The death of Loud Luxury and the rise of New Luxury
In a world of noise, real exclusivity isn’t about proving you belong — it’s about knowing you do.
There was a time when exclusivity meant being seen. The more wristbands on your arm, the more laminated passes around your neck, the more you proved you were inside. Loud Luxury was about showing up and showing off.
Think of the Met Gala. The biggest moment isn’t inside, it’s on the steps, where celebrities flaunt their access for the cameras. Recall the early 2000s, when status was defined by the size of the logo on your chest or handbag. Consider VIP sections at major events, filled with people more concerned with who sees them than with the experience itself.
Loud Luxury is a relic. Yet, in places like F1’s Paddock Club, it still lingers. It’s visible in the excess of credentials, the layers of passes that function less as access and more as a performance of exclusivity. But what does that performance actually offer? Beyond the optics, does it create meaningful engagement, or does it simply reinforce an outdated idea of what it means to be VIP?
The Era of Loud Luxury
For years, luxury was about proving you belonged. A culture of stacking credentials, hoarding access and ensuring everyone knew exactly where you were.
Loud Luxury is about visibility — the flex of exclusivity rather than the substance of it. It thrived in a time when access meant proving you had arrived.
The Designer Monogram Era: Luxury fashion houses turned their products into status symbols. Wearing an item covered in logos wasn’t just about the product itself, it was about broadcasting that you could afford it. Think Louis Vuitton’s monogram explosion of the early 2000s or Gucci’s maximalist branding under Alessandro Michele.
The VIP Club Scene: Getting past the velvet rope wasn’t about the experience inside, it was about being seen getting in. Celebrities and socialites stacked VIP passes and event invites to manufacture exclusivity, making access the goal rather than immersion in an experience.
Hype Culture and Limited Drops: Supreme’s infamous box logo drops. Resale markets thriving on scarcity. Loud Luxury drove demand not by creating experiences, but by making things artificially hard to get, turning the act of owning into the moment itself.
But as consumer behavior evolved, Loud Luxury started to feel dated. The people who mattered, the high-value clients, the true insiders didn’t need to prove they belonged. They just did. The loud, logo-driven access flex became unnecessary. A new era of luxury began to take shape.
The Turning Point: The Fall of Soho House and the Rise of True Private Clubs
For years, Soho House was the blueprint for modern exclusivity. A members-only club where access was curated, where the right mix of creatives and industry insiders made every location feel like a world of its own. Getting in wasn’t easy and that was the point. Memberships were limited. The experience felt intimate.
Then everything changed. Soho House went public. The exclusivity model gave way to expansion and with it came mass accessibility. Membership caps were lifted, new locations opened worldwide and suddenly, anyone could be inside the House. The culture shifted. What was once a discreet, invite-driven space became another backdrop for content. Members treated the clubs like social hubs, snapping photos, documenting the experience, eroding the very privacy that had made it special. The brand that once defined curated exclusivity became just another membership club.
The fallout was immediate. Longtime members left, searching for spaces that still held meaning. In its place, a new wave of ultra-private clubs emerged, ones that embraced true New Luxury.
San Vicente Bungalows in Los Angeles and soon to be NYC are built on absolute privacy. No photos. No social media. No flexing access, just a world where those inside know they belong.
Zero Bond in New York restored the feeling of curated membership, ensuring that entry remained about the experience, not the status symbol.
Casa Cruz operates on the most exclusive level, by invitation only, with access granted to those who truly fit the culture, not just those who can pay the fee.
This was the shift. New Luxury isn’t just about exclusivity. It’s about control over the experience.
The Shift to New Luxury
Today, the highest level of exclusivity isn’t about being seen. It’s about being inside.
New Luxury isn’t about proving you belong. It’s about knowing you do. It’s effortless. Invisible. Seamless. The people who matter already know and those who don’t? They were never meant to.
The shift from Loud Luxury to New Luxury is marked by a few key changes:
From Visibility to Discretion: Logos are fading. Branding is quieter. The most sought-after luxury items today are not the loudest but the most understated. Brands like Bottega Veneta, who deleted their social media presence, embody this. They don’t need to be everywhere to remain in demand. Their absence is part of their allure.
