Does the word luxury mean anything now?

"Chipping into the conversation this month is a 1,590 cotton hoodie with a faux fur-trimmed hood by Balenciaga, emblazoned with the word itself with the brand's name scrawled into the Y's cursive tail. Worn by Gwyneth Paltrow in the latest issue of British Vogue as she chops a pineapple in the very luxurious marble kitchen of her Hamptons home, the hoodie is the gag in the scene but is it funny, or just obscene? Are you in on the joke?"

"The ultimate provocateur, Demna (who goes by his first name) pulled Is it ironic? stunts like this throughout his tenure at Balenciaga (he recently moved to Gucci). He caused outrage with trainers covered in fake mud, a skirt that looked like a towel and a four-figure bag that resembled Ikea's 75p Frakta carrier. There was also Kim Kardashian wrapped in Balenciaga-branded duct tape, high-heeled Crocs and that ill-thought-out advertising campaign."

"So while the collab between an ordinary item of clothing and the word Luxury is not that surprising in this context, it is timely, particularly as the high-end fashion market attempts to navigate its way through a slump after a three-year surge. While other brands have leaned into stories of craftsmanship or exclusivity as a way of justifying higher prices, the design of the Balenciaga hoodie resembles a 15 version from Temu. All that is missing is, well, that luxury branding."

Luxury often functions as a mutable symbol rather than a fixed quality, expressed through branding, price, and deliberate absurdity. Designers use provocation and parody to question value by applying luxury signifiers to ordinary objects. High-fashion stunts—branded hoodies, faux-mud trainers, or accessory parodies—blur the boundary between critique and ostentation. The luxury market faces a post-surge slowdown, prompting some brands to stress craftsmanship while others double down on irony and spectacle. Consumer perception now oscillates between finding such gestures humorous, obscene, or strategically attention-seeking, revealing evolving definitions of status, authenticity, and desirability.

Read at www.theguardian.com