Luxury Fashion Consumer Insights

Trend - Though reef safety is not new among athletic brands of sun protection, brands targeted to the beauty-focused consumer are also starting to spotlight this benefit. Reef safety in SPF focuses on formulations that avoid chemicals harmful to ocean life, instead prioritizing physical UVA and UVB filters.

Insight - Expanding this language beyond athletic brands and into more cosmetics-focused spaces provides a different type of consumer with more ethical choices. As eco-consciousness continues to evolve into a status symbol among consumers, once-niche causes expand their reach and cross over into behavioral tribes also interested in luxurious aesthetics. Brands that can provide both decadence and benevolence will be seen as early adopters of a new, more holistic form of luxury.

Trend - Brands are launching luxury and designer skincare collections for newborns and infants. These products have easy-to-understand, short ingredient lists for safety and transparency. Brands position these products as better solutions for ensuring the healthy development of babies.

Insight - Younger generations of parents, such as Gen Z and Millenials, are acutely aware of the potential damage of chemical ingredients. These generations grew up learning about the dangers of microplastics, processed foods, and more. This knowledge leads these parents to prefer organic, natural, and clean products for their newborn babies, and are willing to pay a premium price to ensure the products are of the highest quality. Brands are responding to these pressures with luxury products for babies.

Trend - Luxury fashion brands are unveiling anime-themed collections to foster relationships with the younger generation and today's nostalgia-fueled adults. Anime and cartoon motifs can transform pieces into collectibles valued for years, and with the popularization of diverse media, brands are finding inspiration outside the dominant culture.

Insight - Fans are eager to purchase merchandise featuring their favorite characters, making anime a more approachable marketing strategy. As consumers look for more diverse sources of culture in everything they do, the luxury scene is proving that it can appeal to a more diverse and younger consumer audience. By releasing anime-themed goods, luxury brands demonstrate that they are willing to interact with an ever-changing pop culture scene.

Trend - Brands in luxury fashion are increasingly experimenting with latex, which is giving an edge to their bespoke collections. The popularity of the material can be traced to its association with rebellion, deviance, and fetish, as well as to the sustainability in harvesting natural latex.

Insight - Millennial and Gen Z consumers have always placed a strong emphasis on their appearances and a big reason for that is their continuous presence and dependence on social media platforms. As a result, many are on the lookout for aesthetic-forward pieces and experiences that can help them feel not only more confident in their self-expression but also more interesting in the eyes of their peers and followers.

Trend - Brands—including haute couture fashion labels—are catering to the style-minded consumer with elevated outdoor gardening essentials. These offerings offer both functionality and an aesthetic-forward experience.

Insight - During the COVID-19 pandemic, many consumers are embracing different hobbies and are also looking to improve themselves or their home, creating a demand for products and services that will enable them to do so. In this space, many contemporary consumers, regardless of age, are emphasizing style and aesthetic-driven experiences for their power to allow individuals to feel more confident, as well as motivated and excited to use the products.

Trend - Some luxury fashion brands are exploring marketing tactics in creative and engaging ways, especially through the film. These brands are leveraging their platforms to bring awareness to social issues through creative visual narratives.

Insight - Consumers are exposed to branded content on a daily basis, leading them to have a short attention span when it comes to many marketing tactics. Their attention tends to gravitate towards engaging visuals that tell a story they can relate to. As a result, they are more drawn to advertisements that reflect their reality in ways that provoke thought, conversation, and meaning.

Trend - Many fashion brands and magazines are continuing their operations during the COVID-19 pandemic with creative photoshoots that are staged at home. This venture, which is heavy on the DIY aesthetic, depicts models and even employees of the label or magazine in their personal quarters.

Insight - The economic restrictions that were imposed by many governments during the COVID-19 outbreak are putting a halt to the operation of businesses across industries. Still in full effect in some countries, consumers are eager to experience a sense of normalcy by seeking out ways to engage with activities and content that were previously available to them pre-pandemic. This does not only afford individuals some comfort, but also serves as a form of entertainment and connection.

Trend - Many designers are taking advantage of the progression of the technological age as they introduce robotic components to their fashion lines. From artificial intelligence to coding, the smart garments boast responsive or assistive features that elevate the piece beyond the constraints of aesthetic.

Insight - Captivated by curiosity, consumers are interested in what technology can offer the fashion industry. As garments are an extension of the self, consumers look for dynamic and autonomous features that can make the expression of identity through fashion a more immersive and captivating experience. Thus, they feel more confident as they are on the cutting-edge of the tech and fashion fusion, but also more understood as they can communicate something extra via the movement of their outfit.

Trend - Haute couture labels and celebrities are entering unlikely territory, producing branded contraceptives and collections that are inspired by the notion of safe sex. Whether it's through condoms or condom-inspired apparel, the launches instill a sense of curiosity in consumers.

Insight - Social media enables the curation of personal brands and many consumers attempt to introduce all facets of their personality through online platforms. Motivated in part by synchronizing physical and digital lifestyles, this move allows for users to be authentically themselves in both worlds. As sexuality is an inherent component of many consumers' personal brands, the topic is finding its place on social media. Novelty items that reference sexuality are perceived as tools of liberation that are shareable and get the point across.

Implications - Ultra-luxurious bespoke services seek to tempt the luxury consumer in search of hyper-customized services. In what can be seen as an extension of exclusivity marketing and hyper-personalization, bespoke accessories offer an intimate curation process for consumers left dissatisfied by traditional luxury offerings.