It's a bit of a film-bro/God's Strongest Soldier male fantasy to fawn over the Gosling Blade Runner movie, but it is such a good movie. As we try to find ourselves and our place in the chiffon trenches, my mind often wanders about the scene where “Kay” investigates the wooden horse toy. To the shopkeeper likens the value of real wood to that of an actual horse. As we dive deeper into synthetic biology, it's not hard to imagine the value of natural materials becoming increasingly sought after; leather, wood, and even natural paper are likely to be luxury items one day.
How Natural Materials Are Becoming The New Luxury
Linen wasn't always a highly regarded fibre, and now you’d be lucky to find natural linen fabrics for an affordable price. It's why we felt it was so important to source and manufacture fabrics locally. We’re not the only ones doing this; there is growing interest across the industry in local manufacturing, sustainable sourcing, and buying expensive garments to last you 10 years, rather than a £10 t-shirt that falls apart after 2 washes. Luxury is becoming less about showing wealth and more about showing intelligence. Not that it's a shift without its own problems, but that's another conversation.
Ancient Architecture Inside Modern Product Design
Apple products also come to mind (iPhones, iPads, and Macs). The soft edges and buttons are reminiscent of Art Deco tessellating patterns or the indents of Greco-Roman architecture. When visiting Greece, I felt the ancient pillars wouldn’t look out of place, slotting large iPhones into the grooves running up their sides. Negative space long before the positive existed.
Considering now the “average” features of Western houses. Cornices, moulds, and side skirting on walls and ceilings. Features in inexpensive homes and mansions. Varying intricacies aside, it's not something we probably give much thought to. But in a hundred years, there will probably be whole studies dedicated to this embellishment of 21st-century homes. Even leather sofas, IKEA dining tables, televisions, these amenities that seem like universal “givens” of everyday life aren’t that old.
It’s fun to instil this fascination with the modern mundane in the minds of future humans. Imagine a 22nd-century Madeleine Vionnet, not inspired by Greco-Roman statues and temples but by London semi-detached home wall panelling. Or luxury fashion houses releasing wood grain prints instead of logo monograms, presenting the lost organic as a symbol of status. Grass-fed (as opposed to lab-grown) leather hides jewellery rather than diamonds and gold.
The Cycles of Luxury Fashion
As much as Stadion focuses on the future, it's beating a dead horse to ignore the past as cyclical. Exotic animal skins as rugs are a monarch’s cliché, but how different is it to shearling carpets and armchairs that have started to crop up in the homes of elites today? One day, it may be a Margiela-style trompe-l'œil throw, removing the animal but not the need.
It's something I want to explore more, the boring now echoing into tomorrow's luxury. Garments are still an ersatz for historical awareness. Except that it's awareness of history as it happens, which isn't that intelligent when presented in the same space of time. More like an ongoing archival process while also trying to think about how the “not-yet-born” would interpret it. Biased selection paired with speculation. Hopefully, some academics will revel in its meta-commentary, but whether it sells or not is another thing.