The New Luxury? Normalcy
The '90s really are back. Just about every major name in luxury is gear-shifting three decades back in time to meet the present, facing the industry slump with a return to retro normalcy. Look familiar? It was all done decades ago.
Is it safe? Definitely. Is it exciting? Not really. Is it saleable? Almost certainly.
From a financial perspective, it's far too early to tell if luxury's latest gambit has landed but the results have already garnered an enthusiastic critical response. Everyone loves luxury that looks like luxury, even it's all luxury that's been done before. This new luxury may not be innovative enough to knock your socks off but it will replace them with a modestly stylish set.
The downside is that the thrilling luxury revisionism of pioneers like Virgil Abloh and Demna is a thing of the past (for now) as the world's biggest brands move towards the sort of stuff epitomized by '90s-era Helmut Lang and Calvin Klein. The obvious upside is that there's a deluge of impressively wearable and oftentimes quite cool high-end clothes that follow in the footsteps of recent winners like Prada.
Speaking of Demna, his much-awaited Gucci debut landed with a splash, earning platitudes from even Balenciaga haters (just check the Instagram comments), mostly because the line bore more than a whiff of '90s-era Tom Ford sexiness
Admittedly, it ain't easy to object to familiar Gucci motifs made modern. These new monogrammed dresses, swimmer briefs, low-rise jeans, and tight-fitting red 'n green tops may not be entirely fresh but they are entirely cool.
New Maison Margiela overseer Glenn Martens earned similar admiration for reiterating house codes, with only the occasional gentle twist. His biggest Margiela switch-up to date had nothing to do with clothes, actually: by appointing Miley Cyrus as the formerly celebrity-shy house's first famous face, modern Margiela only further reflects luxury's newfound commercial drive.
Elsewhere, new Versace creative director Dario Vitale is utilizing the toolkit he developed at Miu Miu to turn the formerly flashy Milanese house into something overtly understated, not unlike what was former employer was turning out 30 years ago; Dries Van Noten's first non-Dries creative director, Julian Klausner, is serving up an appreciably streamlined iteration of his forebear's vision; Louise Trotter keeps turning out plush 'n plain Bottega Veneta staples; and Simone Bellotti basically had his work cut out for him, tapping into Jil Sander's decades-old archive to all but reissue the pioneering minimalist's signature no-frills garments for his debut collection (speaking of '90s revivals!).
Even Jonathan Anderson, who masterminded some of luxury's most gloriously wild garments, is steering Dior towards the classics. Has luxury ever looked so... normal?
Certainly, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Again, everyone loves luxury clothes that look like luxury clothes.
That's when they actually do look like luxury, that is. Some of these elegant, if safe, garments occasionally embody the more unappealing elements of so-called quiet luxury. That is, we risk assuming a level of excellence in otherwise unremarkable clothes that merely bear high-fashion branding. It's worth considering that these streamlined garments are not the solution to luxury's excesses — they're merely their latest manifestation.
Still, this latest manifestation looked pretty good when it first arrived in the '90s and it looks pretty good now. These may be desperate times but the desperate measures ain't half bad.
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