Predictions for 2024: Discovering the ‘real’ joys of craftsmanship, says fashion designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee
luxury.
Within Luxury, there will be two worlds: the digital and the real. What would you choose — a members-only, fiercely guarded private avatar club or deepsea diving with friends in the remote Andamans? Custom jerseys for your virtual reality football team or bespoke tents for your next safari in the Serengeti? Couture for your avatar or grandma’s sari for your best friend’s wedding? Our products will be either tech-made and consumed online or handcrafted and part of our lived experience.
As people experience the virtual world, trying to create imaginary social bonds, more and more will rediscover, with renewed vigour, the simple but absolute joy of real life. It’s already happening in fashion and luxury: a purist upgrade towards all things artisanal and human. If luxury is defined by rarity, in an increasingly digital world human craftsmanship, experience, and interaction will become priceless.
It’s no wonder that brands who have always stood for craftsmanship are becoming the most valued. I see this happening not just in fashion and luxury, but in food and hospitality, music and entertainment.
Looking back to look forward has been my motto.
History is clear — the most unsustainable thing is absolute power. For every act of all-consuming power there will be a counterculture of humanity that will prevail — the beauty of the seemingly powerless. The walls of digital world will break down and there will be an exodus of digital refugees clambering to enter the real world.
We are the creators and we shall remain. The digital is there to aid, not supersede humanity.
LVMH recently forecast that it will have a deficit of 22,000 artisans by the end of 2025, a record shortfall.
