Rima Zahran, part of Brand Ripplr’s talent network, gave his own thoughts on the topic of luxury.
Rima Zahran, part of the Brand Ripplr talents, defines luxury in today’s world as: “Quality, comfort, hidden details.” She knows whom she speaks to, they are “women who truly appreciate the finer things in life, not because they have been told it’s “luxury” but because they truly appreciate luxury and art.”
Zahran totally disapproves of the “dupe” idea, and when asked if this is where luxury is going, she almost shouts, “absolutely not!”. She collects her thoughts explaining: “This is a way to get people to buy more. This is how they (brands) capitalize. Make people feel like they look “rich”. This is exactly the opposite of luxury. It’s pretty genius because its taking luxury and doing the exact opposite to it.”
Oddly Zahran is not with the idea of one-size-fits-all experiences versus possessions with the Gen Z, for her it is a nuanced thing, “I think that’s very personal and depends on the socio-economic background of the person, no matter which generation they come from.” Zahran, when asked if luxury is merely a construct or a concept, goes again with a very strict, “absolutely not!”.
Thankfully, she explains her thoughts further, “there is a massive difference between luxury and “rich”. Rich has expensive things without understating them. The intention is to let the world know one thing: “I have money; I can afford it”. That’s the exact opposite of luxury. That is exactly what fake luxury looks like.”
She is also incredibly lucid about everyone wanting their experiences tailored and the financial repercussions which come on brands to be able to personalize everything rendering all this economically non-viable. Zahran, as a parting shot, goes, “this is not at all possible. And it’s very damaging to have something so unrealistic,” she offers one last nugget of wisdom saying “and I believe social media and reality TV are to blame.”
Zahran asserts that “true luxury is not loud. It’s quiet and private, it’s something you feel, something memorable, something that make you feel a certain way. It has nothing to do with being seen or shown.”
