Luxury Fashion and Media Communication

Using image and film advertisements, interviews, social media and public and private archives, Luxury Fashion and Media Communication offers an interdisciplinary approach to analyzing the value of the luxury object. Regular reports on consumption in media and frequent advertising on social media have allowed people all over the world to share in the issues and development of luxury; but how is it communicated, and how has it affected the consumer? An international range of scholars explore the material and immaterial value and meaning of luxury, how it is materialized and how it is communicated between the luxury industry and the consumer. Investigating French, Italian and Spanish luxury brands and their communication strategies on the global market, and including two chapters focusing specifically on the Chinese and American markets, they examine the ambiguity of the luxury commodity. This volume shows particularly the conflicting narratives between the idea of exclusivity and human skills and their mass marketing. In exploring theoretical perspectives alongside the practicalities of how luxury is communicated, Luxury Fashion and Media Communication reveals the value of the luxury object and the consumer's behaviour in relation to that value. It offers an innovative and important intervention in the inter-related fields of luxury fashion, media and communication, and key reading for scholars, students and practitioners wishing to explore the material and immaterial value of luxury.

Paula von Wachenfeldt is Associate Professor and Director of Studies for Fashion Studies at Stockholm University, Sweden. Magdalena Petersson McIntyre is Associate Professor and Senior Lecturer in Fashion Studies at Lund University, Sweden.

List of Illustrations List of Contributors Introduction Paula von Wachenfeldt & Magdalena Petersson McIntyre 1. Contemporary Luxury and the Communication of Jewellery Patrizia Calefato 2. Sensing Luxury: The Meaning and Embodiment of Objects in Film Commercials Paula von Wachenfeldt 3. Selling luxury: Guided Sensory Communication in the Perfume Store Magdalena Petersson McIntyre 4. Chanel's Ascent to the Pinnacle of Luxury: A Triadic Model of Evolution for Luxury Brands Thomaï Serdari 5. Sketching agencies, intellectual property rights, and the mediations of luxury Véronique Pouillard 6. Strategical capabilities of luxury fashion: The case of Loewe Isabel Garcia Hiljding & Lourdes Susaeta 7. From Tween to Teenagers: The meaning and consumption of luxury amongst children Yasmin Sekhon Dhillon 8. Motivations, expression, and media: Symbolic consumption of luxury brands in China Emma Björner and Xinxin Liu 9. Luxury Fashion Brands and ethicality: The importance of expressing one's true self Gwarlann De Kerviler Index