Forget craving chocolate — how about a new Gucci, Louis Vuitton or Chanel piece for your collection?
It turns out that ladies’ penchant for the finer things is only natural: it’s in our biology.
New research suggests that women are driven to buy luxury and show off their designer logos more during a certain time of month.
Being fabulous is just one perk of this monthly preference. Picking up a man could be another, researchers say.
So how exactly did science determine that the luxe life is hardwired into the girls?
Researchers from Korea and the US predicted that women would buy and show off more luxury items around ovulation, about two weeks before their period starts.
This part of the cycle is when estrogen and fertility is highest. During ovulation, women are more sexually motivated and more likely to initiate sex, research shows.
First, researchers had a group of women draw various luxury logos. They found the participants drew larger logos around their ovulation, which authors say supports the idea that women want more conspicuous luxury during this time to get noticed by men.
Second, researchers asked women about what they hoped to purchase. Ovulating women had an increased desire to purchase luxury products in public, but not in private. Authors believe this points to the idea that buying luxury will help get them noticed.
In the third study, participants near ovulation were more likely to choose a $100 gift certificate to a luxury brand (like Polo Ralph Lauren) over a non-luxury brand (like Old Navy).
But when participants were told men do not notice women’s designer clothes, the women were less likely to choose a luxury brand, even if near ovulation.
“What we found most interesting is that the effect of ovulation on luxury desire is not simply a general increase in preference for expensive products,” the authors said.
“Rather, it appears to be socially strategic: the effect becomes stronger when luxury consumption is visible and personally relevant but disappears when women believe that men do not pay attention to such signals.”
Women and men in luxury
This year, the luxury goods market is valued at $484 billion — and last year, women made up 56% of purchases, especially in fashion, beauty and accessories.
This new research turns a common and known trope about men on its head: that men buy luxury to signal to women they’ll be a good mate.
“The thinking goes that material goods like flashy cars or expensive watches are a lot like the peacock’s colorful plumage, which conveys their fitness to peahens,” Vinita Mehta wrote for Psychology Today. “In other words, the owner of luxury goods uses them as way to advertise his access to resources, thereby signaling that he is a highly-valued potential mate.”
Are women the same? While it’s possible, other research points to another idea: Women are buying luxury to broadcast their standards, to deter undesirable suitors.
Think of a woman wearing an Hermès bag — that might send a message to men who can’t afford such an extravagance. It says: “I’m out of your league.”
Another theory is that women buy luxury to show other women that their man is amazing, as a kind of self-promotion.