To everything that we call luxury: excesses, unjustified expenses, ostentatious generosity — humanity has been indifferent at all times. Our days are no exception.
Although in previous years and eras it was identified more with a demonstration of one’s own status, wealth, high rank in the social hierarchy than with the personal tastes of a person. Today, we are witnessing the destruction of such institutional frameworks and collective standards: a new attitude to luxury is emerging before our eyes (this is especially noticeable in Europe). When buying luxury goods, more and more people seek, first of all, to experience aesthetic pleasure, to pamper themselves, to feel moments of happiness.
It is the individual, unique nature of each person and his sense of self that seems to increasingly determine our relationship with such concepts as «luxury» and «luxury». The new suite is luxury with psychological motivation. We are moving further and further towards «luxury for ourselves», focused on the search for new sensations and pleasure — emotional, aesthetic, sensual. We want to live an unforgettable, exceptional experience: treat yourself to a luxurious dinner in a famous restaurant, spend a night in a luxurious hotel, treat yourself to exquisite decoration …
We feel the need to move away from the realm of disposable, ephemeral values.
Of course, the emergence of this trend does not mean that the desire for elitism has disappeared in our country. It has survived, but now it manifests itself differently: the purchase of a luxury item gives us the opportunity, above all, to admire ourselves. In such a purchase, as Nietzsche argued, there is «the pleasure of knowing one’s own otherness,» the pleasure of feeling that one is not like others.
On the other hand, our desire for luxury manifests our original need for constancy. In the passion for the most beautiful things, in fact, there is also a desire that not everything in this world be doomed to extinction. We feel a deep, almost spiritual need to move away from the universal realm of disposable, ephemeral values and goods.
I think in this sense luxury is close to love. Like love, luxury is a challenge to «everything flows, everything changes.» Both of these phenomena are generated by the thirst for the eternal. Perhaps, where our materialistic desires are most clearly manifested, something sublime also finds expression: luxury is, of course, the metaphysics of time, momentary pleasure … but also the metaphysics of eternity.