Why Luxury Fashion Is Turning Off Rich People
The luxury resistance isn't just a symptom of income inequality — rich people are tired of fashion, too.
Covering fashion these days sometimes feels like watching the French Revolution unfold in real time. Back Row recently reported on the shoppers who pop into Bergdorf Goodman in Manhattan to drop $40,000 to $60,000 on clothes without even looking at price tags, or to pick up wedding couture at a starting price of around $300,000 for a single dress. Meanwhile, poverty in New York City increased by seven percentage points in two years, meaning that after Bergdorf shoppers leave their caviar-filled styling suites, they walk out onto a street filled with people who are struggling to just pay for a doctor’s appointment. Yet the Bergdorf clients buy clothes so that they can go to fashion shows and brand dinners that exist to give them a place to wear this stuff but also to get them to buy even more clothes.
Middle-class consumers are forming a resistance to the luxury industry in response to its wildly high prices and to its exclusionary sales practices. We see it in the explosion in popularity of dupes of luxury items like Hermès bags. But it’s not just middle class and poor shoppers who are feeling left behind — rich people are disgusted with the state of fashion, too.
Bethenny Frankel, who sold her brand Skinnygirl Cocktails to Beam Global for an estimated $120 million in 2011, has been calling the brewing distaste for luxury brands a “revolution” on social media. She also posts a popular series called “handbag university” to spotlight bags that are both affordable and of good quality.
She told me in an interview that she started talking about this stuff months back because she had been noticing two extremes when it came to luxury handbags. On one end, people were posting videos of their trips around the world to buy Hermès pieces. On the other, people were filming unboxing videos of counterfeits. After she was denied entry to a Chanel store in Chicago for not having an appointment late last year, she started talking in her videos about consumers being fed up with luxury.
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During the pandemic, she told me, “you had to be on the list to get into these houses, and watches were impossible to get. I think I could feel it swelling and I could feel that the bubble was going to burst. The Chanel situation was just a coincidence. It just was something that happened right as I was having those thoughts.”
In recent years, Chanel and Hermès’s handbag price hikes have received relentless attention — and for good reason. A Chanel bag that cost $5,800 in 2019 cost nearly $12,000 in 2024. A small Birkin now starts at $12,100. But prices have exploded across the sector. There was Bottega’s $29,000 skirt. Even couture buyers are having sticker shock over prices, which used to be five figures but have exploded to six minimum for one runway dress.
Frankel pointed out (and this point was also made by commenters on Back Row’s recent series on how people got their Birkins) that the unrest isn’t just about the prices — it’s about luxury brands deciding who is worthy of being sold their products.
“Because of the high price and how egregious it is, they're saying, ‘Fuck off, now we're going to wear the knockoff.’ They don't say that to Coach because Coach or Michael Kors didn't charge the astronomical prices that make you mad. They didn't not let you in their stores. It's basically a resistance because of how the luxury bands have made people feel,” said Frankel.
At the same time, the bags have taken on unique status in pop culture. Frankel said, “I would never have been cast [on The Real Housewives] today because of my bad apartment.” But now, women on the show are supposed to exhibit a particular idea of being rich, which they often do through their clothes. “I was watching a clip on social media about [Real Housewives of] Orange County, and the bags are a character. The bags could be Housewives themselves,” Frankel said. “I find it to be so incredibly cringe that this is the flex, but we've all been part of it. I sold 50 handbags just as a result of being nauseated by myself.”
If the over-exposure of these products doesn’t bother buyers, they may know that, like middle-market and ultra-fast fashion, many luxury pieces are made in sweatshops. Last year, Milan authorities said that Dior handbags that cost nearly $3,000 were being made for $57 in “sweatshop-like conditions.” Similar reports have previously circulated about designer ready-to-wear.
Because the goods themselves are becoming less special, brands like Hermès have to invest more in courting Very Important Clients, the 2 percent of shoppers who make up for 40 percent of sales. Brands like Dior and Chanel will fly them to fashion shows around the world and wine them and dine them. These efforts have come at the expense of catering to middle class or aspirational shoppers. However, in a Vogue Business interview from late last year, Federica Levato, partner at Bain and leader of the EMEA fashion and luxury practice, said that even VICs are basically bored with the current state of clienteling:
Brand VIP experiences have become homogenised, which makes the high-net-worth customer value them less, she continues. “I believe that consumers are [feeling undervalued], and the risk is that if brands don’t react, this drawing back from luxury consumption can become a long-lasting behaviour.”
This is why we’re seeing brands try to come up with new ways to delineate who’s “in” and who’s “out,” which has long been the ultimate power of luxury fashion, and why people are willing to go to Hermès repeatedly in attempt to buy $12,000 handbags after they’ve been turned away multiple times. Dior, for instance, is hosting a “wellness retreat” consisting of four days of “spa rituals, replenishing meals, mindfulness workshops and fitness classes, as well as individual sessions with Dior Wellness Experts” that promise to “free the mind and the body, opening the way for a true rebirth.” (Someone just has to go and document it on TikTok as a White Lotus parody.)
I wonder if rich people’s boredom with luxury helps explain the resurgence of fur. This week, Fendi — which plans to open a “fur atelier” in its Milan store later this year — included mink coats in its Milan show.
“The reason my content is resonating with people is they know I can afford to do or buy anything I want,” said Frankel. “And if I'm saying, I'm going to wear this bag that's $80, then they're like, ‘Well, we definitely can.’”
Loose Threads
This rounded shoulder silhouette is all over the runways this season.
Less than three years ago, Fendi asked us to celebrate the anniversary of its Baguette handbag at a New York show. This week in Milan, Sarah Jessica Parker showed up again (Sex and the City Baguette vibes, and all) to try to get people excited about what was apparently Fendi’s 100th anniversary. What’s next — the anniversary of the office building?
Anna Wintour interviewed Donatella Versace at a Milan Fashion Week event, which involved her asking questions submitted from fellow designers. John Galliano asked, “How do you ever escape from being the icon that you are?” Donatella: “I stay home!”
Interesting stat from a Business of Fashion story on the challenge of red-carpet exposure for emerging brands: “Lady Gaga generated more media impact for Australian-Taiwanese designer Samuel Lewis by simply wearing one of his dresses at this year’s Grammys than 80 percent of New York Fashion Week shows in February, said Alison Bringé, chief marketing officer of Launchmetrics.”
Elle’s Véronique Hyland asks a question that has been vexing me: “Why Is Young Hollywood Going So Old Hollywood?” It’s the red-carpet manifestation of the boom boom aesthetic!
Previously in Back Row:
I can't help but think the whole luxury industry has become tacky and tasteless. I don't know how and if they can rebrand themselves, but it feels like creativity and craftsmanship are gone and all there's left is an ostentatious, 'just give me your money' vibe.
It's good to be king...until you're not. At some point, luxury brands will make themselves irrelevant by failing to cultivate aspirational customers. People want brands they've heard of and seen. When people stop buying altogether, brands will be scrambling to generate interest and revenue. I can't wait.