The higher tiers need to feel genuinely exclusive to give customers something to aspire to, but if the most meaningful benefits are reserved for a small group of big spenders, brands risk alienating everyone else. Sephora has sought to make the program valuable from the outset: this summer, new Bronze members began receiving free standard delivery as soon as they joined. “Loyalty should feel inclusive from day one,” says Boyd. “Value means different things to different people.” For one customer, that might mean securing a product before it sells out; for another, it might simply mean free delivery when they need to replenish their favorite serum.
Lessons for fashion
Fashion makes for an interesting case study, because, historically, the status attached to a product has extended beyond the object itself. Brands have imbued clothing with nuance, while exclusivity could come from either owning it or simply knowing about it. Social media has disrupted both forms of scarcity.
“Status requires asymmetry, oftentimes via a knowledge gap (information) or an acquisition gap (price),” agrees Makoni. “When you think about status objects, both pillars are being democratized — social media accounts for accelerated dissemination of knowledge that usually would have been accessible by the few who are ‘meant to know’, and the acquisition gap has been democratized via buy-now, pay-later (BNPL) options, resellers, and I think even more esoterically, the Gen Z and Alpha ‘LARPing’ culture that’s emerging.”
LARPing, borrowed from live-action role-playing, has become an online shorthand for performing an expertise or lifestyle that one does not necessarily possess. In the context of status, this can manifest as individuals buying expensive clothing primarily as a means to flex online, or performing a level of fashion literacy and cultural capital through talking head content, without necessarily having the conventional credentials or purchasing power associated with it.
“Culturally, it feels like we’re skating on very thin ice,” says Healey on the current cultural landscape. “It feels like there simply isn’t enough meaning in the world anymore. Everything feels increasingly absurd. The stock market feels like a fraud. The economy feels like one giant casino. The only way to get ahead is by making an enormous bet on yourself. When so many of our social contracts are fraying, it’s incredibly difficult to construct the larger narratives that make everything else feel meaningful.”
Access, meanwhile, is one form of status that is harder to ‘LARP’. You cannot convincingly pretend to have been in rooms you were never invited into. Unlike a product, which can be purchased, or a particular kind of fashion literacy, which can be prompted from ChatGPT and regurgitated online, access is relational: it is determined by who knows you, who invited you in, and which spaces you are able to move through. In an increasingly transparent status economy, being able to demonstrate genuine access is starting to carry more weight than being able to demonstrate that you can afford the same things.
Luxury fashion has long understood access at its highest levels. Its most valuable customers, known as VICS, are courted with private appointments, exclusive previews, front row seats to fashion shows, as well as destination dinners. For instance, Bottega Veneta’s Palazzo in Venice, a 15th century palazzo opened as a cultural and client space, offering selected customers access to exhibitions, dressing consultations, and bespoke services. Fashion retailers have also been in on the game, with Mytheresa, for example, has built a program of money-can’t-buy experiences for its top spenders, like a recent two-day Sicily trip with Dolce & Gabbana and a French Riviera escape with Monolo Blahnik.
