Every year I try to take time off between Christmas and New Year’s Day. I use this time to relax, spend time with family, and (usually) read a lot.
In this issue I’m sharing a reading list of books that have helped me grow my understanding of brand positioning, the luxury industry, and consumer behavior.
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Pick something that appeals to you and dig in.
Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster
This is a deeply researched and compelling book that explains the strategies and tactics that allowed LVMH and Kering to dominate the market. It also explains the enshitification of luxury goods and apparel. Foundational reading.
The Luxury Strategy
If luxury brand pricing, product launches and marketing feel counterintuitive to you, this book explains the first principles behind it all. Why does Hermes make it so hard to buy a Birkin bag? Why are perfume commercials so bizarre? All is revealed here.
That said–I feel like some of what is outlined here is becoming outdated. The Business Of Aspiration (see next rec) is a good compliment to The Luxury Strategy.
The Business Of Aspiration
Buy this book for the bibliography alone. The Business Of Aspiration explains how brands can develop and protect luxury positioning in a world where technique, materials and price are no longer barriers to entry for mass consumption.
I disagree with section at the end that recommends, essentially, greenwashing, but the rest of the book is solid.
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Rethinking Luxury Fashion
This book provides a lot of historical and sociological context to luxury fashion and proposes a path forward in an environment when the category feels less relevant (and is more competitive) than in decades past.
Aesthetic Intelligence
A structured framework for using aesthetics to increase shareholder value, from a former chairman of LVMH. Read this book to convince bean counters to give creativity a seat at the table.
Beyond The Label
This is the autobiography of the former CEO of Chanel, Maureen Chiquet. IMO the value in this book lies in its insight into the inner workings of Chanel and of Mickey Drexler-era Gap. The “lessons” are more of your standard airport kiosk business slop–sorry! It’s still worth a read.
The Death Of The Artist
Comprehensive overview of “stuck culture” across creative industries, although fashion is omitted. This book explains how cultural values and distribution (via technology) shape the market for “art”. This book mixes economic theory and interviews with real creatives, which keeps it interesting.
Class: A Guide Through The American Status System
This book was accurate when it was written. I would argue that it is less accurate today. But the core message is still relevant–our tastes and values are shaped by the environment in which we are raised, and that environment is shaped by our degree of wealth.
Uneasy Street: The Anxieties Of Affluence
The author interviews fifty affluent New Yorkers and shares the common themes–household configurations, careers, political beliefs and–most of all–anxieties. This book is a window into the psyches of the core luxury consumer, and the high volume fashion shopper. Compare this book with the one below and ask yourself what has changed.
Women Of The Upper Class
This is basically the same framework used in Uneasy Street, but the interviews were conducted in the early 1980s in a different region of the US. The foundations of “mass market luxury” were built when this book was produced, and refined and scaled when Uneasy Street was produced. So these books provide societal context to the luxury strategy.
The also reveal something deeper about the interplay between capitalism, morality and society, but that’s a topic for a different newsletter entirely…
Do Not Read List
I’ve read a lot of “layover lit”–business books written by business people with the help of a ghostwriter that claim to offer success lessons. Most of this stuff is feel-good garbage. Read it if you find it entertaining, but don’t expect to learn from it. (There are a few exceptions).
If you want to develop a unique worldview and sharpen your perceptive powers, you should stick to books about businesses written by journalists or historians, and books about broader societal trends.