by James Langton
London Sunday Times
So you just have to own a hand-tooled leather change tray from Calvin Klein. Or perhaps it is an unrequited desire
for a cerise Pashmina gauze shawl from I Pezzi Dipinti. If so, you may be a member of "generation luxe,"
the newest demographic to emerge at the end of the get-rich Nineties.
With bottomless pockets, but apparently more easily exhausted reserves of good taste, generation luxers have been
identified first in New York by the creators of a new up-up-market Internet shopping service which expects to cash
in on a sociological phenomenon where money is no object.
Launched in America last week, luxuryfinder.com confidently believes it has uncovered a major new market with money
to burn on a $200 "Lady Mascara" ballpoint pen from ST Dupont ("a stunning example of quietly refined
style"). Or perhaps the latest Mercedes Gelaendewagon sports utility vehicle, as owned by the Pope. A couple
of mouse clicks and it's yours for $135,000. Tired of that Palm Beach rental? The website has holiday homes, but
not as we know them. Ayrton Castle in Berwickshire (sleeps 21, caters up to 150) costs $50,000 a week. Shooting,
fishing and golf can be arranged.
Generation luxe is young, confident and powered by the Wall Street bull market and plentiful stock options. It
devours expensive consumer durables faster than cattle barons devour the Brazilian rainforest. At the International
Fine Arts and Antique Show in Manhattan last month, dealers reportedly struggled to meet the demand for 24-seat
dining tables and full-sized portraits of 18th century aristocrats who might be just passed off as well-heeled
ancestors.
Much of this will be carted away to the Hamptons or the posher suburbs of Connecticut. The average size of larger
American homes has doubled in the past decade to more than 10,000 square feet. The five-car garage is now standard.
As The Wall Street Journal noted: "Big is back and with a vengeance. The end-of-the-millennium look is imposing,
conservative and unapologetically arrogant. It's all about me." Itoffers an alternative definition of such
behaviour, "the new narcissism". Member-ship of this group is defined simply by how much is in the bank
or, preferably the portfolio, heavy on new technology stocks and Internet IPOs. Like sharks who drown if they stop
swimming, the only way to survive is to keep spending.
Luxuryfinder.com represents the ultimate in quick-fix consumption. It is instant gratification on a staggering
scale. Visitors to the website are just a click away from a timeshare in a $12 million Cessna Citation executive
jet or a portrait of Anne, Marchioness Town-shend by Romney at $125,000.
Its founders are classic generation luxe. James Finkelstein once ran a glossy freebie magazine distributed only
in the classiest Manhattan post-codes. His partner in life and business is the lovely Pamela Gross, his bride of
barely 18 months and known to her friends as "Glamela" on account of her designer tastes. The couple's
wedding at La Cirque 2000 was featured in the society pages of The New York Times, with the guest list, including
Vera Wang and society hostess Blaine Trump, providing a useful source of investors.
At least $20 million has been raised from New York's wealthiest, who want to cash in on the Internet boom at the
highest level. Ms Gross confides that the service will help the new rich spend their fortunes wisely. "There
are all these people out there who have made all this money and don't know what the best sheet is or what the best
cuff links are," she says.
Luxuryfinder.com hopes to steer them in the right direction. It has appointed a "taste council" with
a buyer from Bergdorf Goodman and a clutch of magazine editors to arbitrate. Lord Charles Spencer-Churchill has
been hired to hold on-line chat sessions about the latest doings at Blenheim Palace, while Prince Dimitri of Yugoslavia
brings his exciting collection of cuff-link designs to the network.
No one can be sure, of course, that members of generation luxe will surf the web with the same enthusiasm as ordinary
folk show for cheap airline tickets. But the enterprise has no shortage of investors. After all, it's just something
else to spend all that money on.