How can luxury brands navigate the growing discourse about how much their products are worth?
Last week, when some Chinese manufacturers took to TikTok claiming to produce bags for big-name luxury brands, and urging consumers to instead buy from them directly, it reignited the debate about markups and prices. While TikTok debates are, by nature, relatively fleeting — attention is already moving on to Coachella — it has left a residual feeling that the industry is facing a reckoning, and brands should be prepared.
For many working in the industry, the apparent revelation that global brands manufacture in China is hardly a surprising one, yet the videos caused intense debate among consumers. One viral video, made by a manufacturer claiming to produce goods for major European luxury brands, amassed over 10 million views before TikTok shut the account down.
“Many consumers probably like to think of their products being made by skilled artisans sitting in quaint villages in rural France or Italy; the videos shatter this illusion,” says Neil Saunders, retail managing director at research firm GlobalData.
The viral videos come amid escalating geopolitical tensions between the US and China. However, the luxury sector was already feeling the pressure in the wake of steep post-Covid price increases — what some have termed ‘greedflation’. In parallel, the spotlight is on luxury’s supply chain after a 2024 investigation by the Milan Public Prosecutor’s Office linked some brands to factories that were allegedly underpaying workers.
It signals a deeper cultural shift: a renegotiation of who holds the authority to define luxury value. The question is not whether the claims are true, says Saunders: “What matters is perceived value. If the videos undermine the perception of value, as in the quality of the product or its exclusivity, that’s more of an issue.” While the claims made in the videos are unverified, they’ve gained traction in an already fragmented attention economy because they tap into a deeper truth: consumers are starting to ask hard questions about luxury’s value proposition, and most brands have not evolved their communication strategy fast enough to answer.
The ripple effects
That undercurrent of doubt has been having a tangible impact on luxury sales. Even industry-defying Hermès reported slower growth in Q1 (while announcing a price increase for customers in the US).
Generally, economic anxiety is prompting shoppers to approach consumption more critically, according to WGSN’s Future of Deconsumption report, published last week. “Consumers expect prices to be justified beyond mere quality — products must also offer durability, resale potential or lasting cultural cachet,” the report notes.
Luxury sourcer Gab Waller, whose clientele includes Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Hailey Bieber, notes that while demand for her sourcing services remains steady, the mood has shifted. “I can sense a little bit of frustration on why these price hikes occurred and if they are justified,” she says. “If that frustration gets louder, it could potentially push some consumers away from buying luxury because they feel that they have been misled into questioning ‘is my product really worth this price?’”
According to fashion intelligence social media account Data, But Make it Fashion, consumer sentiment towards luxury fashion dropped -17 per cent in April compared to March. Founder Madé Lapuerta notes that, while overall fashion sentiment is rising, luxury is increasingly being met with scepticism by consumers online.
As to whether there has been a tangible impact from the recent spate of TikTok videos, opinions are divided. “Most of my clientele has disregarded all this online discourse,” says Elyse Berson, whose popular Instagram account @sourcedbyelyse sources luxury goods for predominantly US-based, high-net-worth clients. “If anything, I have noticed a recent increase in business as buyers are trying to beat any potential tariff effects.” What matters most, she added, is trust in brand legitimacy: “The most important data point [for my luxury buyers] is the authenticity of the item and brand.”
Waller echoes this, noting that her clients are largely unfazed. “They are very used to paying import duties… almost everything that we source is sourced globally, so we’ve always been very, very transparent about that. That has been a little bit of a blessing in this particular situation.” She adds that she hasn’t fielded a single concern about sourcing related to TikTok claims while fulfilling a high volume of luxury orders.
Still, just because some wallets remain open doesn’t mean trust is fully intact. Luxury fashion creator Dakshayini Arjun (@shayinjune) observes a growing tension beneath the surface. “Luxury pricing has become emblematic of wider economic imbalances. I think the virality of these TikToks is more about a collective weariness with systems that appear increasingly weighted against the average consumer.”
