Jeez, I'm part of this group, and I grew up upper-middle class, yet I feel no desire to splurge like this...i'm actually contemplating setting up a Roth IRA with my internship earnings (and I got a 401K through my employer, too) - i guess my parents instilled some responsibility in me
Generation gold-collar lives big, and at home
July 15, 2005
BY MARK DE LA VINA
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- They find solace in $325 Christian Dior sunglasses, a shot of confidence in a $600 Louis Vuitton handbag. Never mind that they still live with their parents and earn modest salaries in service jobs.
Are you gold-collar?
You know you're gold-collar if you answer true:
1) You are 18 to 25 years old.
--True
--False
2) You live with your parents.
--True
--False
3) You passed on college and work full time in a service or retail job, such as at the cosmetics counter at Macy's.
--True
--False
4) Your pastimes include clubbing, shopping and pampering (pedicures and manicures).
--True
--False
5) You prefer high-end brands, such as Louis Vuitton and Gucci.
--True
--False
6) You drink pricey cocktails made from top-shelf liquor (Grey Goose vodka, Hennessy cognac) instead of domestic beer.
--True
--False
7) You have a top-of-the-line iPod or the best-equipped cell phone, complete with camera, chirp function and assorted downloads.
--True
--False
8) Your idea of saving money is setting aside $200 for a new pair of Dolce & Gabbana jeans.
--True
--False
9) Your dream, spoken or not, is to become a celebrity.
--True
--False
10) Your primary source of information is celebrity magazines, such as Us and In Style.
--True
--False
"Work It! Understanding Working Class Youth in America," by Synovate research firm
For these working-class young adults, luxury is not just for the rich. Just ask Danielle Garcia, a receptionist at Kaiser Permanente who is in the midst of planning her lavish 24th birthday bash for 75 friends at the trendy Vault nightclub in downtown San Jose, Calif.
She and her pals don't know it, but they're part of a new niche that marketers say is growing: the gold-collar generation, blue-collar's glitzy counterpart.
"I'm really in awe of name-brand things," said Garcia, who moved back in with her parents to pay off credit-card debt. "I want to feel glamorous."
The appetite for designer labels and anything associated with celebrity has helped push luxury sales in the United States to $525 billion last year, up from $450 billion in 2003. By 2010, Americans are expected to spend $1 trillion on luxury goods, according to Michael Silverstein, co-author of "Trading Up: Why Consumers Want New Luxury Goods" (Portfolio Hardcover, $26.95).
The gold-collar contingent, ages 18 to 25, is doing its part by downing $12 Kettle One vodka martinis and sporting the sleekest rims on their Lincoln Navigators. To sustain a lifestyle inspired by rap videos and pop culture magazines such as Us, they spend a disproportionate amount of their disposable income on expensive brand-name products and services.
For many, any interest in college and pursuing a career beyond retail or service industry is deferred, even abandoned, in order to maintain champagne tastes on a beer budget, said Ian Pierpoint, a senior vice president at the Chicago research firm Synovate.
"This is the best-dressed, least-able, least-equipped generation ever," Pierpoint said. "If you're 24 or 25 and you're still at home, you're not doing a lot of things, like paying your own utilities. They are in some ways very experienced, but they are more coddled than other generations."
There were about 20 million young people who could be categorized as working-class in 2003, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That's more than half of the 18-to-25 population. In a phone survey of blue-collar adults within that age range, Synovate found that more than a third are what they have dubbed "gold-collar."
Garcia has never heard of the term, but her lifestyle and spending habits fit the bill: She once exchanged $305 Chanel sunglasses for $325 Christian Dior shades because a friend had bought the same pair. The owner of more than 100 pairs of shoes, Garcia built the theme of her birthday party around the Al Pacino gangster film "Scarface." The invitations read "The World Is Yours," a reference to the catchphrase that inspired Pacino's character to embark on a crime spree rooted in entitlement.
Garcia said her taste for excess is part fashion sense, part love of glitz.
"I want everyone to look at me. I want to have a lot of attention," she said. "I realize how shallow it sounds, but you know what? It's just what I like. I can't help what I like."
Jason Leong, 24, a makeup artist at Stila Cosmetics in San Jose, said he's more charged by the thrill of a new trinket than the attention it generates. He holds up his right wrist to show off a prized find, a canvas Christian Dior bracelet.
"This one was $180," he said, "but it makes me happy, so it's worth it."
Leong has tried to cut back on his high-end purchases from a year ago, reducing his $1,000-a-month spending budget, which was 60% of his take-home salary, to about $400 a month. He now sets aside $25 a week toward the purchase of a house so that he can move out of his father's place in Hayward, Calif.
When he walked into the Hugo Boss store at Valley Fair on a recent shopping jaunt, three salespeople gave him a nod and acknowledged him by name.
"This," he said, "is where I go when I want to spend money."
On this day of assembling an outfit for a wedding he buys a $120 gun-metal gray shirt and an $80 black leather belt. Though Leong is more restrained than some of his gold-collar contemporaries, he recently also shelled out $55 on Osmotics anti-oxidant for his eyes and $250 on a pair of Dolce & Gabbana jeans.
Tony Rodriguez, an intervention specialist for Catholic Charities in San Jose, encounters gold-collar youth through his work with a young men's support group. He said it's no secret why they try to emulate celebrities.
"You might not be able to live the life of Sean (P. Diddy) (Combs," he said. "But for a day, you can wear his $200 Sean John outfit and have that glow. You can have that star shine wearing that."
As a result, many young adults, he said, are more interested in stocking up on today's hot accessories than in investing time in an education or career that will pay off down the road.
