Jewellery Between Product and Experience: Luxury …
3
Since the mid-twentieth century, technological innovation has triggered changes
that have produced economic development and widespread social progress. The
third industrial revolution and the economic boom in the 1960s had an impact on
the democratization of luxury goods. The democratization of luxury has translated
into greater offer and compulsive consumption. This led to the widespread of the
so-called Luxury for the Masses [14], and the brands of the sector have expanded
their production by inserting more and more ‘masstige products’.
1
Not surprisingly, however, alongside the accessible and widespread luxury, the
1960s are also the years of the first sensational ecological complaints: the American
biologist Rachel Carson in her essay Silent Spring [5] showed great concern for the
environmental disaster of the last two hundred years, a disaster that will be perpetuated up to the present days. Today’s industrial systems, focused on mass production
and consumption, have in fact caused an increase in human influence on natural
phenomena. Luxury brands offer authentic, excellent and enticing products based
on rare and high-quality materials. Yet the raw materials are derived from natural
systems constantly influenced by the effects of climate change such as drought, loss
of biodiversity and social issues such as lack of skills, loss of employment and health
and safety problems.
The changes brought about by industrial revolutions have affected not only the
environment, society and consumption trends, but also the concept of jewellery itself
[4]. We are witnessing a process products globalization, in which even jewellery,
through the reinforcement of the power of the brand, progressively loses its link with
the territory in which it is created. The digital shift of the 2000s marked the disruption
of industrial production with repercussions on typical territorial districts, with the
risk of losing knowledge and know-how linked to traditional craftsmanship.
So, in which direction is luxury going today? And what are the driving factors?
To answer these questions it is worth, first of all, narrowing the field, not talking generically about luxury goods but identifying a specific category. The essay
will examine the jewellery field. Throughout history, jewellery has been one of the
important luxury goods due to its uniqueness and exclusiveness.
Jewellery, as well as luxury, has over time been the subject of twofold, or rather
multiple, interpretations.
Historically, jewellery has always been a land of art, craftsmanship and design.
Ambiguous objects with contrasting values, from unbridled luxury to conceptual
avant-garde, from the dazzling preciousness of materials to more or less latent design
values. On the one hand, art, with the arrogance of its authorship, on the other,
fashion, with the transience of its present, in the middle of the jewel with the defence
of precious materials as bastions of eternity.
If for a long time the value of a jewel has been synonymous with preciousness, and
therefore the physical cost of the material, today this idea is definitely outdated and
1 Masstige is a marketing term meaning downward brand extension, literally ‘prestige for the
masses’. The term was popularized by Michael Silverstein and Neil Fiske in their book Trading Up
and Harvard Business Review article ‘Luxury for the Masses’. Masstige products are ‘premium but
attainable’. These are considered luxury or premium products, and they have price points that fill
the gap between mid-market and super premium.
3
Since the mid-twentieth century, technological innovation has triggered changes
that have produced economic development and widespread social progress. The
third industrial revolution and the economic boom in the 1960s had an impact on
the democratization of luxury goods. The democratization of luxury has translated
into greater offer and compulsive consumption. This led to the widespread of the
so-called Luxury for the Masses [14], and the brands of the sector have expanded
their production by inserting more and more ‘masstige products’.
1
Not surprisingly, however, alongside the accessible and widespread luxury, the
1960s are also the years of the first sensational ecological complaints: the American
biologist Rachel Carson in her essay Silent Spring [5] showed great concern for the
environmental disaster of the last two hundred years, a disaster that will be perpetuated up to the present days. Today’s industrial systems, focused on mass production
and consumption, have in fact caused an increase in human influence on natural
phenomena. Luxury brands offer authentic, excellent and enticing products based
on rare and high-quality materials. Yet the raw materials are derived from natural
systems constantly influenced by the effects of climate change such as drought, loss
of biodiversity and social issues such as lack of skills, loss of employment and health
and safety problems.
The changes brought about by industrial revolutions have affected not only the
environment, society and consumption trends, but also the concept of jewellery itself
[4]. We are witnessing a process products globalization, in which even jewellery,
through the reinforcement of the power of the brand, progressively loses its link with
the territory in which it is created. The digital shift of the 2000s marked the disruption
of industrial production with repercussions on typical territorial districts, with the
risk of losing knowledge and know-how linked to traditional craftsmanship.
So, in which direction is luxury going today? And what are the driving factors?
To answer these questions it is worth, first of all, narrowing the field, not talking generically about luxury goods but identifying a specific category. The essay
will examine the jewellery field. Throughout history, jewellery has been one of the
important luxury goods due to its uniqueness and exclusiveness.
Jewellery, as well as luxury, has over time been the subject of twofold, or rather
multiple, interpretations.
Historically, jewellery has always been a land of art, craftsmanship and design.
Ambiguous objects with contrasting values, from unbridled luxury to conceptual
avant-garde, from the dazzling preciousness of materials to more or less latent design
values. On the one hand, art, with the arrogance of its authorship, on the other,
fashion, with the transience of its present, in the middle of the jewel with the defence
of precious materials as bastions of eternity.
If for a long time the value of a jewel has been synonymous with preciousness, and
therefore the physical cost of the material, today this idea is definitely outdated and
1 Masstige is a marketing term meaning downward brand extension, literally ‘prestige for the
masses’. The term was popularized by Michael Silverstein and Neil Fiske in their book Trading Up
and Harvard Business Review article ‘Luxury for the Masses’. Masstige products are ‘premium but
attainable’. These are considered luxury or premium products, and they have price points that fill
the gap between mid-market and super premium.