Reinventing luxury in the streets : an assemblage view of the relationship between luxury brands and street culture

This chapter discusses the emergence through the lens of assemblage thinking, arguing that the relationship between street and luxury can be usefully conceptualised as a complicated series of dynamic flows, multiplicities and deterritorialisations that impact both street and luxury to give rise to particular articulations of identity and marketplace participation. The scholarly attention paid to street culture frequently highlights the multifaceted nature of this enduring global phenomenon, while interpreting its more local iterations. The term ‘street culture' has been used to refer to a number of different environments, communities and practices around the world. While it is complex to capture all of the strains as they unfold across different contexts, the purpose of this review is to situate the elements of street culture that form the basis of the street/luxury assemblage. The cross-pollination between street and luxury has been commentated by a range of media and scholarly observers.