Until recently, I thought Snapchat was an app used primarily by tweens and teenagers to send each other silly pictures. No longer. This week, I interviewed Frederic Cumenal, chief executive of Tiffany & Co, at a Financial Times luxury summit in San Francisco.

直到不久以前，我还一直认为Snapchat是一款主要是20几岁和十几岁年轻人用来互相发送愚蠢图片的应用软件。现在我不再这么认为了。上周，我在英国《金融时报》在旧金山主办的一次奢侈品峰会上采访了蒂芙尼(Tiffany & Co)首席执行官弗雷德里克•科莫纳尔(Frederic Cumenal)。

During our conversation, Cumenal revealed that Tiffany had recently created a sparkly Snapchat “filter” that communicates the dazzle of a diamond to anyone with a mobile phone. It even allows would-be purchasers to virtually “try on” the rings, without ever needing to go into one of those reverentially hushed Tiffany stores.

在我们谈话期间，科莫纳尔透露，蒂芙尼最近开发了一款闪闪发光的Snapchat“过滤器”，把钻石的璀璨光芒传递到任何拥有手机的人。它甚至允许潜在购买者虚拟“试戴”戒指，而不需要进入那些安静得令人惶恐不安的蒂芙尼门店。

Is this a good idea? That is the big question — actually, the $222bn question, if we go by the sector¹’s annual sales — hanging over the luxury goods world today. One of the reasons companies such as Tiffany are creating Snapchat filters is that they are keen to catch the cyber buzz — and appeal to “millennials”.

这是个好主意吗？这是个大问题，实际上，是一个价值2220亿美元的问题——如果我们根据如今奢侈品行业的年销售额计算的话。蒂芙尼等公司创建Snapchat过滤器的一个原因在于，它们希望在网上引发热议，吸引“千禧一代”。

Another factor is that the luxury sector is under pressure to do something — anything — to persuade sceptical investors² that it can continue to grow, because, right now, it seems to be at an inflection point. In the decade leading up to the financial crisis of 2007-08, rich consumers in the west gobbled up luxury goods amid the credit boom. Then, when the slowdown hit, cash-rich consumers in places such as China, Russia and Brazil jumped in to provide a new source of demand.

另一个原因是奢侈品行业正面临压力，要求他们有所作为（任何行动），说服持怀疑态度的投资者：该行业能够继续壮大，因为目前它似乎正处于一个拐点。在2007年至2008年全球金融危机之前的10年里，西方富有消费者在信贷热潮期间大量买入奢侈品。后来，当经济放缓出现时，中国、俄罗斯和巴西等国现金充沛的消费者进入市场，带来新的需求来源。

Now those emerging market countries are in the doldrums, and an anti-corruption drive in China has halted jewellery sales. Meanwhile, demand in Europe remains³ weak, and even in the US, which is supposed to be recovering, the picture is far from buoyant. Little wonder, then, that the share price of Tiffany (like many luxury goods companies) has tumbled by almost one-third in the past year.

如今，这些新兴市场国家正处于低潮，同时中国的反腐运动遏制了珠宝销售。与此同时，欧洲需求仍然疲弱，甚至在理应处于复苏阶段的美国，前景也远非光明。难怪过去一年蒂芙尼的股价（与很多奢侈品公司一样）下挫近三分之一。

People such as Cumenal argue that this partly reflects the vagaries⁴ of the business cycle. But what is really interesting for sociologists and anthropologists — albeit⁵ more worrying for those luxury executives — is that consumer habits in the west could be undergoing an even bigger structural⁶ change. In the 20th century, it was taken for granted that when rich people wanted to “enjoy” their wealth and display status, they acquired expensive goods such as houses, cars, art — and diamonds. But according to Sarah Quinlan, a MasterCard executive who analyses vast reams of spending data each month, there has recently been a shift in terms of how wealthy and not-so-wealthy people are spending money.

