“The tectonic plates that we have in luxury at the moment are moving,” says Deborah Marino, chief strategy officer at Publicis Luxe, the agency’s luxury-focused wing that has offices in Paris, Shanghai and New York. “Between what ‘luxury’ was five years ago, what it was two years ago, and what it is today, we’re seeing changes. Normally it’s not that fast that you see those changes in luxury.” However, these days, “everything is becoming very liquid.” She labels this disruption “the new rhythm of luxury”.

“I think the old rules no longer apply, and I think luxury brands have quickly realised that if they don’t adapt and adapt quickly, they lose out,” says Sade Teyibo, who has worked in London, New York and Lagos at companies including luxury fashion group Kering and car group O’Gara (home to Rolls Royce and Lamborghini). Teyibo, who now runs Fola, a full service PR, marketing and brand development agency in Lagos that works with the likes of the Loewe Foundation, says: “I think they also understand that the customer’s attention span is so, so short and so thin, if you will, that if they are not keeping up with the pace, they lose those dollars that could have come their way. It quickly goes to somebody else.”

It is impossible to separate this destabilising “new rhythm” from the rise of micro-trends, much of which is driven by social media. These were once seen as passing fads but are now dictating how big players are communicating with their audiences, according to Marino – and it’s not always effective. “People are getting very upset and very tired with this idea of changing everything all the time. It was the kids playing with these trends, but now also the grown-ups in the room are getting involved.” While some luxury brands have shown they’re social media savvy, trying to keep up with TikTok micro-trends can be a losing battle, as some industry commentators have pointed out, especially for bigger, less agile luxury brands.

I think there was always this idea that there was a set that determined what luxury is. And let’s be honest, it’s normally the Western world

The arrival of micro-trends has also disrupted the two poles of luxury expressions that seem to have long dominated the market: quiet luxury versus maximalism. Marino explains that on either end of the luxury spectrum are the ‘old money’ types and those who are newly wealthy, and both sets tend to indulge more in louder, sometimes subversive forms of luxury (see Balenciaga). Sandwiched in between are the upper middle classes, who are more conscious of the optics of their wealthy status and therefore lean into quieter expressions of luxury. Although a lot of that holds true, the landscape seems more fractured today.

Social media isn’t just a playground for micro-trends; it has also exposed people to varying ideas of luxury around the world and brought them into dialogue, which is challenging the history of Western influence on the global luxury marketplace.

“I think there was always this idea that there was a set that determined what luxury is. And let’s be honest, it’s normally the Western world that says, ‘this is luxury’,” Teyibo says. Thanks to a “cultural renaissance” that she says is occurring across Africa, luxury codes are shifting all over to encompass broader expressions.

She points out one of her clients, menswear label Magnum Man, which has designed garments using aso oke, a traditional Yoruba material made by specialists. “If you hear the story and the background of how that [material] came to be and how there are only a few people that can still work on a special machine to create that, it is still luxury in the same way as a Bottega bag.” She believes that these ideas of luxury stemming from different geographies and cultures now seem to co-exist.

In the Middle East, too, there appears to be a renewed emphasis on luxury goods and experiences rooted in the local area. “Luxury has a great deal of history and heritage in the region,” says Bannister, chief strategy officer at Dubai-based agency TBWA\RAAD, which recently contributed to a TBWA report on the future of luxury.

She notes the Middle East’s historic place along trade routes, producing globally coveted goods such as spices, frankincense, gold and silk, and believes the historic presence of fine goods and resources in the region is responsible for buyers’ “deep” connection to luxury in the region. “You can walk into a shop and there’s literally hundreds of different variations: the subtlety of the vanilla or the rose. So there is a very refined understanding or appreciation of certain things,” she says.

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When the discovery of oil in the 20^th century accelerated buying power within the region, namely in the Gulf states, expressions of luxury became more explicit and lavish Western imports proved popular, according to Bannister. Nowadays, displays of personal wealth seems slightly less explicit (though she says quiet luxury doesn’t exist in quite the same way as in the West), partly due to shifting priorities. She says buyers are now more interested in the stories and origins of luxury goods made by local designers and artisans – and it’s making Western brands adjust their focus. “Van Cleef and Arpels recently had an Emirati artist [Amal Al Gurg] release a series of calligraphy art pieces,” she says as an example. “I think there’s a little bit of going back to the roots of things, wanting to buy more local things.”

Marino suspects that an appreciation of local goods could become even more pronounced during the Trump administration. Although the poles of power within the luxury space have been gradually shifting away from Western dominance in recent years, the first few months of Trump’s second term have been dominated by conflicts over tariffs and trade wars, suggesting a serious rupture in the status quo is on the horizon. “That is becoming really interesting, because it means that in luxury especially, we’re going to see a multipolar [pool of] influences around us,” Marino says.

Luxury is once again becoming highly political, highly sociological, and highly connected to the values of the culture

While she believes Europe and North America will still try to exert their influence, she says: “I’m pretty sure that the political conditions that are here today are destroying the domination of the Western side of luxury.”

Luxury can seem so far removed from most people, but it can reveal a lot about our sociopolitical climate and where power dynamics lie – far more than it ever used to. “Luxury was all about money, trends and aesthetics, and once again, luxury is becoming highly political, highly sociological, and highly connected to the values of the culture,” Marino says. “We have intermingled pop culture and luxury so much that all the [shifts in] pop culture that are becoming more political, more about belonging, are going to influence luxury.”

Teyibo believes that a more nuanced understanding of what luxury means to people today is the best way to stave off irrelevance. “I don’t think we will ever go away from what luxury truly is. It’s about craftsmanship, it’s about exclusivity, it’s about heritage, right? And I think that still remains true. And we’re also talking about things that hold value over time,” she says. “But I think what we’re seeing right now is a shift, and the shift is more about what luxury means for you on a personal level, what it aligns with in terms of your identity and your sense of self.”

Marino agrees that the meaning of luxury is moving from the purely physical – the finest materials honed by the specialist artisans – towards intrinsic factors. Freedom of choice, movement, expression are becoming luxuries, driven by “all this movement that we’re seeing in politics: the rise of the alt right, the comeback of conservatism.” She believes that this will trigger an aesthetic rebellion of sorts. She also highlights another scarcity: human connection.

Personal shoppers and trusted curation were born in the luxury sphere. With AI-driven automation, even apparently personalised recommendations are made by a nebulous algorithm. The entire luxury shopping experience has become, against all odds, “very Amazon-like”, as Marino puts it. She thinks a return to those human experiences will become a defining marker of luxury. “Everything that is real, human, the raw side of humanity, is going to become desirable.” People who have “the possibility to go to real places, meet real people, have real relationships with them – that is going to be the luxury in the future. And for the rest of us, we’re going to have Apple Vision Pro.”

publicisluxe.com; tbwaraad.com; folapr.com; Top image: Shutterstock/ProjectPixels