Quiet luxury has to be the most overused—and grating—phrase of the year. I’d argue it’s also a dupe (or copycat) way of talking about minimalist dressing, which has swept through fashion on a tidal wave of ’90s nostalgia and—with an eye to the imminent return of Phoebe Philo—revived interest in so-called Old Céline.
As evidenced by endless quote-unquote expert accounts across social media, many people are eager to read the collections, but the apparent plainness of the less-is-more approach to design (bordering at times on boring) isn’t as easy to parse as loud logos or experimental fashion. Succession became an entryway into this edited beige world, even though it’s not particularly representative of the trend; if you ask me, the costumes spoke more to dressing for success than about capital-F fashion.
It is true, however, that minimal dressing (knitwear aside) is to a great degree associated with tailoring and, by extension, to a kind of neatness and control, at times a kind of sartorial puritanism. An all-white pantsuit might not be the most practical of garments, but it sure is chic. As with the idea of limousine shoes, it can assume a certain prosperity. The aesthetic is linked very closely to lifestyle and interiors, which makes sense because the idea of quiet luxury has a lot to do with touch and living in your clothes.
Materials usually come first when it comes to designing this kind of clothing. It’s the umpteen-ply cashmere, the wool hand-washed in a stream, and the fabric made on an antique Italian or Japanese loom that is the starting—and selling—point of garments that often have rather simple silhouettes. It’s those special materials that put these clothes in a can’t-touch-this category. An aesthetic can be copied; the hand of a luxury fabric, not so much. Not that that’s stopped anyone from trying.
While there’s been a lot of hullabaloos about the quiet-luxury trend, there’s not that much actual whispering on the runways. Medieval knights charged down the runway at the men’s shows. At the women’s resort collections, mermaids surfaced at Louis Vuitton, while Chanel showed Barbie-fied looks in LA and Christian Dior conjured Frida Kahlo in Mexico City.
It’s been proven again and again in fashion that the eye has to travel. That’s one of the reasons we have trends. Quiet luxury, with its discipline and unwaveringly pared-back vision, is a strange fit for the web—or maybe it’s just interesting because it’s kind of difficult to pin down.
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