We need to make a distinction between luxury and beauty.
While most luxury products are considered beautiful, beauty is not necessarily luxury. In the making of luxury products, the pursuit of detail, craftsmanship and rare materials are generally the basis, which more often than not are executed with skill and authorship that render the final outcome as beautiful.
However, beauty is not exclusive for the few: products that take human identity into consideration are generally beautiful and can be found at every echelon of the market. Of course the heavy use of industrial methods, although increasing the availability of products to the masses, have transferred the authorship onto machines.
And even so, many industrialised products have given birth to new aesthetics that redefined beauty for the 21st century, considering brands such as Braun and Apple, who although are/were not entry-level products, have, through human-centred design, produced beautiful products that are visible in the hands of the masses.
Today digital fabrication is restoring most of the authorship back to humans through the possibility of mass-customisation that eliminates the costly development of traditional prototypes and moulds. Having said that, not all digitally fabricated products are beautiful, more often than not replicating and interpreting existing designs in a way that renders the products tacky.
The tools are now available, and the cost is accessible. Beauty is one considerate process away from being delivered.
