MICHAEL FRIDJHON: The fuzzy line between necessity and luxury
Raw material costs are largely irrelevant when it comes to luxury items, though we like to quantify the premium a producer has applied to the inputs
Puffery and exaggeration are the vernacular and stock-in-trade of the luxury goods business. After all, if you are trying to sell a non-essential item — and for a premium which is immeasurably higher than the visible raw material costs — there’s no room for modesty.
Sometimes it’s not easy to discern what divides functionality from indulgence — though the broad picture is clear enough. A handbag is a useful accessory to cart around the kind of clutter that might be needed during the course of a day out. A Hermes Birkin bag isn’t. When it comes to consumables the line is even less clear: a reasonable quality of life demands more than the proverbial bread and water — but does this mean that every well-stocked pantry should have caviar and every wine cellar vintage Champagne?..
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