In search of old-world luxury

The crammed life of the metros is not making anyone happier. Predictable lifestyles, limited freedom, cardboard friends, bottlenecks, grotesque crime and a host of stories on the 9 o'clock news that guarantee an era of anxiety is slowly becoming a way of life, a style of living, worth living only unresponsively.

Unsympathetic, to the positive side of society which is noticeably a bit out of touch with reality, it is an observation that needs to be addressed. No matter what strata you belong to, there is a sense of uncertainty and paranoia around.

Sadly, the realisation comes a bit too late for those who overlook it or fail to acknowledge its tight grip on the "metroculture" of today. (Shootout in Mumbai recently) For those who need some consolation, in comparison, Brazil is a country that is 10 years ahead of us in terms of this self-inflicted chaos. Fashion models backstage have two to four bodyguards each, escorting them around as they sizzle up the runways.

We pay our taxes with a conviction that comfort, peace, harmony, tranquillity and a sense of security, will blanket us as we go about doing our chores. We also gracefully accept that not everything will be rosy all the time. Under this premise, the idea of luxury can change the way we live.

If nurtured well, a healthy retail economy can grow into a consumer's paradise. Dubai has not only achieved this but is now a role model to the rest of the world.

In such a culture, spending tastefully on values that give the individual unprecedented experience of wealth, success and a mystifying feeling of escalation socially, can bring out the acceptance of fashion entertainment more unflinchingly.

The commercial interface between luxury and living, over the centuries, has shifted our mind set of luxury from being offensive to being totally accepted and cherished as an aspiration.

The mayhem around us clearly demands a newer meaning of luxury. The notion of splendour and living stylishly is changing once again. In other words, wearing marvellous designer wear, driving a Mazariti, subscribing to limited edition Mount Blanc pens, and living in a privileged neighborhood might have so very little to do with this new idea of modern luxury and taste.

New money in the hands of many millions will prompt the standards to move up. These new values may not necessarily be in the way of grandiose aspirations but actually a shift to the tried and tested ways of the past epoch.

Luxury is the mysterious ploy supporting consumption and notions of need and desire. As a society we are seeing a transformation in the way we perceive "living stylishly".

A crucial component of a society, luxury is a sophisticated understanding of the way a culture is evolving.

I think it's time to embrace new ideas that resemble the notion of "old world luxury".