Luxury Reloaded: Challenges for 2025

Luxury has always been a reflection of its time, an evolving dialogue between culture, society and desire. Today, however, this dialogue is being rewritten. Digital acceleration, shifting consumer values and new global imbalances are pushing the industry to question its very foundations: what defines luxury when experience matters more than ownership, and purpose counts as much as prestige?

These questions were at the heart of “Luxury Reloaded: Challenges for 2025”, a session held during Bocconi Homecoming 2025 with Emanuela Prandelli, Associate Professor at the Department of Management and Technology & LVMH Associate Professor of Fashion and Luxury Management at Bocconi University, and Associate Dean for Open Programs & Director of the Master in Fashion, Experience and Design Management (MAFED) at SDA Bocconi.

In her talk, Prandelli described 2024 as a turning point for the industry, a year that exposed the structural fragility of the sector, with slower growth in key markets such as China, a shrinking middle segment and an increasingly demanding Gen Z consumer base. Yet, as she pointed out, this scenario also offers a chance to rethink the very essence of luxury: to move from ownership to experience, from aspiration to inspiration.

Prandelli introduced the concept of the “hourglass market”, a luxury ecosystem increasingly polarized between the very top and the accessible bottom, leaving the middle segment under pressure. To remain relevant, brands must learn to reconnect with aspirational consumers not through price or scale, but through meaning, creativity and emotional resonance.

To guide this transformation, Prandelli outlined the “Five Ps of Luxury Reloaded”: Product variety, Phygital positioning, Price per quality, Personalization and Purpose. Together, these principles form a new framework for understanding how brands can balance heritage and innovation, remaining faithful to their DNA while engaging with contemporary cultural and technological shifts.

In this new paradigm, digital transformation is not an end but an enabler. Technology must serve human creativity, not replace it. Consumers increasingly seek emotional engagement, not exposure; discretion, craftsmanship and authenticity are replacing ostentation as the language of distinction. Prandelli called this shift “artisanal intelligence”, a counterpoint to artificial intelligence that celebrates human touch, empathy and creativity as the true sources of value.

But transformation in luxury today also means responsibility. From sustainable production to social impact, from brand activism to inclusivity, the true test of relevance lies in a brand’s ability to turn values into value.

As Prandelli concluded, luxury in 2025 is less about ownership and more about intention, how we choose, create and connect. Its future lies in experiences that move us and emotions that stay with us, because, as she put it, “the willingness to gratify yourself: that is the essence of luxury.”

SDA Bocconi School of Management