The Liminal Luxurian – a view from the edge of luxury

11. The luxury of time

I’m fascinated by the human concept and preoccupation with time. It defines our sense of self. Our evolving relationship with it –?the passage of time – marks our lifestages, the episodes that mark our growth, our awareness, our personal journey.?

Throughout literature, writers, thinkers and scientists have been intrigued by the fact that time is not empirical but a conceit that can be folded, stretched, bent, breached and ruptured. It can also be suspended. This is perhaps the most achievable way in which the progression of time can be perceptibly altered, and as such is our most precious luxury.??

It’s those moments in life when the summer sun smiles on forever, and an afternoon stretches on beyond teatime. Early birds revere the Golden Hour – the moment before sunrise when light is liminal and marks the time in between. Indeed, for me my holidays are all about this special time of day. I rise early, while the hotel or villa still sleeps, and run in the cool shade of the mediterranean hills beneath pines and cistus. I swim alone in the pool, undisturbed by the febrile cares of others, and watch as the day slowly unfolds. And time slows. Those few hours between dawn and breakfast seem to last forever; each morning I feel as if I have already had a whole day of holiday before the first cup of coffee touches my lips.

It is on holiday that – if we are fortunate – we get to manipulate time in irregular ways. We break our regular patterns to create new ones, defined by a far more playful and creative relationship with the march of time. We relish, we gorge and we luxuriate. It’s one of the few times that luxury becomes a verb and not something we acquire. We become luxury. Great hotels and their GMs know how to accentuate this, to foster those moments where we luxuriate in the view, our surroundings, and the time we are given back to relax, eat, drink, make love and to feel human again.

I have also experienced this in the more mundane environment of the luxury store. Indeed, this what good luxury stores do best – suspending the moment for the time-poor and harried luxurian, bringing them into the present and making it last forever as they try on dress after dress or fuss over the choice of timepiece or shirt fabric, for once un-concerned about how long they’re taking to make a simple decision. This is perhaps, the greatest luxury of all. Nothing matters in that moment more than the pleasure that lies in front of us.

While you read this, I will be un-busy stretching time, gazing at the still pool in front of me, the water’s ripples slowly ebbing from my swim, returning to a state of stillness and dissipation. I will be luxuriating, and it will feel, in that moment, as if it will go on forever.

Happy holidays.