously escaping and transcending them. Hydra’s isolation can offer some a type of alternative luxury. Kloor reports on how some members like working out alone because they don’t have to worry about how they look. Sometimes luxury is found in the absence display.
Many people feel like time is moving faster and more slowly than they used to. It is even more bizarre to realize that the pandemic won’t reach its end. There won’t be a day when we can rejoice at the end of the struggle. According to experts, coronavirus won’t be endemic but pandemic. Instead, it will slowly become endemic.
Covid, or Covid, is what disorients us both in time and space. We’ve addressed spatial disorientation through virtual experiences of multiple types. The task of addressing temporal disorientation seems much harder. We can’t escape nor simulate time.
The pandemic may have made time the ultimate luxury. This may be one of the most desirable and rarest privileges.
