The term ‘luxury’ stems from the Latin term ‘Luxus’, which translates to ‘excess’ or ‘extravagance’ – reserved only to describe exclusive products that belonged to someone of a higher power. These values reflect upon modern works today – shaping the consumer’s desire for luxury items. As the high-end market seeps into mainstream shelves, consumer tiers start to blur, opening the heavy doors of high-end products to a larger group of audiences.
Redefining Luxury – A Modern Brand Revamp
The changing concept of luxury becomes a conversation amongst not only several high-end fashion brands, but luxury lifestyle brands too. They are faced with a challenge: how can they realign with ‘luxury’ now?
Luxury fashion brands have chosen to blur audience tiers by collaborating with high-street fashion brands. For example, H&M’s iconic partnerships with high fashion brands like Balmain and Mugler, or Fendi’s partnership with sportswear brand Fila have pushed luxury fashion towards mass consumers.
As high fashion becomes more accessible, luxury houses are now driven to rethink how they can preserve the same traditional exclusivity that was present before. A collaborative study by BurdaLuxury and Vero titled: À La Carte Luxury: Gen Z’s Selective Indulgence Approach to Travel, showed that young affluent consumers do consider ethical values, like sustainability, as well as seeking experiences that add emotional value, whether centred around food or art. New-gen individuals strive to expand their understanding of the world through experiential activities, as they come to realise that authenticity has become the key asset to true connections.
Given this, luxury becomes less about what it is, and more about how it feels.
In response to the evolving market, high fashion brands are serving new strategies by offering memorable lifestyle experiences: one of those strategies being its new direction towards the culinary landscape.
Culinary’s Take on Luxury with Experiential Gastronomy
Like every brand in the luxury space, the restaurant industry is also moving parallel, with experience being the main goal. A report from Bain highlights that customers now perceive eateries as a social and cultural hub – to create shared memories in an immersive experience. “Fine dining as a term itself has changed: over the course of twenty years, it has shifted its focus from molecular gastronomy to cultural storytelling, and even stringing back traditional cooking techniques,” says Indonesian Award-Winning Chef and Author, Petty Elliott.
As one of the judges for Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants and World’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2016 and 2017 – Elliott gives us an insight into the importance of curating taste palates with depth and creating memorable experiences on the dinner table not only for clients, but for brand-led projects. “The future of fine dining will represent the culture, philosophies of chefs and the restaurant itself. At the end of the day people just crave honest food – good flavour, not too complicated, of course, we see already molecular gastronomy is less glorified and people want to enjoy tastes that trace back on an intimate memory,” she highlights.
The intersection of luxury fashion and gastronomy presents the efforts in drawing experience-driven offerings beyond clothing collections and food. They are choosing to fulfil their customer experience through an immersion of a brand-coded lifestyle.
Fashion’s Growing Relationship with Cuisine
Chanel became one of the first luxury fashion brands to introduce its luxury brand fine dining concept in 2004. In collaboration with Michelin-star winning chef Alain Ducasse, the iconic fashion house launched Beige Alain Ducasse in Tokyo, opening its doors on the rooftop of Chanel’s flagship store in Ginza. The one-star Michelin restaurant whisks Alain Ducasse’ classic French palates with Japanese influences, serving a fine French-Japanese cuisine. The space is decorated with curated Japanese and French trinkets in chic interiors designed by Peter Marino, who led the architecture of Chanel boutiques worldwide.
Chefs and restaurateurs working in brand-led dining concepts are faced with work refinements: curating a compelling course menu that encapsulates a brand-infused experience. “We have to come up with these certain concepts and normally we create these concepts as the guest chefs at these branded establishments. People want to spend 2-3 hours with friends and families at a restaurant, which is a challenge to many restaurants: how to create a good experience and memory for the guests” says Petty Elliott.
In March of 2025, Prada opened its first culinary collaboration in China titled ‘Mi Shang Rong Zhai’. Welcoming their customers in the heart of the historic 1918 Rong Zhai villa in Shanghai – the brand introduces its first Italian-Chinese fine dining restaurant led by director Wong Kar-wai: Mi Shang features interior designs that mirror the Italian fashion house’s aesthetic values alongside the ambiance in his films like In the Mood for Love, which ties in to Prada’s long-standing relationship with cinema. The cuisine is a seamless blend of both Italian and Chinese taste palates, giving audiences a deep dive into both cultures: embracing Chinese tradition while wrapped in Prada’s Italian heritage.
Saint Laurent has taken a different yet equally compelling route, opening ‘Sushi Park Paris’ – a sushi bar situated in the basement floor of their Rive Droite store on Rue Saint-Honoré. The intimate omakase experience offers guests an unexpected interplay of the intricate Japanese food scene among the bustling Parisian streets. Vaccarello’s passion for sleek interior design, as reflected through the interior pieces in Saint Laurent’s Rive Droite collection, has been infused in the dining space – echoing the brand’s aesthetic values; traditional, yet modern.
The opening of Prada’s Mi Shang and Saint Laurent’s Sushi Park have reflected modern interpretations upon previous venues like Chanel’s Beige Alain Ducasse. “To reflect, people are looking for something new, Western cuisine has been the first culinary trend in the world,” says Elliott. “A young chef will learn about French cuisine as the first step in the business, but now Asian cuisines are actually quite dominant [based on results] at the World Best Awards and I think that’s to reflect that even the chefs want to explore something new.”
Sustainability: A New Standard of Luxury
As these restaurants turn to meeting consumers’ emotional value by pushing forward culture and tradition, some restaurants tap into ethical value. Italian fashion house Gucci made its first venture into dining branded as Gucci Osteria, centred on one of the fashion house’ important brand assets: such Gucci Equilibrium, their sustainability initiative which implements a zero-waste philosophy and 100% traceability concept.
These sustainable commitments are integrated with culinary work directed by three-Michelin-star chef Massimo Bottura, who infuses traditional Italian cuisine with Japanese and Mexican influences, incorporating local expertise from Japanese chef, Takahiko Kondo and Mexican chef, Karime Lopez. The first branch is set in the Gucci Museum at the heart of Florence – taking consumers in a complete immersion of brand culture, which is captured effectively throughout the dining space.
Restaurants that establish green initiatives can appeal to audiences who hold similar values. “It’s part of a celebration of local ingredients, farm to table and source – people want that information, they like traceable ingredients,” adds Elliott. “Food is precious – it shapes the experience of each consumer, so it’s very important to make it authentic and traceable. People like to know where their food comes from”. With levels of effort, restaurants that touch upon factors that money can’t buy defines the true term of luxury for many.
High fashion’s leap into lifestyle, especially cuisine, highlights its efforts to reinvent exclusivity, which has held new definitions ever since the market’s shift towards experiential luxury. Brands today are working in parallel to curate experiences that include their audiences’ best interest and serve a greater purpose to their identity. By aligning with the values and social consciousness of their consumers, they can trace back to the roots of extravagance, which is now worth more than an object with a price tag.
Luxury is no longer defined by the concrete ownership of exclusive products; it is now found in qualities that we value: honesty and authenticity.
BurdaLuxury’s Lens
With tailored experiences, brands can also create environments that expand their brand persona, behaviour, and taste, which gives brand identity more depth. When brands co-create an experience, they not only combine qualities to craft their very own ecosystem, but the exposure provides a balanced experience for both. When the objectives and aesthetic of both brands align, these co-creations can be proof that ‘products’ now are not just used, they are lived.
