A Gucci shop is seen at the Jiangbei international airport in southwestern China's Chongqing on March 6, 2025. AFP-TNS

If health is the new wealth, luxury brands need to command a share of this spending.

From billionaires wanting to live forever to $300,000 facelifts, the uber-rich are splurging more than ever on what they put inside their bodies and how they exercise, rather than simply splashing out on clothes and accessories. This outlay competes with typical spending on material goods such as jewels and rare Birkin bags. But it also represents a lucrative market for luxury firms — if they can find the right strategy in a business as perilous as an ice-bath plunge.

Global spending on well-being products and services promoting health, sleep, nutrition, fitness, mindfulness and appearance totaled $2 trillion in 2024, according to McKinsey & Co., and the Business of Fashion’s State of Fashion 2026 report. That could reach as much as $2.5 trillion by 2028. McKinsey found that 84 percent of U.S. consumers and 94 percent of those in China were prioritizing wellness, with younger people leading.

Not all of the spending will be on the most top-end treatments. But winning even a fraction of that increased outlay would be a vitamin infusion for an industry that has undergone an unprecedented boom-and-bust over the past five years.

Beauty brands probably have the edge, and Kering SA, which has lagged peers as it seeks to revive Gucci, is one of the best placed. An overlooked aspect of the €4 billion ($4.7 billion) sale of its beauty division to........

© The Korea Times