Creativity and luxury: a match made in heaven?

Is luxury a timeless landscape where preservation of traditions and age old practices dominate or is luxury a constantly evolving process with creativity at its core? Joanne Roberts and John Armitage of the University of Southampton’s Winchester Luxury Research Group speak to Paul Russell of Luxury Academy London.

“The relationship between luxury and creativity is varied and complex”. Some say luxury is the autonym of necessity, whilst others say it must have strong artistic content, be international and the result of craftsmanship.

The link between luxury and creativity can be seen clearly in designer fashion. By linking the product to an individual designer, luxury brands attempt to reinforce the importance of the individual’s creative talent that inspires the product. Yet such creativity is, more often than not, the work of many individuals working as a team, with each member contributing their own specialist skills and creative input.

However, Roberts and Armitage argue that, in the field of luxury, the changes brought about by creativity may be eschewed by some brands in favour of preserving existing goods, services, and production and delivery practices. In certain luxury sectors, it is necessary to highlight the importance of the preservation of knowledge rather than the creation of new knowledge.

So, for example, the delivery of a greeting to a guest by the doorman at a luxury hotel may be viewed as an act of creativity in the sense that the greeter is performing a role and, in so doing, creating a welcoming atmosphere, which is essential to the quality of the service provided. In contrast, the original introduction of such service systems involves an act of creativity based on either the exploration for new knowledge or the exploitation of existing knowledge.

Similarly, there are other luxuries whose very essence is a sense of timelessness and unwavering continuity such as the creation of bespoke shoes which requires the preservation of shoemaking knowledge and skills.

Creativity may also come in the constant drive to create new or enhanced luxuries that replace those items and experiences that fall from luxuriousness due to their widespread availability, in more and more luxurious mobile phones for example. We can also see high levels of creativity involving the exploration for new knowledge in, for instance, the production of luxury watches.

Other luxury products such as expensive cars, super yachts, and private jets involve high levels of creativity in their design and development and in the integration of new materials and technologies. Consequently, many categories of luxury evolve through the application of creativity inputs that feed into complex innovation processes.

Through multiple examples, Roberts and Armitage demonstrate that the relationship between luxury and creativity is varied; there appears to be a spectrum in relation to the extent to which luxuries depend on creativity. Indeed, some, such as a luxury hotel, may blend the two; frontstage maintenance of traditions and backstage creativity in service delivery meaning that the guest may not always be aware of the creativity that is involved in the production of the service. The very attraction of certain luxuries is that they remain unchanged or uncreative. The question for luxury brands is where can creativity be introduced without diminishing the luxuriousness of a good or service? And, crucially, where must creativity be eschewed to preserve the core nature of a luxury?”

The full paper from Joanne Roberts and John Armitage may be obtained from Technology Innovation Management Review July 2015 (Volume 5, Issue 7) ).