The Fall Of Luxury Fashion

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I have always had a love for fashion. In particular high end fashion, aka luxury fashion. I admired (and still do - from afar) the craftsmanship, the design, the process of creating the garments and certain ideas of those designers and what some of them, like Coco Chanel, have done and achieved in the fashion world and for women. I like how some designers break barriers, the "rules" of society. Fashion also evolves around the economy, politics and big events that take place on this planet. Like everyhing else. It's not just superficiality or frivolous. It's an art form and architecture.
I remember as a pre-teen I watched a documentary about the rise of the three big fashion houses Hermès, Chanel and Dior. Eversince learning about the creation of the Chanel Classic Flap, the inspiration behind the different aspects of the design, the practical meaning of it in that time and everything about this bag, I fell in love with it. I knew I would at one point in my life own this bag or aspire to save up for it. It turned out to be my personal materialistic goal/dream item. No car, no watch, no house. No, this bag.

However, over the past few years I have educated myself and looked behind the fassade, the surface of luxury fashion and fashion in general (also fast fashion of course). 
If you also have an appreciation for high fashion you will most likely have noticed some controversies and inconsistencies over the last 10 - 15 years, but especially the last 5 years.

I'm talking about the over consumption and rising demand for these luxury goods despite the frequent (and at this point absolute ridiculous) price increases, in an attempt to keep the exclusivity and the prestige of the brands. In my eyes it's not working though.
There has never been such a high consumption of these goods. Nowadays owning a Chanel bag is nothing special or unique anymore. Young girls prioritize owning one so much they save their money hard and until they can afford one. More and more influencers buy themselves designer goods as soon as they make their first good money. Which, fair enough, they can do whatever they want with their money. I'm not judging that. I'm just saying that in spite the consistent price increases more and more people seem to have access to designer goods and own them. Of course that's also thanks to the pre-loved designer market, but you get the point.

Even ready to wear pieces are starting to get normalized which is crazy to me (7000$ for a tweed jacket, really Chanel? 500$ for a regular cotton t-shirt, really Gucci?).
If you follow the Youtube luxury community and keep up with their vlogs it seems like, excuse me if that sounds harsh, they treat a 5000$ Chanel bag like a disposable tampon. These hauls have gotten out of hand. It really is just mindless, unsustainable and never ending consumption at this point. Again, not judging what anyone does with their money, but if you add up the worth of some of these abnormally huge handbag collections and what one could do with that amount of money (maybe regarding retirement or travel or whatever)...jesus.
Your house should not look like a boutique. And I think people have forgotten that nowadays. If I watch some of these "walk in closet tours" or "my dream closet tours" I almost get a culture shock. Of course, this comes from the perspective of a person that pursues a simplified life. But still.

In the age of social media with the corresponding advertisement and highly saturated and manipulated portrait of livestyles online, these luxury goods are in our faces 24/7. Sponsorships and PR deals are a constant thing. Even brands like Chanel do invite influencers on vacation to promote their brand now. They shower them with gifts, samples of their collections, pay for parties and dinners, basicially treat them like royalty. And while it's understandable that these brands want to make use of the marketing and economical effects of social media, it is in fact contradicting to give their products away so widely and be so generous while trying to remain exclusive.

And don't even get me started about all the super fakes, cruelty and other unethical things that happen behind the scenes, that's a whole other subject. I advice you to research about it, but be prepared: it's tough stuff.
One issue with this evolvement is the accompanied decline of the quality. Which is not really shocking if you think about it considering the rising demand. Customers have noticed a steady decline in the quality of their newly purchased luxury goods in the past decade. It's not uncommon anymore to receive a defected/faulty item that will need repairement (sometimes multiple repairements). Especially trendy and currently hyped up items are risked to not be made and produced in the way you most likely expect for the steep price you pay.
With all this in mind the luxury industry loses more and more of its charm to me. Since standards sink, my respect does too.

At ths point, to me a luxurious brand is a brand that realizes the environmental crisis and acts and reacts upon it.  A brand that focuses on fair working conditions and wages for their employees. A brand that cares for their employees just as much as their customers that make them money. A brand that is not all about profit. A fair, eco-friendly, sustainably made product - that is luxury to me.

And while I still use and enjoy the luxury goods I have left, I can not see myself buying from these brands in the future. And if at all only second hand. I will focus on companies/brands that take all the above in consideration and therefor can offer me real luxury.

If you still want to endulge in luxury the bright side of things is the always growing second hand market. There is a variety of online websites, apps and stores that focus on selling pre-loved designer items. And if you get an item that's at least 10 years old you should be receiving much better quality than what is offered to you in the boutiques today. An international site I can recommend is vestaire collective. If you live in Germany the site whoislouis is one I have made amazing experiences with at buying and selling designer goods.

Anyways, these are just my two cents on his subject of matter. Tell me your opinion in the comments. 
I will talk to you in my next post.