ISLAMABAD: The ultra-rich are turning to new ways to signal wealth as luxury dupes, weight-loss drugs, and cosmetic procedures become more accessible to the general public. Now, new ways of flaunting wealth have become the new standard, the Fortune reported.
Having a Hermès Birkin was once the litmus test for being extremely wealthy: with years-long waitlists, and eye-boggling price tags, the purse was the ultimate symbol of luxury. Until Walmart started selling an aesthetically identical version for $80 instead of $25,000.
“The shame of buying these things has gone,” Alice Sherwood, author of Authenticity: Reclaiming Reality in a Counterfeit Culture, told WIRED. “Luxury prices have skyrocketed while the trend cycle has rapidly accelerated. People no longer want to spend upwards of [thousands] on the latest ‘It’ bag that might be out of vogue within a year.”
The Walmart Birkin is just one of many luxury product knock-offs flooding the market. No item or brand is impervious from cheap imitation—from specialty Jordan sneakers, to the purse dupes sold on Canal Street, to high-end hair care. Other elements of a luxury lifestyle have become more accessible, too. Looking “healthy” or aesthetically pleasing—with clear skin, a symmetrical face, and slim-fit body—became the new signifier of wealth. But with the rise of Ozempic and lower-cost cosmetic procedures, that’s no longer out of reach for people in different tax brackets, either.
The upper-class has also given luxury brands the cold shoulder in recent years—especially Chinese consumers. High-fashion products are getting more expensive, but that cost increase hasn’t correlated with a rise in innovation or quality. And when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and wallets were squeezed, less people were shelling out for things that were no longer enthralling.
One of the biggest reasons why the ultra-rich is resisting boujee status symbols is because high-end brands are falling short on their promises—which has one-time customers turning to new physical indicators. 50 million luxury consumers exited the market between 2022 and 2024, according to a report published last year from Bain & Company. Chinese buyers—once considered to be the next cohort of luxe shoppers—also jumped ship during lockdown. Brands like Dior, Estée Lauder, Louis Vuitton, and Burberry took a huge hit as customers grew fed-up with expensive items they found uninspiring.
“Since 2019, there’s been a high price increase across luxury without a corresponding increase in innovation, service, quality, or appeal that a luxury brand should provide,” Marie Driscoll, an equity analyst focused on luxury retail, told Fortune. “This year [2024], that really hit consumers, and we felt the full impact.”
Because of this, Bellezza predicted that novel clothing items that reflect the buyer’s self-expression or values of sustainability will be the new “it” items. Buying a Prada bag or Jimmy Choo heels says nothing personal about the consumer. And since knock-offs are so accessible and clothing has become uninspiring, signaling self will be the next frontier.
Burberry has responded to this trend with a personalization hub focused on monogramming luxury items with a customers’ initials, while Louis Vuitton has recently leaned into more colorful styles than its classic brown leather look. Gone are the days of daydreaming in front of Saks Fifth Avenue displays. Even middle-class consumers can now steal the looks for less.
After the rise of affordable knock-offs, the ultra-rich then moved the goalpost to a new standard of wealth: health and aesthetic beauty. Whether that be investing in $40 Pilates classes, at-home IV drips, lip filler, organic produce, or weight-loss drugs, celebrities and the 1% touted all the ways they were reversing the biological clock. Being slim signaled that one had more “self control,” or had access to healthy foods and boutique workout memberships. Looking youthful was another signifier—but then the middle-class got a hold of face-lifts and Wegovy. Increased demand, competition, and expanded insurance coverage have driven prices down; the net price of Ozempic in the U.S. declined 40% between 2024 and 2017, when it was first introduced to the American market.