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I watched an YouTube video about Small Luxuries That Elevate Your Daily Life, and I’d like to share a passage that really resonated with me. The journalist was showing her fountain pen and her small leather notebook:
It’s an integral part of my deep connection to writing: words, paper. I find that carrying a quality writing instrument and a notebook in your bag truly elevates not only your personal style—because these are accessories not everyone carries, especially when they’re thoughtfully chosen, crafted in leather, beautifully made—but also embodies a philosophy that I find compelling and deeply meaningful.
I believe that our everyday accessories convey a message. The choices we make, whether it’s a pen, a pair of shoes, or nail polish, express a certain philosophy, a relationship to the world that deeply resonates with me.
It’s true that I tend to choose the things and objects in my life with great intention, precisely because I approach them with a somewhat intellectual, almost philosophical mindset. We live in a world of overwhelming abundance—endless possibilities, accessories, objects—and choosing consciously, with purpose, with a genuine vision in mind, brings me tremendous joy.
It also allows me to keep these things for years, to treasure them, to avoid getting caught up in frantic consumerism. Because when you act and choose with intention, it compels you to appreciate what you own with greater depth.
Choosing consciously no longer necessarily depends on the budget you have. With platforms like Vinted, Vestiaire Collective, and so many others, you can access luxury products, new, for a fraction of their original price. Even my neighborhood library is full of rare books, available for free. Material access to beauty has become democratized.
What has become rare now, what really makes the difference, is TIME. The time to observe an object, to touch it, to compare it with other options, to wonder why you like it. The time to learn in order to SEE what others don’t perceive. It’s this attention that forges true taste. Ideally, we should be able to choose according to what our heart tells us, and not what is dictated to us by algorithms, influencers, or ChatGPT.
As Oscar Wilded stated in “The Picture of Dorian Gray” :
[…] to influence a person is to give him one’s own soul. He does not think his natural thoughts, or burn with his natural passions. His virtues are not real to him. His sins, if there are such things as sins, are borrowed. He becomes an echo of some one else’s music, an actor of a part that has not been written for him. The aim of life is self-development. To realize one’s nature perfectly—that is what each of us is here for. People are afraid of themselves, nowadays. They have forgotten the highest of all duties, the duty that one owes to one’s self
I recently saw a YouTube video in which a gentleman was talking about ordering a custom-made pajama from a tailor. He issued a warning: “Careful, the discussion is very technical.” And indeed, he had to give the tailor an extremely precise brief: type of collar, sleeves, button size, fabric, weight, finishes, thread color… If you’ve never touched a sewing machine, if you’ve never learned clothing vocabulary, you won’t even be able to order custom underwear. In bespoke tailoring, it’s always the client who limits their own choice. They don’t know what’s possible to make, and they’ve also become accustomed to a certain standard of mediocre quality. For example, my leather craftsman got told off because a watch strap keeper he made could move (it’s a feature) when the client had become used to industrial, low-end straps with two fixed keepers 😀
That’s where true luxury lies today: not in the money you spend, the brand you buy, but in the time you invest to refine your eye, to know what you love and why you love it. That taste cannot be bought. It must be cultivated.
illustration photo: Dish with wooden handle by Bérangère Céramiques: Passage Potin 77920 Samois-sur-Seine
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