By Abhay Gupta – Luxury Strategist | Founder & Chairman, Luxury Connect LLP – Based on insights from the Altiant HNWZ Report, 2025
A Generational Shift Luxury Can No Longer Defer
Luxury has always prided itself on foresight. Yet, when it comes to generational change, the industry has often been reactive rather than anticipatory.
For decades, luxury strategy has been anchored in a predictable assumption: wealth — and therefore influence — follows age. The implication was simple. Engage younger audiences later, once purchasing power matures.
That assumption is now structurally obsolete.
According to the Altiant HNWZ Report (2025), a new cohort — High Net Worth Generation Z (HNWZ), the children of affluent and ultra-affluent families — is already shaping luxury’s cultural and strategic trajectory, long before it formally controls capital.
The heirs are not waiting. And luxury can no longer afford to either.
Who Are HNW Gen Z — And Why They Matter Today
The Altiant study surveyed 1,775 respondents across the US, UK, France, and China, including a distinct cohort of HNW Gen Z individuals. While their personal spending remains modest compared to established HNWIs, their influence footprint is disproportionately large.
HNW Gen Z operates at the intersection of three forces:
- They influence household-level brand perception
- They act as cultural validators within affluent ecosystems
- They represent the future custodians of intergenerational wealth
Luxury has historically focused on the moment of wealth transfer. What the data now makes clear is that brand relationships are formed far earlier than balance sheets suggest.
A New Definition of Luxury Is Emerging
One of the most telling findings of the Altiant report lies in how HNW Gen Z defines luxury itself.
For traditional high-net-worth consumers, luxury has been rooted in:
- Heritage
- Exclusivity
- Status signalling
HNW Gen Z, by contrast, most often describes luxury as:
- Expensive and high quality
- Desirable and culturally relevant
- Socially visible and digitally validated
Exclusivity alone is no longer sufficient. Desirability has become the primary gateway to aspiration.
This does not signal the erosion of luxury codes — but it does demand their reinterpretation for a generation that consumes culture before it consumes products.
Lower Spend, Higher Strategic Value
The report confirms that HNW Gen Z currently spends less on luxury than older HNWIs. However, focusing solely on transaction value misses the larger strategic signal.
HNW Gen Z demonstrates:
- High brand awareness at an early age
- Strong emotional alignment with select brands
- A clear preference for culturally fluent and digitally native labels
In practical terms, this means luxury brand-building must precede luxury monetisation. The brands that establish relevance today will inherit loyalty tomorrow.
Digital Is Not a Channel — It Is the Centre of Gravity
If there is one area where the generational divide is unambiguous, it is media behaviour.
The Altiant report highlights that HNW Gen Z’s influence ecosystem is anchored in:
- YouTube
- TikTok
- Community-led and peer-validated content
They place greater trust in:
- Cultural relevance over corporate messaging
- Social proof over institutional authority
- Community narratives over brand declarations
For luxury maisons, this represents not a marketing adjustment but a strategic reorientation. Digital is no longer an amplification layer. It is where meaning is negotiated and legitimacy is earned.
Sustainability as a License to Operate
Another decisive differentiator between HNW Gen Z and previous affluent cohorts is the role of sustainability.
The report indicates that:
- A majority of HNW Gen Z respondents actively factor sustainability into luxury decisions
- They are significantly more open to second-hand, resale, and circular luxury models
- Ethical ambiguity increasingly undermines brand credibility
For this generation, sustainability is not an emotional add-on. It is a prerequisite for trust. Brands that treat it as a communication exercise rather than an operating principle risk early disqualification.
Rethinking the Wealth Transfer Narrative
Much industry commentary frames Gen Z through the lens of the “great wealth transfer.” Altiant’s data introduces a critical correction.
While most HNW Gen Z respondents expect inheritance, it is often 10 to 20 years away. The implication is clear: waiting for capital transfer to initiate engagement is strategically unsound.
Luxury loyalty is formed early — and once formed, it is remarkably resilient.
Strategic Implications for Luxury Leadership
The emergence of HNW Gen Z calls for a recalibration of long-held assumptions. Five imperatives stand out:
- Engage before ownership
- Prioritise desirability alongside exclusivity
- Design tiered luxury pathways, not linear ladders
- Embed sustainability structurally
- Treat digital culture as core infrastructure
This is not a call to dilute luxury, but to future-proof it.
Closing Perspective
Luxury’s advantage has always been its ability to think in decades, not quarters. HNW Gen Z represents a generational inflection point — one that rewards brands willing to invest in relevance long before revenue.
The future of luxury will not be claimed at the moment of inheritance. It will belong to the brands that earned trust, meaning, and cultural permission years earlier.
Source: Altiant, “HNWZ Report”, 2025.
Editorial note: This op-ed reflects the independent views and analysis of the author and is based on publicly available industry research. It does not necessarily represent the views or positions of the World Luxury Chamber of Commerce.
