NEW LUXURY IS NOT BEING DEAD.
Luxury brands of the future won't sell lifestyle, they'll sell lifespan.
Luxury used to be simple. A Lamborghini. A Birkin. A wristwatch that cost more than a house. The formula was easy: if it sparkles, revs or takes 12 months to be hand stitched, preferably by someone in Tuscany, it’s luxury.
But that kind of luxury is dead, or at the very least, wheezing into its monogrammed silk pillow. Luxury is no longer a thing. It’s a feeling or more precisely, a biological metric. Luxury today is a resting heart rate of 47bpm and a telomere length that makes Death check his ruler twice.
The most coveted thing money can buy is no longer a yacht, it’s time. As one longevity bro put it: “My Rolex tells the time. My Altos Labs subscription buys it.”
And buy it they do.
Bryan Johnson is bio hacking his way back to puberty at a reported cost of $2million per year and Luke Lintz, 25, spends €40k per month on wellness because "you can’t put a price on living forever and being young and sexy."
Luxury tourism is now less ‘treat yourself’ and more ‘treat your cellular degradation’ with hotels catering for patients rather than guests. The Four Seasons in Maui (the setting of the OG White Lotus) offers sea views that oxygenate your mitochondria with packages that include IV infusions, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, ozone therapy and stem cell treatments. It seems the luxury of a swim up bar and all day cocktails is so very last season.
The Gucci x Oura ring allows users to 'track and own their potential.' What next? The Louis Vuitton “Forever Trunk" - a monogrammed personal, portable cryo-pod for the discerning jetsetter who prefers to be frozen in time? What about Moët & Chandon “Blood Brut" - a champagne that reverses aging until you're too young to buy it?
Moet & Chandon : Blood Brut - Ageing’s worst enemy, ID’s worst nightmare
Even luxury real estate is getting involved. Singapore is being redesigned to incorporate "Blue Zone" principles: walkable cities, green canopies, circadian lighting and buildings so healthy they make Gwyneth Paltrow look like a chimney sweep.
New Luxury doesn’t purr or sparkle. It lives quietly in your bone density, your microbiome and your VO2 max. The dream of eternal youth is replacing the aspirations once promised by brands. Supplements are the new it-bags and the flex that used to live on your wrist is now in your bloodwork. The luxury brands of the future won’t sell lifestyle, they’ll sell lifespan, because nothing says status like not being dead.
*first published in Creative Review