Conspiculous Luxury Consumption in China Challenges Growing Income Inequality AOC Fashion

Top model He Cong graces the pages of Marie Claire China’s [IG] June 2024 issue. The Hunan-region beauty is styled by Austin Feng in red-inspired, fashion elegance lensed by Zhong Lin [IG]./ Hair by MingHu Zhang; makeup by Yooyo Keong Ming

Note: the Marie Claire China IG is not current.

The fashion story features key pieces from Cartier’s Nature Sauvage, the Maison's new High Jewelry collection. A limited number of key Cartier pieces are shown in the story, but the larger backdrop of animal prints and nature-inspired patterns and embellishment supports the theme in lavish images.

China’s Monitoring of Flaunting Money on Social Media

This month [May 2024], China’s new ‘Clear and Bright’ campaign swung into action on social media. The campaign vows to crack down on influencers who create "ostentatious personas to cater to vulgar needs, and deliberately display extravagant lifestyles filled with money".

Jing Daily weighed in this morning, writing that across Chinese social media platforms like Weibo, Tencent, Douyin, and Xiaohongshu all reflect suspended accounts this week.

China Tackles Its Growing Income Gap Culture

The drive to reduce ostentatious displays of wealth [or internet cleanup, as Jing Daily calls it] “is part of a larger effort by Chinese authorities to curate and control social cultures to tackle China’s widening income disparity and wealth inequality.”

The salaries of high-income senior management business leaders in China were reduced by 10-20% in 2023, with savings redirected to enhance benefits for delivery drivers and other employees.

Hérmes Birkin Bags: Quiet Luxury or Conspiculous Consumption

When I first read about President Xi Jinping’s new drive to curtail conspicuous consumption in China, my initial response was a mental picture of Cardi B’s wall of Hérmes bags that regularly appears in US online media, including People magazine.

Already having at least 26, Cardi B received THREE more for her October 2023 birthday and opened them all on Instagram.

My next thought about China’s crackdown on conspiculous consumption was Citibank’s Thomas Chauvet’s April 12, 2024 note about Hérmes taking out Louis Vuitton for the top luxury brand spot by 2027.

Chauvet is the Managing Director heading up Citi’s European Luxury Goods Equity Research team in London; and his headline-grabbing speculation involved an absurd set of assumptions, as AOC wrote. Technically Chauvet’s claim is possible, as I noted after doing my own math about what it would take on the part of Louis Vuitton to create this fall from the top perch by 2027.

Just as Citibank’s Thomas Chauvet was quick to claim headlines about the strength of Hérmes with his Louis Vuitton demise declaration, one hopes he considers recent events and how they might impact the luxury market and his star performer brand.

Hérmes could become an example in China, if the government metaphorically — or worse — turns on the brand as a symbol of disdain towards ordinary people.

So far, my concern has been unfounded. Today, I’m not so sure. To be continued. ~ Anne