Why is it an Inevitable Trend for Luxury Goods to Become Artistic?

Not long ago, French luxury brand Louis Vuitton spent a lot of money to invite international first-line stars such as Cate Blanchett, Lea Seydoux, Naomi Osaka, Justin Timberlake, Hoyeon, and Zhou Dongyu to help promote the brand’s second collaboration series with Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. Advertising blockbusters are being spread all over the world.

As one of the most influential artists of this century, Yayoi Kusama is also one of the most expensive female artists in the world. At last year’s Phillips New York spring auction, her work “Untitled (Network)” was finally sold for nearly $10.5 million, setting a new personal auction record.

There are many precedents for luxury brands to cooperate with artists, and the purpose is very clear, that is, to give products a higher premium. For example, in 2022, the price of the regular Lady Dior is only between 2,900 and 5,400 euros, while the price of the Dior Lady Art #7 artist limited collaboration series has reached 5,900 to 19,000 euros, and is consumed by the market as a collectible handbag.

The boundaries between art and luxury goods already overlap, and the intersection between the two has become very frequent in recent years. As a result, a new question is thrown before people’s eyes: How has art become a premium weapon for luxury goods? What exactly do luxury goods ask of art?

According to Sotheby’s official annual report, its total transaction volume in 2022 is expected to reach $8 billion, a record high in its 278-year history. The total turnover of the luxury goods category reached a record-breaking US$2.3 billion, twice that of last year, including handbags, jewelry, watches, streetwear, and other categories. Among the top ten most-sold items throughout the year, five were in the luxury category. What’s more worth mentioning is that not long ago, Sotheby’s Buy Now business officially entered the Chinese mainland market, and luxury goods accounted for a large proportion of the first batch of online products.

Art itself is a luxury product, and luxury goods also have some attributes of art. When a certain luxury product is directly endorsed by art, its commodity attributes can often be weakened, and with the blessing of artistic symbols, it can gain greater vitality, that is, the ability to increase and maintain value.

In 2012, in her first collaboration with Louis Vuitton, Yayoi Kusama created a colorful polka-dot suitcase for Yves Carcelle, then president of Louis Vuitton. The suitcase was later sold at Sotheby’s for 239,400 euros. Price, the series’ popular models Neverfull and Speedy also gained value-added capabilities that are several times higher than the original selling price. Ten years later, at the end of 2022, Louis Vuitton and Yayoi Kusama launched a second collaboration, which not only includes men’s clothing, women’s clothing, handbags, jewelry, perfume, accessories, and other categories but also covers the iconic travel created by the brand when it was founded in 1854. box, with a total of more than 400 items.

In addition to reaching in-depth cooperation on products, the advertising efforts are unprecedented. To promote the second cooperation with Yayoi Kusama, Louis Vuitton invited many top stars, supermodels, and spokespersons to appear in related advertisements. It also launched the LV x Yayoi Kusama series of AR mini-games in the official APP of the same name. A huge advertisement up to 12 stories high was put up outside the flagship store, and a huge Yayoi Kusama human-shaped balloon was hung on the roof of the Paris flagship store, and Yayoi Kusama with different appearances was placed in the windows of flagship stores in various places. Bionic robots, etc., can be said to spare no effort to emphasize the connection between brand and art.

It is also worth paying attention to the single product price of this cooperation series. While the material remains unchanged, the price of the collaborative Capucines handbag has increased from 53,500 yuan to 71,000 yuan; the price of the On The Go handbag has increased to 5,200 yuan, and the L’IMMENSITÉ perfume with co-branded packaging has also increased in price from 2,300 yuan to 71,000 yuan. 3100 yuan.

“Artist cooperation can bring to luxury goods, first, the direct premium, second, the long-term premium, and third, the intangible assets that form the brand.” Liang Cheng, operator of the art center and owner of Outsider Gallery, said, “In addition to the cooperation with Cao Cao, In addition to the fact that Yayoi Kusama is still continuing her career in her 90s, another important reason is that Yayoi Kusama is currently one of the most popular female artists in the world.”

“For luxury goods, the premium comes from the brand, just like the premium of art comes from the artist, but the ultimate essence of both can return to the commodity, and ‘price/performance’ is always an important criterion for considering commodities. Regardless of value added No matter how high the final price is, it is reasonable as long as it has cost-effectiveness,” he added.

