Brown Thomas has opened a new €12 million, 62,000sq ft destination store in Dundrum Town Centre. Media reports suggest a full-scale capitalist Elysium of Goop-style vitamin injections, a space for wellness masterclasses and access to a team of beauty stylists who promise to “awaken your highest self”, which they presumably do through the medium of primer or eyelash enhancer.
For shoppers who can’t really face the shopping part, there’s a concierge service to pick them up at home, drive them to the centre, hand them pretty things to buy and drop them home again.
The marketing bumf goes big on sustainability, and you may well be wondering where the climate crisis fits into all of this. Ah. That’ll be the Rent It! service allowing shoppers to rent €1,000 dresses for €148.
There is also a trade-in facility, where you can exchange your preloved Mulberry tote for vouchers to be used in-store on other essential items, such as a €512 LED décolletage boost bib, which promises to regenerate your skin and “support the ageing process”. (I find the combination of stress and too much red wine does a fine job of supporting the ageing process.)
No matter what else is happening in the world, someone will always be in the market for the latest designer handbag
There is nothing wrong with those who can afford it enjoying a bit of luxury, but the opening of this temple to high consumerism felt oddly out of kilter in a week when the world was waking up to images from another European city of small, stoic children squatting on yoga mats in underground train stations, and tiny babies swaddled in thick blankets in a makeshift neonatal unit inside a bomb shelter.
Of course, the argument could be made that life goes on. No matter what else is happening in the world, someone will always be in the market for the latest designer handbag. Italy did in fact make this argument, pushing to have the luxury goods industry exempted from EU sanctions on Russia over the invasion of Ukraine, while Belgium argued for the exclusion of diamonds.
You would imagine that if anything is likely to bring the reality of war home to Russian oligarchs, a run on diamonds and Prada bomber jackets might do the trick. This seems to be the view of EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell Fontelles, who tweeted: "No more: Shopping in Milano / Partying in Saint Tropez / Diamonds in Antwerp." He later deleted it.
Two Irelands
The Brown Thomas opening felt slightly discordant with the prevailing mood at home, too, at a time when the media has been full of reports on soaring inflation and the cost of living crisis.
The truth, of course, is that we are not all in the cost-of-living crisis together. There are now two, rapidly diverging Irelands, sometimes living down the street from one another.
The doing-just-fine class is largely made up of the homeowning, remote-working generation, who have seen their assets surge in lockdown with no great effort on their part. If they work in the multinational-dominated tech, pharma or professional services sectors, they’re experiencing an unprecedented boom in demand for their skills.
The other <a class="search" href='javascript:window.parent.actionEventData({$contentId:"7.1213540", $action:"view", $target:"work"})' polopoly:contentid="7.1213540" polopoly:searchtag="tag_location">Ireland</a> belongs to the one million who are struggling; who have no hope of being able to afford a home or even a holiday abroad
They shored up vast personal wealth in lockdown and now have more assets than at any time since the Celtic Tiger – almost €500 billion in financial assets, according to Central Bank figures, and nearly €600 billion in housing assets. These are the people who were able to spend €11 billion on what Simon Harris called "dickying up" their homes in the first year of the pandemic, 72 per cent of them investing about €5,000.
Economists had been predicting this cohort would be raring to spend as the economy reopened, and so it is coming to pass. A consumer survey by AIB found that spending on flights across all age groups rose 170 per cent in January, with the biggest jump among the over-45s. The owners of Brown Thomas will be hoping this lasts.
The other Ireland belongs to the one million who are struggling; who have no hope of being able to afford a home or even a holiday abroad. Earlier this week, a report by Amárach for Barnardos and Aldi revealed that one in 10 parents and caregivers skips meals every week, while half cut down on electricity, medical bills or other expenses to pay for food. This other Ireland is home to the 2,451 children in the State who were registered as homeless in December, a number that is "creeping up again", the Children's Rights Alliance warned recently.
No great leveller
The idea of Covid as a great leveller has long been debunked. In reality, the pandemic created schism after schism – between those who could carry on working in the safety of their homes and those on the frontline; those who were vulnerable to the virus and those who weren’t; those who suffered financially and those who amassed enormous personal wealth.
Now as the pandemic ends and another war has come to Europe, those gaps continue to widen – driven by rising inflation and energy costs on one side, and the jobs boom in the tech, pharma and professional sectors on the other.
It’s not easy, when you’re doing just fine, to think about the human stories of hardship behind the economic data: the parents going hungry so they can feed their children; the one in five people who say they are struggling; the one in four children in emergency accommodation who have been there for more than two years. But turning a blind eye isn’t a sustainable long-term strategy.
While some ration their heating and make decisions about who gets to eat tonight, others are shopping for €2,400 crystal-encased Jimmy Choos. In the Ireland of 2022, if you're not at risk of poverty, there's a good chance you're at risk of complacency.