Luxury brands try to entice younger consumers with new experiences

By Auzinea Bacon, Nina Giraldo, CNN

New York (CNN) — On a recent afternoon in New York City, a small group watched as craftspeople in lab coats cleaned and carved small silver pieces under microscopes.

One by one, they peered through a magnifying glass at the glittering golden plume of a diamond bird. There was a loud gasp when a 3D-printed necklace was revealed.

At Tiffany & Co.’s Jewelry Innovation & Design workshop, the guests — some visiting from Belgium, India and Brazil — were given a front row seat to the jewelry maker’s craftspeople at work. Many staffers had worked at Tiffany’s for decades, showing off their “traditional tools,” including a wall of hammers — some of which were over a century old.

Fashion Institute of Technology student Isabelle Eilenkrig-Turnier and her mother, Inga Eilenkrig, had been interested in these types of luxury exhibits since visiting a Christian Dior factory in Florence, where Isabelle was a student.

“One thing is to see the beauty. But it’s also the ability to see how much actually goes into (making) it,” Inga said.

Such glimpses into product innovation could revive customer trust for legacy brands after severe price hikes pushed young and aspirational buyers towards upstarts or buying second-hand. Luxury prices have soared in recent years, rising an average 61% between 2019 and 2025 according to McKinsey & Co.’s State of Fashion report.

Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH), the owner of Tiffany’s, isn’t the only company pulling out all the stops to convince shoppers that their products are worth the price. Gucci has hosted museum-like exhibits covering its 105-year history. Chanel founded an art space in 2021, Galerie du 19m, displaying the craftsmanship behind luxury goods.

LVMH also introduced customers to the artisans and processes behind its other brands — including Loewe in Spain and Hennessy in France.

The luxury industry “is not exactly thriving right now,” said Antoine Arnault, LVMH’s director of image and environment, “but that’s not the reason we’re doing (Les Journées Particulières).”

“Les Journées Particulières,” the brainchild of Arnault, son of LVMH chief executive Bernard Arnault, was created in 2011 to spotlight the company’s artisans.

“It’s almost like being at a museum-level exhibit,” said Thomaï Serdari, a marketing professor at New York University, of LVMH’s workshops. Events like the one at Tiffany’s can reinforce the idea of a brand’s history and purpose, she said.

LVMH could use a boost. The company’s revenue fell about 5% to $80.8 billion in 2025, according to the company, marking two years of revenue declines.

Experiences shape a competitive market

Les Journées Particulières is an effort to not only lift the curtain on the exclusive world of luxury design, but also draw new customers in.

The program shows shoppers how and where products are made, conceived after a period where luxury brands, including LVMH, faced accusations of producing goods in China to cut costs, says Bernstein analyst Luca Solca.

But brands like Chanel and LVMH are also looking to expand their customer base to less wealthy clientele, Solca said. Middle-class shoppers represent more than half of the market, and transparency about how products are made can attract customers, he said.

“The sooner brands find the appropriate mix to reconnect with the aspirational middle-class consumers, the better,” he said.

Post-pandemic price hikes damaged customer trust, said Gemma D’Auria, senior partner and global leader of luxury at McKinsey & Co, as customers questioned whether product quality matched higher costs. Companies raised prices to both capitalize on pandemic-era splurging and offset higher fuel and manufacturing expenses in 2022.

But that priced out aspirational buyers — those who buy lower-priced products or younger professionals. Those customers account for about half of sales for the luxury market, and they are now looking to newer brands.

McKinsey found that most American luxury clients (66%) say challenger brands — smaller, independent fashion houses with less established history — feel more exclusive than legacy brands.

“Luxury brands need to re-arm this trust through transparency, through product quality,” D’Auria said. “This is why these experiences become a competitive differentiator.”

Events are a “value creation,” says Silvia Bellezza, a marketing professor at Columbia University. Her research has found that learning about the manufacturing process can make people more willing to commit to a purchase.

“Every opportunity that you have to impress your customers when you have them physically in store, you have to use it,” said Bellezza.

At the Tiffany & Co. workshop, Eleonore Trevisan, a student at Columbia University originally from Luxembourg, attended the event with her boyfriend, a longtime shareholder of Tiffany’s.

She told CNN after the experience that it was important to keep “craftsmanship in culture.” She one day hopes to buy a Tiffany product.

“It’s a brand that makes me dream,” Trevisan said.

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