Cheryl Marie Cordeiro

Mega Yacht Red Square Aft at Night – Image courtesy of Dunya Yachts.

The definitions of luxury

Luxury is an extensive concept which connects with extravagance, prestige and elitism (Dubois and Czellar, 2002). Some standard dictionary definitions of luxury could include:

• Something inessential but conducive to pleasure and comfort.
• Something expensive or hard to obtain.
• Sumptuous living or surroundings: lives in luxury.

One could see how the above three definitions found in the American Heritage Dictionary, are intertwined and difficult to separate. A very broad definition of what is luxury, from Coco Chanel reflects this interlacing of definitions to form a concept of luxury: “Luxury is a necessity that begins when necessity ends” (Gradvall, 2007).