The darkness that hides behind luxury

Luxury has always been for the chosen few, exclusive. Luxury creates a great divide between haves and have-nots. You either have it or you don’t, or rather, you can either afford it, or you can’t. Luxury has its origin in the word luxe, which means dazzle. So, whenever you think of luxury, it is always about razzle-dazzle, it is always about glam and glitz. The stuff dreams are made of. Dreams that only the chosen few can buy. And every bit of luxury exudes a shine that blinds the have-nots. Sorry Mr Marx this is not the world of the Proletariats. 

Behind this razzle-dazzle, there is another life…A life as real as that of the have-nots…A life filled with lust, hatred, jealousy, anger…A life very deprived, very starved…A life of horrors…A life of flesh and blood…But yes, a life to die for or rather kill! 

Luxury remains a silent witness to that darkness. 

This is a side that existed since the genesis of luxe, just like the dark side of the moon. 

Luxury’s dazzle paves way for the deadly sins and ego, which soon tears apart every moral fabric. In the core of luxe lies a sense of exclusivity, entitlement and this makes you feel above the cattle class, above the have-nots.

The darkness that hides behind the dazzle of luxury mostly remains secrets, some become folklore – either of royalty or corporate. 

Let me share a folklore of a certain Maharaja who was snubbed by a Brit salesman in London at a Rolls-Royce store as he failed to recognise him and treated the Maharaja as an ordinary poor Indian. He was shown the door. The Maharaja could not take the insult and returned the next day in his royal attire and bought all the six Phantoms, to be shipped to his kingdom. His ego was so hurt that just buying all the Phantoms in the showroom was not enough to soothe it. Once the Phantoms reached his kingdom he ordered that they need to be decorated befitting their royalty. And then, he ordered these Phantoms to be used for collecting garbage, day after day. Rolls-Royce Phantom is a car that proverbially “runs on reputation”, so the news spread like wildfire and caused a large dent in the revenues of the luxury carmaker. The reputation was at stake. The Maharaja’s ego was finally soothed. In one story in my book ‘Dark Luxe’, I have taken a creative liberty giving a Phantom a mind of its own, creating a ‘what if’ moment on revenge for reputation. 

Then there are folklores of certain priceless gems that were responsible for writing the history of empires in blood.

Coming to a more known ground and its lesser-known darkness – the corporate tales of blood and gore. Espionage is a very common phenomenon, luxury and fashion houses are no stranger to it. There are horror stories of usurping designs and ideas by rival houses, and then going to extents that will make even Dante contemplate a new Inferno. Last year, a headline hit the fashion world with French fashion house Saint Laurent Paris (YSL) being accused of copying a design of a clutch bag in Fall 2017 runway show at Paris Fashion Week. It was alleged to be a mirror image of the Mburu bag designed by Senegalese brand, Tongoro collection, launched by Sarah Diouf. 

Earlier this year, this paper reported a story of a Delhi-based brand, People Tree, making allegations against Christian Dior after seeing their block prints on the cover of a magazine. “Featuring on the cover of Elle magazine, Sonam Kapoor was seen adorned in a boho-chic dress with the controversial print. The vibrant dress in the rustic shade was paired with a frilled multi-coloured patchwork shrug. While initially, it garnered a positive response, later on, allegations of 'blatant plagiarism' made the dress and its designer, Christian Dior, an internet buzz.”

Luxury remains a constant lure, giving people a justification to go deep into the bottomless pits of hell. All these stories are guarded with life. But some spill over into nasty legal battles. 

With the rise and rise of consumerism, it is only fair to assume that luxe will remain the strongest lure for both the haves and have-nots, either the desire to remain exclusive or the desire to become one, and thus both can be pushed to the dark side. 

Luxe is worth the darkness! 

About the author: Mahul Brahma is a luxury commentator and the author of Luxe Duology which comprises “Decoding Luxe” and recently-released “Dark Luxe”. He is an award-winning communicator and brand custodian. He is also a film-maker. He is a former journalist and editor of a luxury supplement. He is an alumni of University of Cambridge Judge Business School, MICA and St Xavier’s College.