Whispers and shouts: the global language of Luxury

(Feature image: The Waldorf Astoria Palm Beach Jumeirah. Image credit: with thanks to Gilly Berlin)

Opulence or understatement? People’s idea of luxury is different depending on where you live. What is wealth and status in one culture might be considered out of place in another. In the Middle East, more can be More, and Opulence Is The Point. In the West, discretion, subtlety, and minimalism whisper wealth. The less you show, the more you imply you’ve had it forever.

Our latest article for Luxury Briefing magazine, out soon, asks why. It's the eighteenth in our series and you can read all the others by following the links at the end of the article.

Massive crystal chandeliers, big-veined marble, gold-leaf detailing on every surface, polished ivory onyx tabletops, mirrored walls, lacquered woods, silk cushions, gilded throne armchairs, unfeasibly large rugs…

Or… old family cash, cashmere'n'craft, no logos, pale beiges, soft whites, greige, van der Rohe minimalism, low-slung sofas (you can’t get out of), that Corbusier chaise longue that’s actually not very comfortable, Patek Philippe’s Calatrava watch ‘inspired by the puristic design of the minimalistic Bauhaus principle, where function determines form’. Thin-legged tables, floating shelves, built-in everything, open-plan but quiet, calm, deliberately unremarkable and restrained.

As Paul Simon said: ‘One man’s ceiling is another man’s floor.’ People’s idea of luxury is different depending on where you live. What is wealth and status in one culture might be considered in appropriate in anoher. In the Middle East, more can be More, and Opulence is the point. In the West, stealth, discretion, subtlety, textures, and minimalism whisper wealth. The less you show, the more you imply you’ve had it forever.

What interests me is the why.

All the interpretations of luxury are perfectly valid. No one is better than the other. The distinctions are not whose taste is better, but how it’s been arrived at. They are actually about different countries’ relationship to time, legacy, and permanence. They tell us about power, history and culture.

In the West: luxury is steeped in history and lineage. You know the cast. The value lies not only in the quality of products but in the stories they tell, the craftsmanship passed down, their relationship with Royalty, aristos, or arts/culture. This is the shopper in Paris choosing Celine over Gucci. They want discretion and the reassurance of timelessness, stability and taste. Continuity, not conquest. In the Middle East: wealth has risen from the sands quickly, often in one lifetime. Oil has transformed the place making desert tents into gleaming capitals.

The wealth is often first-generation, so luxury is a display of new legacies being built from scratch.

And since legacy doesn’t exist in the Western sense, it must be started, invented. Luxury here is not nostalgia - it is ambition brought alive. ‘Legacy’ at its worst can sound imperialist.

So bring on the Lavish: private jets, a diamond-encrusted Audemars Piguet, a Rolls-Royce with custom gold interiors; they’re not just indulgence – they’re identity confirmation. Luxury is meant to be shared and admired; that palace you call home is not just for the family. it's a show of respect and success. Those huge wide-open spaces in the lounge? Designed to impress. Space equals money.

This all matters because we are in the business of taste - shaping it, sustaining it, maintaining it, and making it. Given the changing state of the world, luxury, as it always has done, is going to reflect power and wealth. It is important to understand that in the West, luxury can appear to be holding onto the past and elsewhere, luxury is about the present and future. How many times have you had the debate on how to balance legacy with modernity. This helps explain why Western minimalism may look “cold” or “boring” to some. And why opulence may feel too much to some. They are speaking entirely different emotional and historical languages.

Look at the difference between logo-free Bottega Veneta or ethics-heavy Brunello Cucinelli, and Versace Home interiors or the Jumeirah Burj Al Ara. How luxury is not just about money, it’s about meaning, and how we display wealth reveals who we are, what we value, and what we want others to believe about us. If you accept Stefano Gabbana’s wise observation that luxury is not a static concept, but changes with society, the question is where is it going.

As the Middle East becomes possibly more powerful, maybe its aesthetics will become globally dominant. Those states are not just lux consumers, they’re sponsors, backers, curators, patrons, and producers. They are investing in a cultural identity that rivals the West’s. Maybe its ideas of beauty, value, and status will increasingly shape how luxury presents itself.

Because luxury, like art and fashion, has always mirrored power. Remember the history: Versailles: Louis XIV. 1643–1715. The Sun King. He invented the power/luxury dynamic.

We may live soon in a brand landscape where what was considered “too much” may be the new aspirational. Opulence without irony. Oud more popular than rose or jasmine. Heavy metals, gold, marble, and ‘one long staircase just going up, and one even longer coming down, and one more leading nowhere, just for show.’ Stealth wealth may begin to feel like a boring straitjacket.

There’s a French proverb: ‘Le luxe est l’art de faire oublier le prix’ - luxury is the art of making you forget the price. It captures those Western ideals of subtlety, craft, and restraint. Well, things might change. The question is, who will define those changes.

However the international order plays out, one thing is for sure. The aesthetics of luxury will follow the money, and newer themes may enrich – or challenge - the Western model. As L Cohen put it: ‘I came so far for beauty… I changed my style to silver, I changed my clothes to black, And where I would surrender, Now I would attack.’

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