Rethinking Luxury

For a time in my 20s, my FYP on my social media was overwhelmed by luxury content. All I did was watch a few GRWM and fashion hauls, and then the algorithm did its thing. For awhile it was fun to watch. At heart, I’m a girly girl who loves fashion and beauty content, so it was easy for me to ooo and ahh at Chanel this, Gucci that, and this season’s iteration of the red lip.

After awhile though, I could feel my admiration beginning to shift to envy. Here were all these young women traipsing across the globe with their Birkins in one hand and their champagne flutes in the other while I was slogging away at my daily existence working to afford the essentials and *maybe* a nail appointment once in awhile as a treat. I found myself feeling as if I had missed the boat somehow, only to find out that the boat had never left the port because the vast majority of the content I was consuming was highly produced at best and totally false at worst.

I still remember the day the scales fell from my eyes. I was working at a facial studio in the Miami Design District (a mecca for all things bougie) and our spa had a stunning view of the main square. As I was tidying up in preparation to open, there she was: Jane Doe Influencer with her photographer in and otherwise empty mall ready for her close up. As she adjusted her Hermès and Dior shopping bags, she did something peculiar: she turned it upside down to dump out the tissue paper to restuff it to her liking.

You read that right. The bags were totally empty of actual product.

And yet, here she was perfecting her best walking pose, perpetrating the idea that she had just gone on a fantasy shopping spree so that her followers could dream of doing the same.

Granted, perhaps she was/is truly affluent and able to afford such accoutrements. However, if she was would she need to concoct this fantasy for her next post?

Seeing her and many other influencers like her made me go down the rabbit hole of false influencer exposés and to this day it amazes me the lengths people will go to depict an aspirational life that is not their own. It also made me reconsider what a true life of luxury would look like for me.

In researching multiple definitions of the word “luxury,” the following themes were consistent across the board:

• Ease
• Comfort
• Satisfaction
• Pleasure
• Abundance

Now, these concepts are broad… and that’s the beauty of it! When we expand our definition of “luxury” past the more banal images of capitalism-inspired excess, luxury becomes accessible to many more people in many different ways.

I have nothing against people who love designer clothes, premium travel, high-end cars, etc. However, my idea of luxury doesn’t necessarily include those things. For me, luxury means having freedom of time to create, to learn, or to just be. 

I find luxury in writing this very blog with a cup of hot tea for company, sitting on my couch crocheting as the sun sets, or sitting on the beach with a margarita in hand. I find luxury reading a good book on a Saturday, or cooking a good meal with old-school R&B playing in the background. I find luxury in knowing that I am safe, that I am loved, and that I am capable of reshaping my life to fit what feeds my souls at any moment as long as I put in the work.

When possessions define your experience of luxury, it all goes away once they’re no longer available to you. Your definition of luxury must go beyond tangible, expensive objects in order to be truly gratifying and endure over time.

With that, I challenge you: what are some things that can bring ease, comfort, satisfaction, pleasure, and abundance in your life as it is right now? Find those things today, and I promise you that you will live like royalty no matter what your bank account says.