Self Love, declares a monochrome tee on the @sustainablychic Instagram handle, summing up the attitude that is having a moment. With 85.1k followers, blogger Natalie Kay gives us “a guide to a more conscious and meaningful wardrobe”. She does what bloggers do best: posting messages of her beliefs, wearing brands she gets paid to talk about, showing us her baby, Elliott’s, cuteness. The T-shirt, she says, is from Palabra, an “Earth-friendly and ethically-sourced clothing brand”.
Kay is part of a movement that combines e-commerce with deeper personal beliefs. And the trending philosophy is self love, with messages of it coming at us from all kinds of people who are selling products and services.
What is it about?
“Self-love recognises a shared humanity. It helps us make choices that nourish us and those around us. It makes us take care of our body, mind and spirit,” says Mansi Poddar, a psychologist in Kolkata. Which is probably why the concept starts with the self, and extends to the products we use and the lifestyle we lead: sustainability (cloth sanitary pads at ₹1,400 for a kit), a global aesthetic with a local beneficiary (clothes that work in Paris and Tokyo, but are made in India, ₹8,000 a pop), and things made by social enterprises (bamboo cutlery, ₹390 for a set of four).
The proponents believe in what they are advocating. They do, after all, belong to a generation of Earnests — the ones who came after the hipsters, and who Vice (the American digital media company) describes as “blogging about their feelings” and whose “lives are irony-free zones”.
Take @karunaezra, who writes poetry. “The universe has you in its palm. You don’t know it, but the trees on the street are sprouting fresh leaves just for you,” says a part of one of her verses. She also sells everything from jewellery to jeans via her Instagram feed, and some of the clothes she markets are created from “sustainable fibres like eucalyptus, soya protein, bamboo, banana and corn”.
Commerce meets positive psychology
This link between positive psychology and commerce is not new: in the ’90s, self-help books and classes did well. “Self-help often (though not always) works from the premise that we are flawed or lacking, and need to ‘fix’ ourselves, whereas self-love is based on self-acceptance,” says Poddar, adding that the change stems from the fact that ours is a collectivist society where we have, in the past, lost sight of our individuality and needs. Which is probably why we are wearing self-love on our sleeves.
This may also explain the way marketeers talk to people, not as clusters or families but as individuals, says Gurugram-based Manav Sachdev, who provides branding and packaging solutions. It is about a language brands use to ‘talk’ to potential customers. Whether it is Harley Davidson’s freedom pitch, Forest Essentials’ Ayurvedic luxury story, or Paperboat’s bit to invoke memories, the point is always for the product (or service) to make you feel better about yourself.
This is quite different from being self-indulgent, which is an almost wasteful use of resources, such as buying the most expensive watch in the store, without a thought about how its journey and making has impacted people and planet. Neither is self-love seen as selfish, because it is only when you truly love yourself that you can give of yourself to others. But it does involve self-care. The thought is: ‘I care for myself enough to pay that little extra for organic vegetables, and in doing so, I also care about the environment and the farmer.’
But the self-affirmatory communication that goes along with brands that feed into self-love, cost. Take yoga: you are paying for the environment (wooden floors, essential oil burners, sunlit studio), and fellow (usually well-heeled) co-yogis’ companionship. You will not encounter a rough-edged teacher in a Spartan room — that sort of class will cost you ₹1,500. The class where the teacher will tell you about “fun ways to self-love” — splashing rose water into your eyes when you wake up, walking on grass, sun gazing at the first rays — will cost you no less than ₹10,000 per month.
It is not all bad though
It is what gives HNIs the confidence to order a samosa with their Champagne or ask for a masseur on 24-hour standby, because jet lag and long work hours do not have to be punishing. “Everybody who travels nowadays, even the men, will try at least one spa therapy during a two-three night stay,” says Vikram Kumar, managing partner, Concierge Alliaance Global, Delhi. Hotel spas have also lowered their costs, he says, in order to attract more customers. Kumar, who has spent the last 10 years in the business, says that what has changed over the years is that when business guests travel alone, they are not hung up on the OTT indulgences: no personalised stationery, for instance, but perhaps organic flowers. Money can buy it, but it is also in sync with a love for the self and the environment.
Many professionals will not acknowledge the connection between psychology and sales, though. Dr Kiran Lohia, a dermatologist who practices in Delhi’s tony Vasant Vihar neighbourhood thinks that the number of treatments or the kind of therapies people opt for are not dependent on whether they have high self worth. Instead, those who “indulge in self-love have better outcomes because they have a healthy attitude to beauty”. The ideology of the triple bottom line — people, planet, profit — are feeding off another P, positive psychology, and more and more marketeers are understanding this now.
