Luxury brands mass-produced goods and courted the middle class to profit

Evidence

The original idea of luxury goods was that only the richest, most established families possessed the resources to purchase high-quality items from artisanal creators. Now the industry factory-produced products for the millions of millionaires, while the lower and middle classes snapped up “entry-level” diffusion lines and street counterfeits. In late 2024, a Reuters headline noted, with no irony: “Luxury labels bulk up on lower-priced goods to appeal to middle-class shoppers.” Craft no longer mattered. Fashion critic Katharine K. Zarrella complained in The New York Times, “As costs climb, quality hasn’t. In fact, it’s largely declined.” — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 777

Categorization

• XREF: Direct evidence for the omnivore monoculture thesis — luxury’s expansion into the masses collapses the distinction between luxury and mass consumption. — connects to: When lower tiers afford higher-status goods, everyone’s baseline consumption norms rise. — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 161; Scarcity of access and time, not money alone, make luxury goods credible signals — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 220
• SEED: Essay angle: ‘quiet luxury’ and Birkin-bag scarcity theater as manufactured distinction in an age of universal access — the new status contests that replace craft.