Crafting Luxury : Craftsmanship, Manufacture, Technology and the Retail Environment

The idea of luxury has secured a place in contemporary western culture, and the term is now part of common parlance in both established and emerging economies. This book explores the many issues and debates surrounding the idea of luxury. 

This new research addresses contentious issues surrounding perceptions of luxury, its relationship to contemporary branding as created by the marketers, and the impact this has on the consumer and their purchasing habits.

Crafting Luxury considers work within the field of luxury and luxury brands, encompassing established companies with a long heritage: from conglomerates and small independents to 'new' luxury and emerging models with innovative practices. It examines the industry structures with respect to production, as well as the hierarchies that exist, and the impact these have on both internal and external perceptions of luxury, from the makers to the sellers and consumers alike. Attention is also given to the working structures of the ateliers, production facilities, origin of materials, manufacture and the impact of technology on consumption, the retail environment and sales, all providing a true insider’s view of this complex world.

The authors – a designer of product and jewellery, a brand strategist and a fashion designer, an architect, and a sociologist and specialist in business management – are practitioners and academics. Their approach to dissecting the complex world of luxury brings distinct viewpoints to the debate, offering different perspectives, thoughts and interpretations of luxury.

Crafting Luxury will appeal to academics and educators, industry specialists and anyone interested in luxury as a concept. It will appeal to those in a variety of academic and industry disciplines: art history, history, social sciences and humanities with an interest in luxury, fashion studies, design, business, cultural studies and textiles. It will also be valuable to students and researchers in social sciences, humanities, business, design, branding, consumption, retail, architecture, cultural studies, fashion studies and textiles.

May also appeal to industry practitioners in retail, design, technology, marketing, the supply chain and manufacture, as well as design professions including architecture, fashion and interior design.

Jewellery designer and Royal College of Art graduate Mark Bloomfield is a digital craftsman and artist based at London’s iconic Oxo Tower. He is visiting professor of design, innovation and technology in the School of Creative Arts at the University of Hertfordshire. Mark has designed for some of the most influential and prominent designers, including Asprey, Vivienne Westwood, Paul Smith and Matthew Williamson. Additionally, he has worked in film and TV making jewellery for Titanic, Judge Dredd, Braveheart, Poirot, Tolkien and Gentleman Jack. As a leader in his field, using traditional craftsmanship techniques, digital tools and manufacturing technologies, Mark continues to dissolve boundaries and redefine the process of making through his exploration of the possibilities offered by current and emerging manufacturing technologies. In 2012 he won the Materialise World 3D Print Award. Mark was shortlisted for the Aesthetica Art Prize 2019 and his work has been exhibited at the Museum of York and at the Lowry Galleries in Manchester as part of the Expect the Unexpected exhibition. Mark creatively combines traditional craft techniques with advanced digital processes resulting in product that is engaging, surprising, thought provoking and sparks conversation.

Shaun Borstrock is professor of luxury and consumer culture. He holds a Ph.D. in consumer theory, is a visiting professor at Brooklyn College (City University of New York) and is head of knowledge exchange and research and In Pursuit of Luxury at Ravensbourne University London. He is interested in design-led innovation where design comes first – not as a service to fulfil a business strategy but as a visionary path where design is considered to be an intrinsic part of decision-making. This invites a new kind of multi- and trans-disciplinary collaboration from around the world. He also works as an independent consultant to luxury brands and associations around the globe. They include Harris Tweed Hebrides, Ford, John Lewis, The Cape Town Fashion Council, Fortnum & Mason, Asprey, Dolce & Gabbana and Gucci. He is a regular keynote speaker at events around the world as an authority on luxury branding and fashion, consumerism and brand strategies. Borstrock’s research evaluates notions of luxury that seem far removed from today’s world of excessive consumption. He explores how technology is changing the perception of the handmade in the context of how luxury brands have grown as a result of being able to supply historically handcrafted products en masse through technological innovation. His practice, in collaboration with Professor Mark Bloomfield, includes the invention of Modeclix, the world’s first fully customizable 3D-printed textile. Modeclix has been nominated for numerous international 3D print awards. Borstrock is the editor of Luxury Studies: The In Pursuit of Luxury Journal and co-author of Crafting Luxury: Craftsmanship, Manufacture, Technology and the Retail Environment (2022) published by Intellect. He also hosts the In Pursuit of Luxury podcast.

Contact: Ravensbourne University London, 6 Penrose Way, London SE10 0EW, UK.

Dr Silvio Carta is an ARB RIBA architect and head of art and design at the University of Hertfordshire, where he is also director of the Professional Doctorates in Fine Arts and Design (DFA and DDES). His research and design interest focus on digital design and public space. Silvio is head of the editorial board of Seoul-based C3 magazine and editor of A_MPS Architecture Media Politics and Society (UCL Press). Silvio is the author of Big Data, Code and the Discrete City (Routledge).

Veronica Manlow is a professor in the Management, Marketing and Entrepreneurship Department in Brooklyn College’s Koppelman School of Business. She and Shaun Borstrock are editors of In Pursuit of Luxury’s Luxury Studies journal and are organizers of the International In Pursuit of Luxury Conference. She is the academic director of the Innovation + Entrepreneurship Lab at Brooklyn College where she is working with a variety of community and City University of New York (CUNY) partners. Along with Shaun Borstrock, Mark Bloomfield and Silvio Carta, she is the author of Crafting Luxury: Craftsmanship, Manufacture, Technology and the Retail Environment (Intellect, 2022). She is editor, along with fellow CUNY colleagues Eugenia Paulicelli and Elizabeth Wissinger, of The Routledge Companion to Fashion Studies (Routledge, 2021). Her current research investigates luxury labour performed by artisans in a variety of settings ranging from independent workshops to the factory floors of large conglomerates. She is also conducting research on luxury salespersons, their career trajectories, strategies they employ and the challenges they face. She was a guest editor of a Special Issue on ‘Luxury Production’ in the Journal of Design, Business & Society published in October 2018. Her Ph.D. is in sociology from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

Contact: Brooklyn College, 2900 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11210, USA.