Opulence on the offensive

Spectacle, bombast and ‘more-is-more’ have become signatures of our times. Stealth wealth feels a little old. Luxury has become a declaration of power rather than a touch of taste. It is an interesting moment. We probe these themes here in our latest article in Luxury Briefing Magazine.

The full copy is below and you can a selection of our favourites from our 'Brand Matters' series by following the links at the end of the article.

Forget stealth wealth for a minute. This is about the power of excess and how luxury is weaponised as power. As you know, looking at America, larging it is having a moment.

The Romans invented luxury as spectacle and others in history followed. Extreme examples include the emperors who allegedly had vomitoria - rooms where diners could purge themselves so they could keep eating at endless banquets. Elagabalus had massive feasts where guests were showered in petals to the point of near suffocation; meals were served on dishes of gold and silver, and he sometimes let lions and leopards into the dining hall just for entertainment. He liked his food: one feast’s main courses were plated on the backs of animals, and included flamingo tongues, nightingales’ brains, and dormice stuffed with pork.

Vegans would have had a terrible time. But kinda insta-friendly, I guess. You’d certainly tell your mates about it.

Emperors loved OTT shock, grandeur, and theatricality to assert dominance. In the streets, at the games, statues, coins, monuments, rallies… all saying power, divine favour, and larger-than-life presence. And don’t forget the love of gold, marble n’ chandelier, gilt n’ mirrors.

We are seeing excess all over the place. Some say brassy and loud or, depending on who you are, garish, tacky and fake as hell.

Take plastic surgery. The UK Guardian reported that surgeons are besieged by requests for the ‘Mar-a-Lago face’. Bee-sting puffy lips, uncannily smooth cheeks, frozen brows, taut necks, an artificial look loved by the Maga rich crowd. They want it all to be obvious and overdone.

Luxury for many, is about redefining taste, ditching environmental responsibility, ignoring criticism and occupying as much physical and psychological space as they can. It’s the lack of restraint that signals the status.

And digital loves it. A Yellow Click Road where moderation is invisible and loud and large cuts through.

Here’s some excess that cuts through to me: Cryo chambers, longevity clinics, three-day destination weddings, huge luxury 4 x 4’s in dense cities – Hampstead London lanes are so narrow you used to struggle to pass a horse. Now you struggle to pass someone’s £1.5m sense of entitlement; billionaire bunkers, mega-foundations named after individuals, nations using big (sports) events to rebrand themselves…

We get it. To be powerful is to be seen being powerful. Refinement and subtlety once flagged elite status. No longer. Instead, scale, spectacle, shock and thinking: ‘I don’t give damn, I am unbound by the constraints that govern ordinary people’.

(Going for gold at the Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg, Russia. Image credit)

Some luxury brands love theatre, gold, the unapologetic, the bold bravado, the assertion of wealth as proof of worth. Here are three beauties:

The Rolls‑Royce Phantom Centenary Private Collection. Limited run of 25 cars described as the most complex, technologically ambitious ever. ‘The rear seats, developed alongside a fashion atelier, are layered artworks in themselves - combining high-resolution printed textiles, finely drawn linework, and delicate golden embroidery. Over 12 months of development, this process required entirely new inks, finishes, and techniques, culminating in 45 individually crafted panels, perfectly tailored and aligned by hand with 3D marquetry, 3D ink layering, and 24-carat gold leafing. And the Spirit of Ecstasy in solid gold, hallmarked and enamelled, is based on a 1925 casting’. So, subtle as a flying mallet.
The Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept Flying Tourbillon (limited 102 pieces) Designed in collaboration with Tamara Ralph, this limited-edition watch features an 18-carat pink gold case glittering with Frosted Gold and a multilayered dial in graded shades of brown, bronze and gold. I think it also tells the time.
Judith Leiber Couture’s “Eiffel Tower/Bonne Nuit” Crystal Embellished Gold Tone handbag/clutch. Heavily embellished with crystals and gold tone finishes. Bargain at £5,755.

Not all luxury brands shout ‘look at me’. But ‘More is More’ is not Less is More. Quiet Luxury. Which after all is the much talked about version of luxury that many in the West - and indeed still in the US - aspire to. Bottega Veneta’s no-logo minimalism and Loro Piana’s understatement is luxury stripped of ostentation; it is taste as intelligence.

So, we see two very different expressions of luxury. On one hand, unashamed spectacle and materialism where external markers of success matter. On the other hand, minimalism, sustainability, and cultural sensitivity.

It means a different expression of luxury brand marketing: where storytelling as dominance has replaced storytelling as heritage and the more traditional narrative of ‘soul, story, and scarcity.’ Ie the good old days when a perfume was a perfume, not a political movement.

This is important as even the quietest luxury brands now need to signal conviction, not just beauty. Luxury communication is becoming more ideological: about values and purpose. It still relies on craftsmanship and desire, but the flashier route means all the mainstream ones have to define its moral and aesthetic boundaries more sharply. They will not be noticed otherwise. Art shows anyone? They position luxury as pure creativity by giving intellectual framing.

Here's T. S. Eliot, a wiser, more poetic mind than mine, on the question of noise and the virtue of quietness:

‘At the still point of the turning world… there the dance is.’

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