The state of the global fashion market has left many designer shoppers feeling disillusioned. So, what can still be cherished in one of the world’s most indulgent industries? Jessica-Belle Greer investigates.

The most talked-about shoe this fashion year is not a shoe at all, but a soleless sandal that wraps around the heel, and nothing else. The ‘heel’ made its debut at Biarritz’s Casino Municipal for Chanel’s Cruise 2026 collection, and it is rumoured it will be priced upwards of US$1500 when the collection hits the shop floor in November. In the meantime, fashion watchers are divided as to whether the ‘shoe’ is the embodiment of barefoot luxury, or a fitting display of designer fashion’s shortcomings. While certainly avant-garde, it has revealed the Achilles heel of the luxury fashion industry as a whole – that it can fail to meet customer needs in our attention economy.Georg Simmel’s 1904 essay ‘Fashion’ was one of the first serious commentaries on dress and trends. It stated: “The elite initiates a fashion and, when the mass imitates it in an effort to obliterate the external distinctions of class, abandons it for a newer mode – a process that quickens with the increase of wealth.” One hundred and twenty-two years later, it seems the luxury fashion cycle has spun out. ‘Taste compression’ is the latest label for the flattening of fashion – where micro-trends and social media algorithms have steamrolled personal style into specific items to covet. Now, many shoppers don’t wish to keep up. Bain & Company's Worldwide Luxury Market Monitor has shown the global luxury industry's customer base shrunk by 50 million between 2022 and 2024. Despite being the best in the business, LVMH – which grew exponentially through luxury brand acquisitions over the past four decades – is now selling off fashion brands, including Off-White and Marc Jacobs, like they are going out of style.

The real fashion faux pas is that luxury labels have been exponentially increasing their prices as they try to distinguish themselves. And while luxury labels pull a huge amount of resources into creating and selling status items, purposefully prohibitive price tags don’t always swing in brands’ favour. Hermès Birkin handbag,…