how luxury became vulgar

what one influencer's backlash says about the state of the industry

TikTok beauty star Mikayla Nogueira is not the first person to spend a six figure sum during a shopping spree. She’s not even the first person to do that within her respective industry of beauty content creation. But the backlash she received from her recent luxury shopping haul is a reflection of the changing sentiments of society, not to mention an indictment on the state of the luxury fashion industry. It was only a few years ago that it was a rite of passage for beauty influencers to vlog their endless array of brand trips— just so said influencer can rant and rave about an updated formula for concealer. Most people would consider themselves lucky if they went to these destinations even once in their lifetime, let alone expect an annual invite to the most exotic locales on the planet.

Many of these influencers’ viewers quickly learned to anticipate these videos in the pipeline; often, you could watch a different POV of every invited influencer to the same exact brand trip. The sentiment back then was that the viewer was in on the experience; if I get an all expense paid trip to Tahiti, then we all get an all expense paid trip to Tahiti. And for a longer time than I thought possible, people actually bought that. I have always thought that eventually most influencers tip the scale with their following to where their community is voyeuristic at best, and envious at worst. (This is not to say that you can’t enjoy someone’s content who is in a different position economically than you— but if every other video is just a haul, a luxury vacation, a new house tour…..I have a hard time believing that you have anything genuine to offer your viewers at that point. Most of them are probably just there to live vicariously through you, which quickly turns to resentment.)

First, we have to take a bit of personal responsibility into our own hands here. This is not simply a dogpile on the influencer du jour. If Mikayla left the internet today, there would be 50 other influencers to take her place. We have to deal with the reality of what the average influencer is. I’m going to hold your hand when I say this……influencers are sentient ads. Of course, they are real people and they live real lives but this is their livelihood. They sell their likeness and their parasocial relationships back to prospective sponsors who then pay for a bit of their audience’s attention. If you’re taking personal responsibility over what you consume, you know this already. The days of an earnest girl in her bedroom just talking about what she bought and enjoyed with her own Jamba Juice paycheck money are over. At least, they’re certainly over by the time you have a following in the millions. And that’s okay…..you as the viewer can still enjoy artifice. But don’t be surprised when the thin veneer of that artifice comes off. This is how people pay their bills; it’s not authentic at that point. You can still enjoy it though.

…….which brings us back full circle to Mikayla Nogueira and her hauls. It’s no secret that internet fame has been very good to her. In the span of a few short years, you can visually see her ascension into a different tax bracket. Everything from her home to her hair has had an upgrade that quite literally only money can buy. Surely, this is a huge change that Mikayla can’t simply ignore within her life……but she’s made the terrible decision of sharing her new money adventures with the internet. And through the lens of the internet, people can view this lifestyle for what it really is. And…..it’s quite vulgar.

The definitions of vulgar that are relevant to this scenario are:

“Deficient in taste, consideration, or refinement.”

“Offensively excessive in self-display or expenditure; ostentatious.”

At this point I’m desensitized to people sharing their lifestyle online; you can throw a rock and find someone online making content that is just a thinly veiled attempt at trying to show they matter in this world. In fact on some level, I think that’s why most people pick up a camera and have the audacity to think they can carve out a lane on the internet super highway. And that’s no shade….I’m one of them.

But what stuck out to me in that haul was how the fashion industry in many ways has bent to the whims of the most low brow people among us. The world is full of rich people with bad taste but never before has the industry been this interested in rearranging itself to accommodate them. In fact, the fashion industry had a long held reputation for being largely unimpressed with most of its patrons, whether or not they had money. All of those movie tropes back in the day of people being treated coolly at boutiques despite their desire to spend money don’t come out of thin air. And while I’m not championing bad service or cultural biases, I can also see that instead of expecting the public to raise its standards for what high art should be, the luxury industry is just giving them microwaved design for a high price.

Because today’s luxury customer doesn’t really care about the clothes themselves, but rather how the world perceives them in those clothes. So go ahead and slap a Miu Miu logo on a white tee for $2000; it’s lazy and uninspired but the margins are high and someone poor in taste but rich in cash will buy it hand over fist. The industry sees that now and has fallen in line with the tastes (or lack thereof) of its customer. And in the case of someone like Mikayla (and scores of other people just like her), the time it would take to cultivate a formed sense of self is less appealing than buying into the brand of Louis Vuitton (even Hermes at this point) and getting that instant rush of feeling like a somebody. Luxury now is in the intangibles. (That’s no secret- remember we predicted this would happen back in 2023?) But nonetheless…..it’s still sad to watch.

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