"It's not that going to school is too hard," he said, "it's that it's not easy enough."
Gold collar generation
Generation gold-collar lives big, and at home
July 15, 2005
BY MARK DE LA VINA
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- They find solace in $325 Christian Dior sunglasses, a shot of confidence in a $600 Louis Vuitton handbag. Never mind that they still live with their parents and earn modest salaries in service jobs.
Are you gold-collar?
You know you're gold-collar if you answer true:
1) You are 18 to 25 years old.
--True
--False
2) You live with your parents.
--True
--False
3) You passed on college and work full time in a service or retail job, such as at the cosmetics counter at Macy's.
--True
--False
4) Your pastimes include clubbing, shopping and pampering (pedicures and manicures).
--True
--False
5) You prefer high-end brands, such as Louis Vuitton and Gucci.
--True
--False
6) You drink pricey cocktails made from top-shelf liquor (Grey Goose vodka, Hennessy cognac) instead of domestic beer.
--True
--False
7) You have a top-of-the-line iPod or the best-equipped cell phone, complete with camera, chirp function and assorted downloads.
--True
--False
8) Your idea of saving money is setting aside $200 for a new pair of Dolce & Gabbana jeans.
--True
--False
9) Your dream, spoken or not, is to become a celebrity.
--True
--False
10) Your primary source of information is celebrity magazines, such as Us and In Style.
--True
--False
"Work It! Understanding Working Class Youth in America," by Synovate research firm
For these working-class young adults, luxury is not just for the rich. Just ask Danielle Garcia, a receptionist at Kaiser Permanente who is in the midst of planning her lavish 24th birthday bash for 75 friends at the trendy Vault nightclub in downtown San Jose, Calif.
She and her pals don't know it, but they're part of a new niche that marketers say is growing: the gold-collar generation, blue-collar's glitzy counterpart.
"I'm really in awe of name-brand things," said Garcia, who moved back in with her parents to pay off credit-card debt. "I want to feel glamorous."
The appetite for designer labels and anything associated with celebrity has helped push luxury sales in the United States to $525 billion last year, up from $450 billion in 2003. By 2010, Americans are expected to spend $1 trillion on luxury goods, according to Michael Silverstein, co-author of "Trading Up: Why Consumers Want New Luxury Goods" (Portfolio Hardcover, $26.95).
The gold-collar contingent, ages 18 to 25, is doing its part by downing $12 Kettle One vodka martinis and sporting the sleekest rims on their Lincoln Navigators. To sustain a lifestyle inspired by rap videos and pop culture magazines such as Us, they spend a disproportionate amount of their disposable income on expensive brand-name products and services.
For many, any interest in college and pursuing a career beyond retail or service industry is deferred, even abandoned, in order to maintain champagne tastes on a beer budget, said Ian Pierpoint, a senior vice president at the Chicago research firm Synovate.
"This is the best-dressed, least-able, least-equipped generation ever," Pierpoint said. "If you're 24 or 25 and you're still at home, you're not doing a lot of things, like paying your own utilities. They are in some ways very experienced, but they are more coddled than other generations."
There were about 20 million young people who could be categorized as working-class in 2003, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. That's more than half of the 18-to-25 population. In a phone survey of blue-collar adults within that age range, Synovate found that more than a third are what they have dubbed "gold-collar."
Garcia has never heard of the term, but her lifestyle and spending habits fit the bill: She once exchanged $305 Chanel sunglasses for $325 Christian Dior shades because a friend had bought the same pair. The owner of more than 100 pairs of shoes, Garcia built the theme of her birthday party around the Al Pacino gangster film "Scarface." The invitations read "The World Is Yours," a reference to the catchphrase that inspired Pacino's character to embark on a crime spree rooted in entitlement.
Garcia said her taste for excess is part fashion sense, part love of glitz.
"I want everyone to look at me. I want to have a lot of attention," she said. "I realize how shallow it sounds, but you know what? It's just what I like. I can't help what I like."
Jason Leong, 24, a makeup artist at Stila Cosmetics in San Jose, said he's more charged by the thrill of a new trinket than the attention it generates. He holds up his right wrist to show off a prized find, a canvas Christian Dior bracelet.
"This one was $180," he said, "but it makes me happy, so it's worth it."
Leong has tried to cut back on his high-end purchases from a year ago, reducing his $1,000-a-month spending budget, which was 60% of his take-home salary, to about $400 a month. He now sets aside $25 a week toward the purchase of a house so that he can move out of his father's place in Hayward, Calif.
When he walked into the Hugo Boss store at Valley Fair on a recent shopping jaunt, three salespeople gave him a nod and acknowledged him by name.
"This," he said, "is where I go when I want to spend money."
On this day of assembling an outfit for a wedding he buys a $120 gun-metal gray shirt and an $80 black leather belt. Though Leong is more restrained than some of his gold-collar contemporaries, he recently also shelled out $55 on Osmotics anti-oxidant for his eyes and $250 on a pair of Dolce & Gabbana jeans.
Tony Rodriguez, an intervention specialist for Catholic Charities in San Jose, encounters gold-collar youth through his work with a young men's support group. He said it's no secret why they try to emulate celebrities.
"You might not be able to live the life of Sean (P. Diddy) (Combs," he said. "But for a day, you can wear his $200 Sean John outfit and have that glow. You can have that star shine wearing that."
As a result, many young adults, he said, are more interested in stocking up on today's hot accessories than in investing time in an education or career that will pay off down the road.
"It's not that going to school is too hard," he said, "it's that it's not easy enough."
Gold collar generation
