• Diamonds Lose Out to Hermès Bags as Brides Rethink the Engagement Ring

  The jewelry industry is facing challenging times as more women choose designer handbags over diamond jewelry. Now, even brides-to-be are dreaming of receiving a Hermès bag instead of a traditional engagement ring...

• Luxury Loses Its Shine: Middle East War Deepens Crisis in Global Luxury Market

  Behind the spectacular shows of the world’s biggest fashion houses in Milan and Paris lies a troubling picture: the global luxury market continues to slow, while the war in the Middle East appears to be making matters even worse, Reuters reports...

• Labubu Meets LVMH: Pop Mart Opens Flagship Store in Paris

  Chinese collectible designer-toy maker Pop Mart International is continuing its aggressive global expansion despite some cooling in overseas sales. The company has announced the opening of its first European flagship store in Paris, on the prestigious Boulevard Haussmann, next door to the iconic department stores Galeries Lafayette and Printemps, according to the South China Morning Post...

• Buying century-old trees is the new status symbol among billionaires

  Today’s super-rich don’t want to spend years waiting for saplings to grow. The luxury landscaping industry is booming with a new obsession: transplanting enormous mature trees — from oaks and palms to baobabs and magnolias — directly into the estates of the wealthy, The New York Times reports...

• “Wealth Has Turned Into a Zoo”: Why Luxury Travel Is Starting to Rebel Against The White Lotus

  Few television shows have had as profound an impact on the luxury travel industry as The White Lotus. Each new season sends viewers rushing to book the real-life hotels featured on screen, turning secluded resorts into must-visit destinations almost overnight...

• Why Millennials and Gen Z Fell in Love with 1-Carat Diamond Rings

  Demand for classic diamond solitaires is experiencing a massive boom — and it's about far more than just marriage proposals...

• From Miu Miu to Dior: Why Luxury Brands Are Betting on "Intellectual Influencers"

  As the younger generation grows increasingly disillusioned with traditional influencers and AI-generated content, fashion houses are turning to writers, thinkers, and literary culture in search of a new level of authority, reports the FT...

• BORN FROM CULTURE | ARMENIA: How Armenia Joined the Global Instagram Trend and Captured the Attention of Viewers

  Armenia has joined the global visual trend Born From Culture, bringing together a traditional dance, authentic national costumes and some of the country’s most iconic locations with contemporary pop culture and Future’s “Mask Off”...

According to The RealReal’s 2026 Luxury Resale Report, Chanel topped the list of the platform’s most in-demand brands. A major driving force behind the breakthrough was Matthieu Blazy: his highly sought-after collections for the fashion house, which he joined in late 2024, have made a major impact both online and offline. Searches for the creative director’s name on the site surged by a staggering 10,967 percent over the past year, Robb Report reports.

As we all know, the person at the helm of a major fashion house can have a dramatic impact on consumer demand. Sarah Burton at Givenchy and Jonathan Anderson at Dior have also generated significant increases in attention recently, with searches for their names rising 243 percent and 158 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, the brands following Chanel on The RealReal’s list of most-searched labels this year are hardly surprising. Louis Vuitton, Prada, Gucci and Miu Miu round out the top five, followed by The Row, Hermès, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta and Balenciaga.

Several iconic handbags have also seen substantial increases in average resale prices since 2016. Fendi’s Baguette, for example, rose from $294 to $3,012, while the Gucci Jackie climbed to an impressive $1,110.

Overall, however, vintage fashion is firmly back in consumers’ sights. According to the report, demand for items aged 15 years or more — which The RealReal defines as “vintage” — has soared 432 percent from 2020 to the present. Styles featuring lower waistlines and rich, tactile textures have also regained shoppers’ attention, driven in part by recent collections from Blazy and Anderson.

Interest in the luxury resale market shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, 93 percent of American shoppers prefer looking for secondhand goods through online retailers. Many consumers are also viewing their purchases through the lens of resale value: 47 percent of those surveyed actively consider how much an item could be worth on the resale market before spending their money.

That may be a particularly savvy approach, given that Hermès Birkin bags have increased in resale value by 92 percent over the past decade.

Follow NEWS.am STYLE on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram