What are elegance and luxury?

[ChloeFrancoise]

I think elegance is something that someone doesn't need expensive items to have. Audrey Hepburn would have still been elegant had she walked around wearing a potato sack for a dress and cardboard boxes for shoes. No matter how many luxuries some people buy, they'll never be elegant.

 

[pucci_mama]

I think elegance is a way of being, a state. One's attitude can be elegant regardless of their clothes. While there are certain looks that are "elegant" in style, a non-elegant person in an elegant outfit is not elegant. And vis versa.

As for luxury. Its banal at this point. Luxury is at its core exclusivity, but there really is none anymore. To me in a post-dotcom era, luxury is NOT treating expensive things as if they are expensive. A heavily worn in Balenciaga leather jacket is luxurious, but a pristinely kept Chanel blazer is just expensive...

I agree.. elegance it's attitude, how you carry yourself... I don't think it can be taught.

I know many will disagree but while I find Audrey utterly beautiful and at times chic, I do not find her elegant...

Is elegance synonymous with beauty?

While there is no doubt that Audrey would still look beautiful in a potato sack.. I would not find her elegant in it.

I saw this girl once ... carrying black a crocodile birkin, black ballet flats skinny black jeans and Ray Bans's.. such a toned down outfit... I was struck by how elegant she came off... yes, she had a crocodile Birkin on her arm but she was not treating it as a status symbol..she had fantastic skin, but it was all low key..and cool.
This to me is elegance.

 

[fashionista-ta]

^ Well, let me be the first to disagree ... I do find Audrey elegant. Moving like a dancer always helps ...

 

[fashionista-ta]

I'll weigh in later, but just to get things started...

We have a member named Elegance.Is.Refusal.

...and fashionista-ta's current signature is a quote from Carmel Snow: "Elegance is good taste plus a dash of daring."

Apparently some people are extremely slow to change their signatures

 

[fashionista-ta]

"Elegance" and "luxury" are terms we throw around quite a bit when we talk about style, but I think there's a bit more to these terms than meets the eye. What do you think? Some food for thought:

What is elegance?

What is luxury?

Are the two related?

Are elegance and/or luxury related to style? If so, HOW are they related to style?

Can you be stylish without being elegant?

Is monetary wealth necessary for elegance and/or luxury?

Are elegance and luxury inherent and/or acquired?

Is luxury a "good" or "bad" thing?

Are you elegant? Do you wish you were? Are you glad you aren't?

Examples of luxury and elegance?

I have some thoughts of my own, but want to hear what other people have to say first.

I searched to make sure there wasn't a similar thread...hope this thread isn't redundant....If so, mods, do your thang .

To me, elegance is that certain something ... grace of movement, of presentation ... true elegance requires imagination, intelligence, and some originality.

Luxury is something that goes beyond the necessary in a perfectly lovely and perhaps slightly decadent way. Something that's not commonly available ... like an abundance of fresh, perfectly in-season berries in the summertime. If you can pick them yourself as the sun kisses you, even better ...

So really they're almost unrelated, although clearly an elegant person is going to appreciate luxury.