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There was a time when luxury jumped out at you, it shimmered. It presented itself and you recognised it in two seconds.
Now, not anymore.
Now luxury arrives on tiptoe, you catch it out of the corner of your eye, sometimes you only realise it later, when it dawns on you that something fitted into your life without you noticing.
That’s why luxury is no longer obvious... And no, it hasn’t lost its value. The truth is simpler, and perhaps more uncomfortable: it changed its language.
2025 has been the year when many women simply stopped negotiating. Basically, the urge to justify themselves ran out.
Not long ago I read that eight out of ten solo travellers are women, and honestly, it checks out. You see it in airports, in hotel lobbies, in cafes where no one seems to be waiting for anyone.
This is no longer leisure. This is personal territory.
At work, everything feels more complex. Reports like Women in the Workplace keep pointing to the same tension: women continue to give everything they have, even when the scaffolding around them is still shaky.
Ambition hasn’t moved. Patience has, or at least that’s how it looks from the outside. And then there’s everything happening beyond offices: women starting companies, building projects, testing ideas without written permission.
Data from global entrepreneurship networks suggest they’re opening businesses at a pace that would have sounded like science fiction a few years ago. In some countries, there are already more women than men at the early stages. That’s not a trend. It’s a deep social shift.
Add the broader context and the UN reminds us of it every year: progress and inequality move forward at the same time. There’s clearly more freedom, but also more pressure.
This doesn’t portray a single woman, it portrays a state of mind. And states of mind change everything.
When women change, meanings change too.
Plans are no longer the same and time is measured differently. Even the idea of the “perfect gift” starts to sound dated.
When someone’s life becomes more mobile, more layered, more self-directed, luxury can’t stay fixed in the same place. It has to move. It has to adapt. And here comes the turning point, which matters:
Luxury didn’t become cheaper. It became smarter.
Price is still there. Beauty didn’t go anywhere, it’s just that the luxury that truly lasts now needs something more (understanding, perhaps), although I’m not sure that’s even the perfect word.
The highest form of luxury is no longer about showing, it’s about understanding. For a long time, gifting luxury was a statement: look how important you are, look how far I went for you. And yes, that still makes sense. But something changed...
Today luxury carries more weight when it does more than impress, when it fits, when it accompanies a life instead of interrupting it. For instance: a life in transit, a diary that never quite clears, a moment of change that doesn’t need a narrator, a group of women who call each other friends but really became family. In short, human beings opening doors and quietly closing others.
That is luxury with context. And that kind of luxury is no longer obvious.
This isn’t a guide to “getting it right”, it’s a guide to paying attention.
If the year taught us anything, it’s that gifting luxury can’t be separated from context. To choose well, you first need to understand the moment someone is living.
If she lives between airports, she doesn’t need something that only looks good. She needs pieces that move with her. Clothes that make sense on a plane and still hold their ground an hour later in a meeting. Nothing exaggerated. Just something that works.
Circe: Designed for life in constant motion.
If her plans revolve around other women, luxury isn’t about standing out. It’s about ease. Confidence. Pieces that feel right in long dinners, shared trips, beach days that turn into nights.
Aysha Bilgrami: Confident pieces for shared moments.
If she’s closing a cycle, whether professional or personal, luxury becomes clarity. Not noise. Something that feels like a blank page rather than a costume.
Baobab: Quiet pieces for new beginnings.
If she’s building something of her own, she isn’t looking for decoration. She’s building credibility. She needs versatile pieces, coherent ones, clothes that speak softly but clearly and don’t get in the way of demanding days.
Farm Rio: Versatile pieces that support what she´s building
And if she decided to take care of herself, for real, her luxury is time. Comfort she doesn’t have to justify. Materials that feel honest. Cuts that don’t argue with her body. And yes, that matters more than it used to.
Matamba Artesanal: Comfort she doesn´t have to negotiate
That’s where ANTIBES comes in. Not just as a place to buy, but as a place that advises and guides you to find gifts with meaning, self-respect, confidence and purpose.
Because when luxury is no longer obvious, choosing well becomes a way of caring.