科莫纳尔等人认为，这在一定程度上反映出商业周期的变幻莫测。但对于社会学家和人类学家而言，真正有趣（不过对于那些奢侈品高管而言这点更令人担忧）的一点在于，西方的消费习惯可能在经历更重大的结构性变革。在20世纪，人们想当然地认为，当富人希望“享受”他们的财富并炫耀其地位时，他们会购买昂贵商品，例如房产、汽车、艺术品和钻石。但据万事达(MasterCard)高管、每月分析大量消费数据的萨拉•昆兰(Sarah Quinlan)称，富人以及不那么富有的人士的消费方式近年出现了变化。

These days, overall consumer spending is growing (albeit more among the rich than the poor). This growth is occurring almost entirely⁷ in services such as restaurants, hotels, travel and holidays, not just in the middle market but in the luxury sector too. “One thing that comes out of these great recessions is that we like our friends and families again — we prize spending time with them,” Quinlan says. “The majority of [the growth] in spending is going to travel and leisure, not goods.” Or, as a report by Deloitte consultants⁸ notes: “All consumers, but especially millennials, value experiences . . . spend by people travelling accounts for 40 per cent of the personal luxury markets.”

如今，整体消费支出在增长（尽管富人消费增幅超过穷人）。这种增长几乎全部出现在餐厅、酒店、旅游和度假等服务业方面，不仅仅在中档市场，在高端市场也是如此。“近年的大衰退带来一个现象，那就是我们再次爱我们的朋友和家人，珍惜与他们一起的时光，”昆兰表示，“大部分消费（增长）来自旅游和休闲，而非商品。”或者，正如德勤(Deloitte)咨询顾问们撰写的报告所指出的那样，“所有的消费者，特别是千禧一代，重视体验……旅游消费占个人奢侈品市场的40%。”

According to Quinlan, this shift can be explained by changes in lifestyles and values: today’s millennials often live in cities, not suburbs, so have less physical space in which to store “stuff”; they also prize concepts such as “sustainability” and “community”.

据昆兰称，生活方式和价值观的变化能够解释这种变化：如今的千禧一代往往生活在城市，而非郊区，因此没有那么多可以存储“东西”的物理空间；他们还重视“可持续发展”和“社区”等概念。

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I suspect there is another factor too: in the cyber age, physical goods simply do not feel very “exclusive” any more. Think once again about those diamonds. Fifty years ago, a scruffy⁹ teenager couldn’t wander into a jewellery store and try on a diamond ring; indeed, 100 years ago, poor people barely knew what the rich were wearing. But the internet has democratised the view: anyone can now “see” luxury goods and buy them online.

我认为还有一个因素：在网络时代，实物商品不再让人感觉非常“专属”。再想想那些钻石吧。50年前，一个衣衫不整的年轻人是无法逛珠宝店和试戴钻石戒指的；的确，100年前，穷人根本不知道富人穿什么。但互联网拓宽了每个人的视野：任何人现在都能“亲眼见到”奢侈品并在线购买。

What remains more exclusive are “experiences”, precisely¹⁰ because these cannot be commoditised online. One of the most powerful forms of conspicuous¹¹ consumption today is not the accumulation of goods but the accumulation of memories — and stories. These are precious because they cannot be replicated¹².

仍然比较专属的是“体验”，这恰恰是因为这些无法在网上商品化。如今，最强有力的炫耀性消费形式之一不是商品的累积，而是回忆（和故事）的累积。它们之所以珍贵是因为它们无法被复制。

That does not mean that people will stop buying diamonds. But it does mean that luxury goods companies are being advised to mix experiences with goods to create prestige. Don’t just put diamonds on Snapchat; offer rich clients the chance to meet the master craftsman¹³ too.

这并不意味着人们不会再购买钻石。但它确实意味着奢侈品公司正被建议将体验与商品混合在一起来创建显赫声望。不要只是在Snapchat上晒钻石了；还要向富有客户提供与手工艺大师见面的机会。

To put it another way, the more that our lives are hijacked¹⁴ by robots and cyber links, the more valuable the individual — human — touch starts to become. It is a striking reminder¹⁵ of just how arbitrary our ideas of “value” — and luxury — really are. And perhaps a reason for cheer.

换句话说，我们的生活被机器人和网络链接操纵得越多，个人（人类）风格也就开始变得越重要。这有力地提醒我们，我们对于“价值”（和奢侈品）的看法实际上是多么武断。或许这是一个值得拍手称快的理由。