Other creators agree. Sophia Dennis, a luxury fashion creator who also writes Consumer Digest on Substack, believes that the TikTok videos expose more than just production rumours. “It speaks to a fractured consumer psyche, one straddling aspiration and alienation,” she explains. “In a post-Covid, randomised-algorithm world, luxury isn’t just a symbol of success — it’s a battleground. As class divides sharpen, the objects of status become symbols of both desire and resentment. It brings ‘them’ closer to ‘us’, and that proximity is uncomfortable for a market that survives on distance.”
The cost of saying nothing
Thus far, luxury’s response to the TikTok claims has been silence — a move that, in today’s hyper-online consumer landscape, carries risk. “The danger of saying nothing is that consumers assume the videos to be truthful and think badly of the brands because of it,” says Saunders. “The upside is that brands do not become engaged in a tit-for-tat argument… In some ways, brands are right to be somewhat aloof over this.”
While that might work in the short term, aloofness may not be a sustainable, long-term strategy for brands navigating a fractured consumer landscape. The emotional undercurrent here matters more than the factual accuracy of the TikTok claims, argues Dr. Thomaï Serdari, director of NYU Stern’s Luxury Retail MBA programme. “Consumers are angry. They focus on the price tag… and are confused about the increases,” she says. That confusion, Serdari adds, stems from a fundamental lack of understanding around what luxury truly means and what it entails: “how it is produced, where, by whom, and why the whole is more than the sum of its parts.”
Serdari believes this has created “a powerful trifecta of emotions — anger, confusion, mistrust — which makes consumers vulnerable to propaganda.” Brands, she argues, need to get ahead of this.
However, the strategy shouldn’t be defensive, instead, brands should use this as a springboard for more intentional consumer education. “Luxury brands need to reinforce their educational initiatives… They need to better explain what it means to create a piece of craftsmanship rather than simply and quickly assemble a product that looks like someone else’s work.”
Rebuilding trust
Education can help fill the knowledge gap, but it won’t restore trust on its own. In a climate where trust is eroding and scrutiny is rising, luxury brands can’t just clarify their value — they have to reassert it, emotionally and strategically.
So what should brands do? Analysts agree that price cuts would likely backfire. “Effectively, it is an admission that luxury is bad value for money,” says Saunders. Instead, he sees opportunity for brands to double down on their core differentiators: “what luxury brands should focus on is scarcity, their quality, their desirable designs, and the experience they offer consumers. Those are the things that underpin a lot of value in the luxury sector.”
Reasserting value also requires a sharper brand strategy — one that closes the narrative gaps that allowed distrust to grow in the first place. Dennis believes that the fragility of consumer perception wasn’t just inevitable — in many ways, it’s a wound created by the brands themselves. “Consumers are starved for clarity in a space built on ambiguity. Brands have left enough gaps in the story for others to fill in, and now they’re facing the consequences.”
What’s next?
Experts agree that for brands navigating the complexities of today’s consumer landscape, the viral reaction to manufacturers’ TikToks is less about supply chain visibility and more about who holds the power to shape perception. “Your consumers aren’t simply buyers — they’re also content creators, commentators and influencers who shape the narrative around your brand in real-time,” says Dennis. That reality creates both a vulnerability and an opportunity.
As Serdari puts it, brands must be focused on leading with clarity — now, more than ever. “With the rise in numbers of people who don’t know how to think critically and how to double-check the veracity of the media they consume, brands need to be the most authentic, transparent, and truthful they can be in how they operate internally and what they project externally when they speak to their consumers.”
In 2025, as narrative control moves further out of brands’ hands, the question becomes who holds the authority to define value in an era of consumer decentralisation. Experts agree that power lies in simplicity. Instead of delivering louder messaging or bigger campaigns, brands should be focused on crafting narratives that build clarity and transparency with consumers, while possessing enough cultural fluency to earn trust in a media ecosystem defined by speed, scrutiny and scepticism.
For an industry long sustained by scarcity and opacity, Waller argues that the next wave of competitive advantage will belong to those who are willing to meet consumers where they are: “in terms of what luxury buyers are craving most from brands right now, I think that transparency more than anything — even if that does mean a little bit of vulnerability [from brands].”
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