Art can win a wider price space for brands that is convincing enough for consumers, which also explains why luxury goods have begun to frequently cooperate with art. In mid-May this year, the FENDI Baguette hand-in-hand art exhibition took the classic handbags Baguette and Peekaboo as the main narrative line, displaying 24 hand-made Baguettes, 23 of which adopted the characteristic craftsmanship of different regions in Italy, and the other one came from Fendi A co-creation with Asi Wuzhimo and Le Gushari, inheritors of the intangible cultural heritage of the Yi people.

In the exhibition, in addition to 24 handmade Baguettes, Fendi also presented 3 limited edition art handbags, which were created by three Chinese artists Ni Youyu, Chen Fenwan, and Lu Pingyuan based on Peekaboo to emphasize the brand status and product scarcity.

The launch of limited edition handbags by joint artists has become a “standard feature” of the art of luxury goods. Dior has launched the Dior Lady Art artist-limited collaboration series for the seventh consecutive year. The same goes for Louis Vuitton. The Artycapucines artist collaboration series based on the brand’s high-end handbags Capucines has entered its fourth chapter.

Exhibitions have also become the main venue for luxury brands to develop into art. In addition to the Fendi art exhibition mentioned above, touring exhibitions such as “Hermès Heritage In Motion” and “Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams” have successively landed in major cities around the world. The first stop of the traveling exhibition “Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse” was at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the first stop of “Thierry Mugler: Couturissime” was at the Brooklyn Museum. Dr. Alexandra Palmer, curator of high fashion at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, bluntly stated in the Guardian, “This is to elevate the business and products of luxury goods to an artistic level and give them more cultural value… And ultimately wants you to buy its products.”

Organizing and sponsoring art activities is the third carriage for the artisticization of luxury goods. Through the establishment of foundations, brands such as Chanel, Prada, Louis Vuitton, Loewe, and Cartier have formed a strong bond with art. While praising and inheriting, they also use art to enchant themselves.

Economics professor Philip Kotler once pointed out in his book “Marketing Revolution 4.0: From Tradition to Digital”: “In an era of scarce attention and fragmented information, brands need to create Wow Moment for consumers.” And artistic activities are focused on consumption It is an effective way to create a Wow Moment immersively. They are not only occasions to display products, but also tell the story of the craftsmanship, spiritual and even cultural meaning behind them.

In the past, luxury goods only served a small group of the richest people, with a limited number of consumers and a limited number of products produced. Each luxury brand was relatively independent. Nowadays, most brands have long been owned by listed groups. The intervention of capital has caused the game between groups and brands to become more intense. They need to continuously expand customers and steal customers from competing products.

According to the “Bain-Altagamma 2022 Global Luxury Industry Research Report”, the total sales of the global luxury goods industry in 2022 are expected to reach 1.4 trillion euros, of which the personal luxury goods consumer market is approximately 353 billion euros. Also from Bain data, total global luxury goods sales in 2016 were approximately 108 million euros, of which the personal luxury goods consumer market was approximately 249 billion euros. This means that in the past few years, the luxury goods market has expanded by nearly one-third, the number of consumers continues to increase, and the scarcity that luxury goods rely on for survival is constantly being diluted.

Luxury goods and works of art have natural similarities. The latter itself is scarce and contains certain cultural connotations and aesthetics of the times, which can resonate with different viewers. As the most valuable category of commodities currently, art not only stands at the top of the commodity pyramid but also stands at the commanding heights of culture.

When luxury goods can be like works of art, giving more cultural meaning to the product and being recognized by the market, it will no longer just define the role of style, but become a cultural creator – the latter is a more Scarce capability.

Delphine Dion, professor of marketing at ESSEC Business School, wrote on the school’s website, “Luxury brands need to distance themselves from mass brands and prove their luxury status, which means that it is a price and status symbol higher than other brands. extraordinary brand. Art is the main way to achieve this.”

Use art to accumulate cultural capital and then leverage the market economy. The ultimate goal of the art of luxury goods is not only to add value and maintain value but also to maintain an invincible position in the continuous expansion and competition only by standing in a high enough position to maintain one’s luxury attributes. As sociologist Mike Featherstone said in the book “Critical Luxury Studies: Art, Design, and Media,” “What must luxury goods do to gain higher value? The answer is: become works of art.”