The Quiet Luxe by Dr Mahul Brahma
My take on the book:
Have you ever wondered how luxury brands design and build their products, what aspects do they take into consideration while deciding their target consumers? What does Quiet Luxury and Loud Luxury mean? If you ever wondered about these terms, then The Quiet Luxe by Professor Dr Mahul Brahma is the perfect research based manual for you to pick.
The author begins the book with brief background of what luxury meant to the Royalty and how the Maharajas got luxury pieces designed for themselves in the early Twentieth century. The author then explains the further classifications of consumers of quiet luxury — Connoisseurs and Aesthetes and explains how both are consumers of quiet luxury but with different tastes in picking and flaunting luxury items.
There is one more category — experientialists and the author points out how then can be both Connoisseurs and Aesthetes based on the product they are purchasing. Next up are the Masstige — a combination of Mass and Prestige that refers to products that are premium but attainable. And then the most important class — The Great Indian Aspiring Middle Class who actually drive the luxury market.
The author then explains how aesthetic leadership is driving quiet luxury and how to communicate quite luxury when even the logo is muted. The author concludes the book with an important metric — Luxe Quotient and how it can be used to measure both quiet and loud luxury.
This is the second book of the author I read, after Aesthetic leadership in luxury and this book also comes with in-depth research. The author explains about the various types of luxury in a simple way that is easy to understand and assimilate even to common people. The author’s perspective on these luxury trends and terminology are unique and fresh.
I would have liked to read more case studies and about brands in the Indian context as the brands mentioned in the book are few and only international ones. With a rise in the luxury brands the book would have added more value by providing case studies of few Indian brands, established and upcoming ones.
Overall the book is an insightful read for any one interested in reading and understanding the evolving landscape of luxury.
My rating:
4/5.