From Access to Experience: Being inside a world means more than just getting in. Chanel’s invite-only showings for its high jewelry collections strip away the noise of traditional retail, ensuring only the most engaged clients are part of the moment. Carbone Private exists without a website, only for those who are already inside its orbit.
From Status Symbols to Emotional Connection: Exclusivity isn’t just about expensive products. It’s about creating moments that can’t be replicated. The success of Ferrari’s exclusive driving experiences, where members gain access to private test tracks and historical archives, isn’t just about the cars, it’s about shaping an identity around the brand.
New Luxury doesn’t announce itself. It operates in its own world, where the experience is the flex, not the access.
What Paddock Club Could Be on ITM
Currently, Paddock Club still embodies Loud Luxury.
You see it in the stacked wristbands, the endless laminates, the separation of spaces instead of the connection between them. The experience is fragmented. Guests move between access points, but nothing links together. One VIP moment ends and the next race resets everything to zero.
If Paddock Club operated on ITM, it would be seamless. No wristbands. No passes. Just a fully connected experience powered by a unified ID where exclusivity isn’t about proving access but about owning the moment.
A Personalized VIP experience powered by data
Every guest’s journey would be tailored based on their interactions, interests and past engagement.
Predictive AI would curate programming matching the right brands, partners and talent to the right audience at the right race.
Music, hospitality and activations would shift dynamically, ensuring no two race weekends feel the same.
Limited-edition products exist only for attendees. If you weren’t in Monaco Paddock Club, you’d never see the Louis Vuitton travel piece. Missed Singapore? The Hublot timepiece doesn’t exist for you.
Before the race, anticipation would build with private access to the world’s most exclusive content.
Guests would receive behind-the-scenes previews, team content and early invites to activations not available to the public.
Music programming would be personalized, every VIP arriving with a curated pre-race soundtrack based on their preferences.
First access to collaborations that never hit retail, only available to those attending.
During the race, exclusivity would feel effortless.
Movement between team suites, hospitality lounges and invite-only spaces would be seamless and discrete with ITM ID.
Private team feeds, real-time access to team radio and direct conversations with team principals would elevate exclusivity.
The energy would shift dynamically, with music programming adjusting throughout the weekend to match the moment, from pre-race build-up to post-race celebrations.
After the race, the experience wouldn’t end. It would evolve.
Priority invites to afterparties, private team dinners and next-race access before public release.
Rare F1 memorabilia, exclusive auction pieces and collectibles available only to those who were present.
A continuous, connected brand world where the relationship deepens rather than resets after every race.
New Luxury doesn’t announce itself. It operates in its own world, where the experience is the flex, not the access.
The Future of New Luxury and ITM’s Role
The luxury market is shifting. In 2024, global luxury sales saw a decline, with industry leaders like LVMH and Kering experiencing notable downturns. Kering reported a 12% drop in revenue, with brands like Gucci and Saint Laurent struggling. LVMH faced a similar challenge, with shares dropping as consumer spending shifted.
This isn’t just a temporary dip, it’s a signal that traditional luxury models are losing relevance. The old playbook of scarcity-driven exclusivity and mass branding isn’t enough to sustain long-term loyalty. Modern consumers aren’t just looking for status symbols. They are looking for something personal.
New Luxury is built on relationships in a smaller room. It’s about personalization in a world overwhelmed by noise. But this isn’t just about customizing products, it’s about tailoring entire brand journeys and relationships. Luxury today is feeling as if everything was designed just for you, from the retail experience to the content and campaigns that surround it.
ITM is at the center of this shift, turning passive brand interactions into deeply connected, data-driven luxury ecosystems. With ITM, brands don’t just collect consumer data — they activate it. Every interaction fuels the next, allowing brands to create hyper-personalized, predictive experiences where the right content, access and engagement happen at exactly the right moment.
This doesn’t just elevate the consumer experience it unlocks new monetization layers. When luxury brands build ongoing relationships rather than one-off transactions, they increase lifetime customer value, deepen brand loyalty and transform every interaction into an asset.
The future of luxury isn’t about selling more, it’s about creating more meaning.
New Luxury brings intimacy back to a world of noise. When conversations become intentional, relationships deepen. This isn’t just how luxury survives a market downturn, it's how it thrives.
Loud Luxury is dead. And ITM is powering what’s next.