Sick of your mass luxury items? Try with the culture symbols

In a developed society most of the objects of luxury and mass luxury are also regarded as status symbols. Cars, watches, women’s bags, but also smart phones, bicycles, and motorbikes. To make it easy we would say that they are objects, or habits, thereby the social or economic status of the possessor may be judged. Some of these objects are considered mass luxury, like the Mini BMW, or a Louis Vuitton trolley. Others, like yachts, private jets, or a Louis Vuitton guitar case (available only upon request), are just luxury. But do we have to consider artworks, rare books or, for example, the Ferrari Dino in our picture, as status symbols too? We wouldn’t say so, and here below we will try to explain why by introducing a new type of goods. We would call them the culture symbols.

 

In general, a culture symbol is an item that proves the knowledge of his owner with regards to a specific kind of objects and his ability to find the best one on the market. Through the object the owner is not interested in proving how much he owns in terms of money, but what he IS in term of education, sensitivity, experience, and influence. Of course the item can also be expensive, but it doesn’t have to be necessarily so. Rarity and quality are definitely the most defining characteristics for a culture symbol. People who purchase them are eager to see themselves represented by the culture symbol’s uniqueness.

 

It follows that if everybody is be able to spot a status symbol, because people do buy it so to be quickly recognized and possibly categorised through it, owners of culture symbols normally prefer to share them only with whoever they think can truly understand their value. Therefore, instead of being showed off, these objects are kept apart and sometimes protected. The massage they bring is precious, intimate, understated.

 

Furthermore, the status symbols are most of the time available on the market for those who can afford them. Sophisticated advertising and most wanted testimonials (sport champions, actors, sometimes also politicians) make them famous and desirable, so that they become commercially successful objects, even extremely successful in the case of mass luxury products.

 

On the contrary, the culture symbols are generally difficult to reach. Money is never the main problem, while research, knowledge, influence and luck are indeed compulsory.

 

It derives that a status symbol tends to be mass produced, but regardless of how expensive it might be it is likely to lose its commercial value and to be overcome by new status symbols over time. While a culture symbol is inherently selected and tends for this reason to increase its value in time.

 

In conclusion, the most important difference between these two apparently similar categories of items regards geography and history. While the status symbols may change in meaning over time and place – a certain fashion brand can totally lose its appeal from one year to the other, and from a city to another – culture symbols tend to be recognized by whoever appreciate them without any chronological or geographical boundary. Think about a Ferrari GTO, a painting by Gustav Klimt or an early copy of the Divine Comedy. That is also why culture symbols are effective social drivers and potential community creators, even when they are jealously preserved.

July 22, 2015