We’re Entering a New Era of Pleasure
Culture hasn’t felt so conservative in decades. Across the world right wing leaders are coming into power – and are now being backed by major corporations. In the United States, Meta added Dana White – head of the UFC and a close friend of President Trump – to their board. In China, last year saw many key influencers have their accounts deleted across varying platforms following measures by the government to deter displays of luxury consumption and ‘purify the cultural environment of the Internet.’
‘Quiet luxury’ isn’t fading—it’s driving luxury’s momentum, as seen in Zegna Group’s impressive rebound. ‘Clean girl’ makeup is thriving on TikTok – in our daily lives, we’re seemingly witnessing a global return in beauty to minimalism and conservatism. We throw on our neon green and glitter for a cultural event like a Charli XCX show, and then go back to our ‘no-makeup’ makeup.
Yet it would be overly simplistic to say luxury is now purely a conservative universe – it eliminates the rich potential that here at Al Dente we believe exists within this overarching aesthetic framework we find ourselves living within.
Brands don’t have to be purely quiet, clean, minimal – they can take advantage of the fact that we’re simultaneously entering a new age of pleasure.
First, look towards fragrance: last year, beauty giant Charlotte Tilbury launched six perfumes with names like ‘Love Frequency,’ each perfume featuring new ‘emotion-boosting’ molecules from the International Fragrance Foundation. Tilbury commented on the relationship between scent and pleasure herself – ‘Of the five senses, scent is the only one with a direct line to three parts of the brain.’
This year, we’ll see luxury continue to tap into these meaningful brain-deep elements. Restaurants, hotels, airport lounges, and spas will all increasingly launch perfumes and hire ‘scent branders’ to create unique scent experiences to enhance the pleasurability of this space. Hotels are embracing this trend in full force – the five star boutique hotel Cours des Vosges has their own luxury perfumes and candles; Aman is increasingly releasing fantastic products in their refined universe; and The Maker hotel in upstate New York has had astonishing success, with their perfumes earning TikTok virality.
Beauty also is tapping increasingly into pleasure – even if the formulas and results are ‘clean,’ they’re marketed as rich, indulgent, intoxicating. Since last year, beauty is leaning all the way into food – Rhode does it to much success, comparing their lip glosses to silky pink ice creams. Fashion too is thriving when it engages in pleasure – just think about Loro Piana’s sensory universe it creates through its immersive, audio-rich campaigns; or Loewe’s playful collaborations with Studio Ghibli and their pleasure-filled TikTok strategy.
BCG found that of all luxury segments in 2024, the biggest growth spots were all linked to experiences as luxury consumers continue to spend more on travel and enriching events. Gourmet food and fine dining grew at 8%. Sex is getting increasingly luxurious as well – the global sexual wellness market too has a CAGR of 7.9%, expected to reach nearly a size of nearly 100 billion euros by the end of the decade.
A fun example from the past week: ultra-trendy non-alcoholic apéritif brand Ghia released a libido-boosting Nutella-like ‘Happy Ending’ spread in collaboration with luxury mushroom chocolate brand Alice. The copy of the product? 'Crunchy Ghianduja meets Alice’s arousing botanicals and mushrooms in a daily indulgence that builds pleasure.'
So here we find ourselves: the luxury fashion that is thriving on the highest levels are quite quiet (see: news of Lemaire’s stunning ascendance over recent years) – and yet too what’s ascending in luxury are the categories dedicated to somehow enhancing our pleasure, and how we live our lives.
Luxury brands have an opportunity to take advantage of this major duality – they just have to look beyond the surface, and consider products, experiences, and marketing that taps into luxury consumers’ true desires.
