Luxury Brands Are Charactermaxxing Now
What really separates the 20th-century fashion industry from our modern one? Taste. We’ve loosened up, culturally. It’s no longer about brand uniforms like the Chanel tweed suit or Burberry trench but selling the themes and characters associated with them.
In a 21st-century fashion industry that is now serving all these different types and subtypes that exist in style, luxury is now proposing personalities that you may inhabit, rather than a singular outfit. Call it charactermaxxing, if you will.
At least, that’s the feeling you get looking at Louis Vuitton’s Spring/Summer 2027 menswear pre-collection, whose lookbook is literally a compilation of different men’s archetypes. There’s “The Weatherman” in savoir-faire rainwear and the “Monogram Reporter,” a character who wears pieces “inspired by 1980s workwear,” according to the release, like suede- and canvas-paneled hiking sets. These are two completely different personas united solely by the fact that Louis Vuitton dressed both of them.
This extreme segmenting is an idea most memorably epitomized by the ever-influential Demna. Specifically, his SS26 Gucci collection, “La Famiglia,” offered archetypes like “La Diva” to “Inroverso” (“introvert”). There’s literally a quiz on the Gucci website that operates like a diagnostic tool (or Buzzfeed quiz), with a directive that reads “Discover which look from the La Famiglia collection best reflects your personality.”
Upon completion, you’re prescribed an outfit less as a suggestion as much as a “wear this Gucci to be your best self.” I was diagnosed “La Primadonna,” and suggested a $12,000 feather-trimmed silk caftan to best suit my “personality.” I’m only a bitch when I wear Gucci!
Human beings crave direction, which is why we will always turn to fashion authorities for guidance. But now, luxury houses as huge as Louis Vuitton and Gucci are selling us…options? Luxury charactermaxxing splits taste into different predictive personality types, inviting aspirational luxury shoppers to not merely shop, but find themselves in signature pieces like the frequently re-stocked Gucci horsebit jeans from SS26. Done right, you get brand loyalists. Incorrectly, however, it’s going to feel like every outfit is a costume and every day is Halloween.
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