Sharif’s Adieu and the New Luxury Normal

The world bid farewell to one of the most attractive; genteel and elegant movie stars. Omar Sharif nee Michel Demitri Chalhoub quietly passed away the same day most top level consulting firms forecast a relent and continued growth for the Luxury Goods industry coupled with a slowdown in growth by its  traditional segments. That is to say there would be lower enthusiasm in the world for fashion; jewelry ; yachts and cruises. Overall growth for Luxury Goods of the world economy would however continue to be higher than 2015 driven by several items that heretofore were almost invisible. These items include travel retail; smart fashion, cyber sales; digital innovation; electronic gadgets and unknown designers .

Travel retail refers to airport malls where high-end tourists mainly from China and India spend time waiting for connecting flights. Statistics tend to record high purchases in these establishments by affluent travelers .

Innovative “wearable technology” will be the next success story for the industry. As Millennials continue to climb up the income ladder these products are  a must comparable to Cartier’s panther watches in the 1980’s. Digital innovation is a short cut for industry’s communication strategy. From streaming video bringing the  fall and spring catwalks home to Facebook and Twitter pages digital talk will increase inside the industry. As smart phones increasingly become a sign of status accessories for these gadgets turn essential.

People want to be seen as part of the global affluent middle class and the way to fulfil this aspiration is by keeping their smartphones in expensive cases; acquiring state of the arts earplugs and connecting elegant I-pods to expensive speakers.  The cyber-mall is about to explode with Chinese consumers leading the way followed by Indian and to, a lesser extent, the recently returning Japanese luxury consumers. Next on the growth agenda come completely unknown young designers who base their product differentiation in a color ; a method to cut materials or a particular way to approach sewing or shredding a piece of cloth like ultra-fashionable, ultra-expensive thorn jeans can attest.

With such an industry snapshot one now understands that Sharif would prefer to take a new and higher dimension. The man who since childhood stood by kings; dignitaries; jet setters; Nobel laureates and la crème of design and society to have to accommodate himself to a world defined by immediacy; rush and exhibitionism would be totally unacceptable . A world devoid of elegance defined as the quality of being graceful and stylish in appearance or manner.

One can indeed hardly picture Mr Sharif walking into a fifth dimension disco with a shredded jeans wearer. Neither could one think of him ordering a veggie hamburger at an airport eatery. No!! Mr Sharif was graceful and suave; pleasingly ingenious and simple. He was miles away from stridency and impoliteness . He was the perfect couple for ladies like Grace Kelly; Catherine Deneuve and Sophia Loren. For him it was time to go. Because as Emily Saint John once said “ The thing with the new world  is it is horrifically short of elegance”