When luxury becomes ordinary

# When luxury becomes ordinary Luxury Activist | The Notebook LA (Luxury Activist) 24 Oct 2026 https://luxuryactivist.com/carnets/can-luxury-become-too-familiar/ ## In brief A luxury object can be difficult to buy and surprisingly easy to stop noticing. I wonder whether some brands have become so familiar on our screens that their next appearance gives us very little reason to pause. A campaign photograph, a celebrity at dinner, a close-up of a clasp. Each could justify a moment of attention. Seeing them arrive in quick succession makes me wonder what I am supposed to remember. The clasp might have deserved a longer look. Luxury puts considerable effort into the circumstances surrounding an object. The boutique, the packaging and the wait all contribute to the encounter. On a phone, the same object joins a stream that moves on almost immediately. ## Plenty to see Molly Rooyakkers’ analysis for Puck examined 36,076 Instagram posts from 20 luxury brands over five years. Median engagement rates fell roughly 37%, with posting continuing at much the same intensity. Growing follower counts explain part of that decline. Engagement also tells us little about what someone eventually buys. The financial results make an uncomfortable backdrop. Gucci’s comparable revenue fell 6% in the third quarter of 2026. LVMH’s Fashion & Leather Goods division declined 5% organically in that quarter, while the group overall grew 1%. In premium fashion, HUGO BOSS reported an 8% currency-adjusted sales decline for the first half. Those figures cannot tell us whether a brand posts too often. Prices, product choices, distribution and the economy all affect sales. I would be wary of blaming an Instagram account for a disappointing quarter. I am less convinced, though, that another campaign necessarily helps. ## Familiar before the encounter A bag can feel familiar long before someone handles it. They may already know its colours, its proportions and how it looks on several famous shoulders. That familiarity can encourage a purchase. It might also leave less to discover in the shop. I find this tension interesting because physical scarcity receives so much attention in luxury. A waiting list limits ownership. The images can circulate without any comparable limit. I suspect an object may lose some of its capacity to surprise while remaining commercially scarce. Disappearing from view has its own problems. Research involving three online experiments found that scarce communication could reduce perceived exclusivity by weakening consumer interest. Silence needs a better justification than the hope that absence will create desire. ## Give the clasp its time I would start with the object and ask what deserves someone’s attention. If a clasp involves an unusual mechanism, show how it works. Let the person responsible explain a difficult decision. A useful detail could give the audience something to recognise on a later visit to the boutique. That story might need several appearances. I would happily return if each one helped me see more. My patience weakens when the next photograph adds only another face or setting. The publishing schedule begins to feel more visible than the product. A campaign could stay with one idea for longer. An important launch could have more space around it. I would also want to know what clients remembered afterwards, once the likes had stopped arriving. Editorial restraint asks a brand to decide which details merit that space. An exceptional object should provide enough to work with. ## Sources & references - Puck: Molly Rooyakkers’ analysis of luxury brands on Instagram: https://puck.news/newsletter_content/versace-ceo-intel-luxurys-instagram-slump/ - Kering: third-quarter 2026 revenue, 22 October 2026: https://www.kering.com/en/news/revenue-for-the-3rd-quarter-of-2026/ - LVMH: third-quarter 2026 revenue, 12 October 2026: https://www.lvmh.com/en/publications/continued-growth-in-the-third-quarter-of-2026 - HUGO BOSS: first-half 2026 results, 4 August 2026: https://group.hugoboss.com/en/newsroom/news/news-detail/hugo-boss-drives-claim-5-touchdown-execution-in-q2-and-reaffirms-2026-outlook-1 - Nechaeva et al.: Scarcity in luxury brand digital communication, research abstract: https://flore.unifi.it/handle/2158/1405276