Recessionistas Unite!

The term recessionista seems to be everywhere: from fashion magazines to news articles. But one surprising place would be Volkswagen car ads.

This new embrace of cheap chic has touched us all. It is a global movement to get back basics. It has even affected one of the largest luxury goods market on the planet: the Japanese.

Here is an excerpt of a New York Times article that brings the idea of how deep this recession is to a whole new level:

"Even through the economic stagnation of Japan’s so-called lost decade, which began in the early 1990s, Japanese consumers sustained that reputation. But this recession has done something that earlier declines could not: turned the Japanese into Wal-Mart shoppers."

This is significant because it seems that the only companies that are turning a profit are discount retailers. Even when the Japanese were suffering their own recession, they always made it a point to purchase luxury goods. It does not seem to be the case anymore.

"Now, the Japanese luxury market, worth $15 billion to $20 billion, has been among the hardest hit by the global economic crisis, according to a report by the consulting firm McKinsey & Company. Retail analysts, economists and consumers all say that the change could be a permanent one. A new generation of Japanese fashionistas does not even aspire to luxury brands; they are happy to mix and match treasures found in a flurry of secondhand clothing stores that have sprung up across Japan."

This is a sentiment that is shared by not just the Japanese, but Americans and Europeans alike. The ad above says it all. Why shop at a mall when you can shop in granny's closet?

What does this say for the future of piracy? Will there be a market for knockoff luxury goods if the luxury market is in a decline? Only time will tell.

Once Slave to Luxury, Japan Catches Thrift Bug