The New Luxury
by Jon Boeve, VP of Accounts
What Might Be the New Luxury?
I recently had dinner with some friends, and the conversation turned to a question that feels more relevant every year: what is luxury today?
These were not casual observers. They are successful people who have done very well financially, and yet the consensus around the table was surprisingly consistent. Luxury is still about beautiful things and iconic brands, but increasingly, it is about something else entirely: freedom, privacy, and the ability to disconnect.
I’ve learned a lot about luxury over the years from my wife, who spent two decades working in luxury goods with brands like Prada and Dior. She also happens to have the shoe and handbag collection to prove it. And living in Las Vegas, luxury is impossible to miss. You don’t have to search for it. It’s everywhere, from the Strip to the resorts to the restaurants that make extravagance feel normal.
For most of my life, the usual suspects defined luxury: Louis Vuitton, Prada, Dior, Ferrari, Ritz-Carlton, Monaco, Rolex. The names were obvious. The signals were clear. Luxury meant something expensive, exclusive, and visible.
But is that still true?
Luxury Is Changing, Not Disappearing
The answer, I think, is yes and no.
The classic luxury brands are not going anywhere. People will still buy the watch, the car, the handbag, and the five-star suite. But the definition of luxury is expanding, especially among Millennials and Gen Z. For these generations, luxury is often less about owning a thing and more about having an experience.
That might mean spending money on a high-end hiking trip instead of a designer purse. It might mean camping in a van in Iceland instead of the Riviera, or a once-in-a-lifetime adventure instead of another posh resort weekend. In other words, the new luxury is often about meaning, memory, and personal story.
And that shift makes sense. Younger generations have grown up in a world where status is increasingly less about what sits on your shelf and more about what you’ve done, where you’ve been, and how you live.
The New Luxury Is Unplugging
At dinner, I asked my friends a simple question: if there were one luxury you would pay top dollar for, what would it be?
Their answer surprised me, though maybe it shouldn’t have. Every one of them said some version of the same thing: “I’d love to go someplace on vacation where it was not only required to unplug from technology, but built that way.”
That answer hit home.
It reminded me of my honeymoon in 2000, when my wife and I spent 10 days on the small island of San Pedro, just a short plane ride from Belize City. There were no cell phones. Wi-Fi did not exist. In fact, the only computer we had access to was in the tiny office at the resort. That wasn’t unusual then. It was just life.
For people over 40, that memory probably feels familiar. We remember a time when being unreachable was normal. Now, in 2026, being hard to reach feels like a privilege.
That is the real shift. The newest form of luxury may not be louder, shinier, or more expensive in the traditional sense. It may be the ability to be private, to be unreachable, and to be completely off the grid.
The Future of Luxury
So where does luxury go from here?
I think it still includes travel, adventure, and beautiful things. But increasingly, the most valuable luxury may be simplicity. Space. Quiet. Solitude. A place where your phone doesn’t matter, your inbox can’t find you, and your attention belongs to you again.
In that sense, the future of luxury may look less like a logo and more like a feeling.
And after that dinner conversation, I’m more convinced than ever: when life gets hectic, and you finally have the chance to step away, privacy, solitude, and being off the grid might be the ultimate luxury of all.