Words are not only form, but also substance and can have a strong attractive appeal: luxury is one of them.

Always a symbol of opulence, exclusivity and refinement, the word luxury is often inappropriately associated with situations, objects or places, simply because of the attraction it exerts on people.

It is no coincidence that when we type the word “luxury” into Google, the search engine returns 2,030,000,000 sites related to the word in a fraction of a second. Obviously, only a small percentage of these sites are actually about luxury.

But why does luxury exert such a strong fascination on people?

The answer is simple: luxury is instinctively associated with wealth, which is perceived as a symbol of power. So luxury = power.

As the anthropologist Thorstein Veblen theorised at the end of the 19th century, wealth is the most easily recognisable measure of success, and therefore of popularity[1].

And Veblen’s theory is still recognised as valid and relevant by modern sociology.

But luxury is not just that. It is a much more complex concept.

To associate luxury simply with wealth is to limit its value to a purely economic dimension, whereas luxury also implies a “cultural” and “relational” value.

luxury objects or experiences, two components are highlighted:

– An economic component, linked to the concept of scarcity and limitation, which inevitably influences the value of the good;

– a cultural component, linked to the acquisition of new experiences, knowledge and, above all, relationships.

Therefore, to understand luxury only as an expression of economic value is to limit its potential.

Luxury, to be truly such, must be understood as a means of increasing knowledge, living exclusive experiences and creating new relationships.

In other words, luxury must offer the possibility of accumulating what the sociologist Shamus Rahman Khan[2] defines as “cultural capital“, that is, the set of knowledge that only exclusive experiences can provide.

Cultural capital is not about the material good, but about what the “immaterial” good can offer.

Buying a precious carpet at auction or from an art dealer certainly involves a considerable financial outlay, but at the same time it allows you to acquire an object rich in symbolism and cultural meaning, which, if known, will contribute to increasing your knowledge. Not to mention that owning rare objects allows you to join a community of people with similar interests (collectors, gallery owners, art dealers, museum curators), and it is well known that common interests are the basis for building relationships.  And we all know that the ability to build relationships is fundamental to people’s well-being and therefore their happiness.

On the other hand, a visit to a museum behind closed doors, i.e. a private visit with only a few people allowed and accompanied by an expert guide, is certainly an exclusive and expensive experience, but the added value that this experience can offer in terms of knowledge or the creation of new relationships represents an intangible value that exceeds the price of the experience itself.

Therefore, the cultural capital acquired through luxury has a value far greater than the economic one, because it becomes part of a person’s wealth of knowledge, which is reflected in his or her lifestyle and behaviour.

Luxury also makes it possible to learn the appropriate gestures to make in relation to an experience or a luxury object, gestures that may be rooted in cultural, religious or even philosophical beliefs.

It is no coincidence that there is an old English motto “manners maketh man” [3] which means that the way we behave reflects who we are, how we have been brought up and what our cultural background is.

That is why our gestures are an expression of the cultural baggage that, even with luxury, has been able to grow.

According to Thorstein Veblen, our behaviours are immaterial elements that reveal whether we lead a “culturally” comfortable life. This is why luxury requires, or at least allows you to acquire, certain ways of doing things, ways that I call “luxury manners”.

Indeed, if the English word “make” can be translated as “create”, it means that our ways define who we are, give our personality that final touch that becomes our distinguishing feature.

The French writer Honoré de Balzac, in his unfinished work Treatise on the Elegant Life, said: “It is not enough to become rich, or to be born rich, in order to lead an elegant life: one must have a feeling for it.

Here I believe that the combination of all this can be defined as luxury.

Therefore, the next time we are offered an exclusive experience or buy a luxury item, we should appreciate not only the item itself, but above all what it can offer us in terms of increasing our knowledge.

[1] Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the leisure class, 1899

[2] Shamus Rahman Khan, The Sociology of Elites, The annual review of sociology, 2012

[3] New Oxford College was founded in the 14th century, and the phrase “Manners makyth man” is its distinctive motto. The proverb exalts the value of good manners.