Truth is Luxury. Luxury is Truth.

A month ago, I offered up some thoughts on what a luxury purchase might look like for many of the readers of this newsletter. I have been thinking about this a lot because I think that Gladstone / Hellen offers a sort of evolved form of luxury, one that is as much about beautiful goods as it is about philosophical intent.

My basic thesis starts here. If you read this, you are probably not -or not often, at least- in the market for traditional luxury goods. That is, you will not be queuing outside Chanel or Louis Vuitton for the latest drop of must-have ballet pumps.

True luxury is about something philosophical. A luxury product or service must have true depth to it, real soul. It is not enough to be superficially beautiful or made of the finest materials known to mankind. The ancient Greeks believed this, and they were right.

My recent post on this prompted a lot of people to reply with interesting and positive thoughts. So, I’ve been thinking about it a fair bit and I have further refined what I think modern luxury is.

Recently someone wrote to me and said, ‘whether you like it or not, you’re creating a new type of luxury company’ and that sparked something in me.

Truth. A lot of it is about truth.

Truth is the new luxury.

Honesty.

Transparency.

And this is as important as it is rare.

So, how does a company behave truthfully? I am talking about being truthful with customers by essentially removing both smoke and mirrors and, of course, outright lies. Unsurprisingly, perhaps, this isn’t actually that difficult. But it is very unusual.

Now, in claiming that we are being entirely truthful with you, we’re making a rod for our own backs because we are inviting you to catch us out. But that’s okay because we are trying to live by integrity and so we really need to be called out if we’re not being truthful with you, dear customer/supporter.

So how does this truth manifest itself? Like this, I think.

First, there needs to be truth in the craft and materials. This is an abstract place to start, but it is measurable because you can sense it in the same way that you can smell bullshit.

There is a particular honesty in, say, a basket weaver working with local hazel in her shed. Or a ceramicist using local clay in his hand-built garden kiln. Or indeed, in Britain’s last remaining oak tannery. These are the people we work with. There’s no smoke here, no mirror. No bullshit. This toil is honest. These products are too.

We three have all come too far in our careers to deal with products that aren’t entirely truthful.

That’s a new luxury and it is not one that many traditional luxury companies truly care about.

Second, perhaps, is that we are not making claims that are not true. Not ‘greenwashing’ would be an example here. ‘Greenwashing’ in business is so common as to be almost normal, but I think that customers can see straight through it.

Equally, not lying about provenance is important. It’s common knowledge that many traditional luxury brands lie when it comes to where their goods are made and by whom. In 2024, near Milan, Italian authorities discovered undocumented Chinese workers in factories that worked for certain marquee brands. That puts an interesting spin on ‘Made in Italy’ doesn’t it?

If we say made in Great Britain, we mean it in the most honest and transparent way. We will also try to be as truthful as we possibly can about where materials are made.

Then, purpose. Purpose is important here. But equally, it is an abstract, ambiguous word, so let me explain. I think that our purpose as a company is about doing right and not just talking right. Deeds not words. I promise you that if we say something is true, then we profoundly believe it is.

Also, I think that we can be truthful by developing our brand as we progress, so that it truly reflects our evolving tastes and knowledge. So many brands are unbelievably static, defined by some set of rules that are fixed, hemmed in by rules. So, really, this is about being truthful to ourselves and -in the most serious way possible- making things up as we go along.

Authenticity is currently the most overused word in branding. But behind this, there is huge relevance to truth, because as we’re exposed to more and more brands online, a niche is what every small company should be aiming to create. There is absolutely no point in trying to mimic someone else; it never really works. Ergo, if you don’t have a unique point of view, don’t bother.

This sort of authenticity is the ultimate honesty. It’s about being yourself; expressing your own ideas, taste, colour palette, whatever. And for the customer, it’s a luxury because it offers them the opportunity to engage with something unusual and, in a universe crowded with stuff, this is rare and beautiful.

Now, of course, we will definitely have to search hard for our customers if what we’re doing is unique, but I am sure that having a clear point of view gives us a long-term advantage. This takes courage of sorts, but the most important thing we can do is have absolute clarity and confidence of taste, which is, of course, a form of honesty.

Many consumers of luxury are increasingly engaged with experiences rather than stuff and that makes it harder for a business like ours to offer a form of luxury, particularly because we only exist online. This is an obstacle; good luxury shops are about customer interaction, smell, sound, touch, which are all physical sensations.

This is why I find it so weird that so many luxury stores make customers queue outside their doors before gaining entry. I know, it really is odd, isn’t it? Surely no sophisticated consumer would queue? The businesses claim that this is so that they can offer better customer service to everyone who is in the shop, which is pretty good bollocks, of course. You see where this is going? They are lying again. No truth, no luxury, just hype.

We want to create a business that works like a stick of rock. Cut through it and you find the same message running to the core.

If you happen to find something that we say that you think might be untrue, or might obscure the truth, please tell us.

Right, my inner voice is telling me that that’s enough for today and I am listening.

Please have an explore of our beautiful website if you have a moment.

All best wishes

Charlie