Why Luxury Hasn't Changed in Decades and Why It Finally Needs To
- 3 hours ago
- 5 min read
lvb is a global luxury accessories house redefining luxury through modular design and dual aesthetics. Every handcrafted creation transforms without disruption, allowing owners to personalise their look in under a minute. Handbags, sculptural charms and interchangeable chains are the beginning of a new luxury ecosystem.
For more than a century, luxury has mastered the art of craftsmanship. The world's most respected fashion houses have perfected exquisite materials, meticulous construction, and timeless aesthetics. They have built extraordinary brands that represent heritage, aspiration, and quality.
Yet despite all this innovation, one part of the luxury experience has remained surprisingly unchanged, ownership.
For generations, luxury has encouraged us to own more. A handbag for work. Another for evenings. One for travel. One because fashion has moved on. Jewellery to suit different occasions. Accessories for different moods. While craftsmanship has continued to evolve, the ownership experience has remained largely the same.
As someone who has spent more than thirty years designing spaces, brands, and products, I began asking a simple question, "What if luxury wasn't about owning more? What if it was about owning better?" That question would eventually shape my entire philosophy on design.
Design should evolve with people
One lesson has followed me throughout my career in fashion, graphic design, and interior design, people's lives never stand still. Their careers evolve. Their families grow. Their confidence changes. Their style becomes more refined. Their priorities shift.
Yet many of the products surrounding us are designed to remain static. Beautiful, yes. Timeless, perhaps. But rarely adaptable.
Great design should not only be beautiful on the day it is purchased. It should continue to provide value throughout the owner's life. The most enduring designs are those that grow alongside the people who use them.
Every detail should serve a purpose. Craftsmanship isn't just about how something is made. It's about how thoughtfully every element comes together.
The future of luxury is personal
Today's luxury customer is different from the customer of twenty years ago. They value craftsmanship, but they also value individuality. They appreciate quality, but they increasingly expect versatility. They are looking for products that feel personal rather than mass-produced.
Luxury is becoming less about status and more about self-expression. People no longer want products that simply fit into their wardrobe. They want products that fit into their lives.
That requires a different way of thinking. Instead of designing for a single moment, we should be designing for multiple experiences. Instead of creating objects that are replaced, perhaps we should create objects that continue to reveal something new over time.
This shift is not about following trends. It is about understanding people. The most successful luxury brands of the future may not be those that encourage customers to buy more. They may be those that enable customers to do more with what they already own.
Luxury is an experience, not just an object
Throughout my career as an interior designer, I learnt something that has stayed with me. People rarely remembered every individual piece of furniture in a room. What they remembered was how the space made them feel.
The same is true for luxury products. We don't simply remember a beautifully crafted handbag. We remember how confident we felt carrying it. We remember the occasions it accompanied us through. We remember the stories attached to it.
True luxury creates emotional value. That emotional connection is often far more powerful than the object itself. As designers, our responsibility is not simply to create beautiful products. It is to create meaningful experiences.
Two distinct aesthetics. One beautifully crafted creation. Luxury shouldn't ask you to choose between versatility and timeless design.
A different philosophy
Innovation is often associated with technology. But innovation can also come from questioning long-held assumptions.
Sometimes the most significant breakthroughs begin with asking whether the existing experience still serves the people it was originally designed for.
Luxury has continuously refined materials. It has refined manufacturing. It has refined craftsmanship. Perhaps the next evolution is refining ownership itself.
Imagine products designed to adapt instead of being replaced. Products that allow people to express different sides of their personality without unnecessary complexity. Products that continue to feel fresh and relevant long after the initial purchase.
That philosophy has the potential to strengthen the emotional bond between people and the objects they choose to own. Perhaps that emotional longevity is the greatest form of sustainability.
The simplicity of our philosophy. Beautifully crafted pieces designed to evolve effortlessly, transforming from sculptural charm to statement necklace in under 10 seconds.
Looking beyond today's products
Every meaningful business begins with a belief. Mine was never simply to create another handbag. It was to explore how luxury ownership itself could evolve.
That belief ultimately became the foundation of lvb, a global luxury accessories house built around the idea that beautifully crafted products can adapt with their owner rather than be replaced by the next purchase.
While today's collections focus on handbags, sculptural charms, and interchangeable chains, they represent only the beginning of a much broader design philosophy.
For me, luxury has never been about encouraging people to own more. It has always been about helping them own something that continues to inspire, surprise, and evolve.
A new chapter for luxury
Luxury has spent decades perfecting craftsmanship. Now it has the opportunity to perfect the ownership experience.
The future of luxury may not belong to the brands that produce the greatest number of products. It may belong to those that create the deepest relationship between people and the things they choose to keep.
Because the most valuable luxury item is rarely the newest one. It is the one that continues to become more meaningful every time it is used.
"Great design has never been about creating more. It has always been about creating something meaningful enough to last."
"The future of luxury isn't about owning more beautifully made things. It's about owning beautifully made things that continue to become more valuable to the person who owns them."
Read more from Ronite Anne Hammond
Ronite Anne Hammond, Founder and Creative Director of lvb_collection
Ronite Hammond is the founder and Creative Director of lvb, a global luxury accessories house redefining luxury through modular design and dual aesthetics. With more than 30 years of experience across fashion, graphic design, and award-winning interior design, she has built her career creating deeply personal, experience-driven design. Today, she combines that expertise with a vision to challenge the traditional luxury model by creating beautifully crafted collections that evolve with their owner. Through her articles, Ronite shares insights on entrepreneurship, luxury innovation, branding, and the future of design.
