Since 2022, the luxury industry has lost 70 million customers (according to data from Bain & Company/Altagamma). The global customer base has fallen to 330 million, the same level as in 2013. The cause? “Post-Covid hubris. Faced with overheated demand, the major houses kept raising prices,” summarizes Éric Briones. “A high price was mistaken for value. It was a dangerous illusion.”

The result: upper-middle-class customers felt abandoned in favor of the ultra-wealthy. And the latter were put off by saturation. Luxury was everywhere. “That Jupiterian desirability, powerful, distant, has vanished.”

Beauty as the cornerstone

This is where beauty enters the picture. “For 20 years, the center of gravity for luxury was fashion. Today, it’s beauty,” says Éric Briones.

Beauty embodies three unprecedented roles in the luxury ecosystem. It has established itself as a new outward sign of wealth: a niche perfume today says more about social status than a trendy handbag. And health is now the number one desire of the powerful. “Looking 10 years younger than your age—that’s social status today,” emphasizes Éric Briones.

From the luxury of having to the luxury of being

The core of Éric Briones’ argument rests on a psychological shift. Luxury used to be centered on possession. Now, it’s focused on self-transformation. 81% of Gen Z and Millennials describe themselves as being in “optimization mode” (actively working to improve themselves).

Beauty brands have every reason to position themselves around self-transformation. That is where consumer desire is shifting. But the promise must be rooted in their DNA. Changing a customer’s hair color is not the same as transforming her life.
Éric Briones calls on brands to go much further: to blend care, science, and effectiveness into a comprehensive offering.