Street wear and luxury: common points and differences
Recently a friend tried to buy a pair of air max 1, a model which isn’t exceptional, except its colour of a pastel shade. It wasn’t a very limited pair or a flagship collaboration neither. However, it was impossible to get it without paying more than twice its initial amount. At that moment I had a realization, the sneaker market had become similar to that of luxury watches or sports cars. Now, to be able to buy a sneaker, you either must be very lucky, or you have to be rich. Now, more than ever, luxury and streetwear seem to merge. Nevertheless, how similar are these two environments?
I, Definition
Before continuing my essay, I must clarify what I mean by streetwear and luxury.
A, Streetwear
The easiest way to describe streetwear would be to define it by its dress codes. These include casual, comfortable, sports-inspired clothing. But reducing streetwear to its codes would be missing the point. Indeed, in the study conducted by Hypebeast with the consulting firm pwc , the media insists on one of the characteristics of streetwear at its beginning, word of mouth. Thus, streetwear is what is considered as such by its community. More broadly, to understand what streetwear is, we must see it as part of hip-hop culture, as its extension. Finally, one of the facets specific to streetwear is the numerous limited-edition releases or “drops” concerning rare products. Finally, the presence of a secondary market defines, to some extent, what is streetwear.
B, Luxury
According to Gilles Lipovetsky, luxury is an ostentatious consumption, whose goal is to mark its difference of status with respect to other social classes ( Et pour vous, qu’est-ce que le luxe? — Le Temps). Nevertheless, he also notes another motivation for luxury consumption. This one lies in the search for personal pleasure rather than in the will to show one’s status. Jean Noël Kapferer distinguishes between these two types of consumption: luxury for oneself (personal pleasure) and luxury for others (displaying one’s status). It is this second form of consumption that we will dissect through the different facets of luxury defined by Kapferer.
As said earlier, luxury is a consumption that aims to distinguish itself, and what could be more effective than a famous brand and a logo, to differentiate itself. According to him, brands have replaced medals and other distinctions that were used in the past. Thus, one of the inherent characteristics of luxury is the presence of a strong brand and its logo.
Nevertheless, this distinctive sign sometimes requires a certain culture to be able to decode it. This is the case of luxury houses, which, apart from the products with logos, also have a whole set of codes that distinguish them from other brands. For example, there is the bar suit Dior, the balloon jacket from Balenciaga or tweed Chanel (The journalist Loïc Prigent to decode many luxury house on his youtube channel). In order to develop a set of distinctive signs, the author insists on the fact that a luxury house must have a history and a traditional know-how that it strives to preserve. The fact that luxury consumption requires a certain culture to be appreciated makes this consumption even more exclusive and helps members of the same group to recognize each other.
The know-how and the history of a brand gain in importance thanks to products that are exceptional. Exceptional because of their complexity, the time required for their production and their handcrafted nature. All these elements make the product no longer a simple consumer item, but an object whose value is irreducible to price.
All these things (complexity, time, handcrafting) that make the product an out of the ordinary artifact are also elements that allow it to be rare. And scarcity is an essential quality because we want the consumption of luxury to distinguish those who can afford it from those who cannot.
Finally, Kapferer emphasizes the close link between art and luxury in his work. The author justifies the existence of this ubiquitous link between the two, by the fact that art reinforces all the elements that luxury tries to appropriate, namely, being exclusive, rare, mythical.
Common points and differences between luxury and streetwear
To compare luxury and streetwear, I have distinguished 3 categories which are, community and culture; product making; distribution mode.
Culture and community:
Luxury just like streetwear requires a certain culture to be consumed in the “right” way. In the same way that knowing what a good wine is will distinguish a rich person from a poor person, knowing the “OG” streetwear brands and their archive clothes will separate a true member of the streetwear community from the others. Supreme is a good example in my opinion. With printed t-shirts selling for over 100 Euros, the price is often met with consternation with my relatives who don’t see Supreme as a streetwear pioneer but as a skateboard brand selling made in China t-shirts.
Culture distinguishes the rich from the poor in the context of luxury, while streetwear knowledge dissociates those who share hip-hop culture from those who do not. As a result, the reference cultures of luxury and streetwear tend to differentiate themselves as well.
The product
I think this a point where, by definition, luxury and streetwear are most opposed. Indeed, according to Kapferer, a luxury product must be handmade, complex, time consuming, handcrafted and be incomparable. On the other hand, Streetwear is a simple wardrobe composed of clothes with a sporty look. In short, luxury and streetwear are night and day in this respect.
Distribution mode:
In terms of distribution, luxury and streetwear are close on the principle of exclusivity. Nevertheless, they differ in their operating mode. On the luxury side, we have a discrimination made essentially by the price, whereas on the streetwear side the discrimination is made by the quantity, with the production in limited quantity of clothes.
Moreover, streetwear is like some luxury sectors (automobile, watchmaking) with the existence of an important secondary market.
Discussion
In the end, if I made this short article, it is to insist on one of the points which is, according to me, the key point to understand why streetwear claim to be a luxury. Streetwear, as luxury, distinguish one community from others. Indeed, the Hypebeast article How Streetwear Redefined Luxury seems to put a lot of emphasis on the fact that streetwear is an insider style where the brands that manage to distinguish themselves from the mass are the ones that are perceived as authentic.
What is confusing, however, is that when members of the community are asked what streetwear is, no one seems to agree.Moreover, with the appointment of streetwear personalities such as Virgil Abloh or Nigo in high fashion houses, the definition of streetwear and its distinction with luxury seems more difficult, even irrelevant.
Sources
Et pour vous, qu’est-ce que le luxe? — Le Temps
