The Productisation of Heritage in 2025.
It’s striking how so many contemporary brands are trading in ‘heritage,’ from the Old Money aesthetic in fashion and interiors to the revived Nancy Meyers feel and transitional design trending via influencers like Shea McGee. In Australia, this trend feels rooted in economic context as much as in aesthetic desire.
Heritage Appetite Amid Economic Uncertainty
The Australian economy has recently shown signs of consumer resilience. In Q2 2025, GDP grew at its fastest pace in nearly two years (0.6% quarter-on-quarter and 1.8% year-on-year) underpinned by a 0.9% quarterly gain in household consumption. Notably, the household savings ratio fell from 5.2% to 4.2% . Similarly, year-on-year household spending was up 4.8% as of June 2025, driven by a 6.6% rise in services and a 3.4% lift in goods spending .
However, real disposable incomes in Australia have taken a hit. From 2022 to early 2024, Australia recorded the sharpest decline in real per-capita disposable income, down 8%, despite broader income stability across the developed world.
Risk and Reward of Heritage as Strategy
This tension comes from cash-strapped households, but persistent spending. It brings to mind the lipstick effect. We’re facing lean times, yet Australians are still willing to spend on small personal luxuries. For ‘heritage’ objects, the parallel is compelling: a preference for lasting, meaningful purchases over fleeting trends.
When every brand, established or emerging, adopts heritage cues (muted palettes, serif fonts, heritage-style branding), true authenticity becomes the differentiator. If heritage is merely style, not substance, brands risk appearing superficial when consumer attention shifts.
Marketing Heritage Without Hollowing It Out
For marketers, the task is delicate. It isn’t enough to adopt heritage codes, serif typography, sepia-toned photography, a brand film narrated like a family archive. The opportunity lies in making the aesthetic serve the substance. That means ensuring your supply chain, product design, and customer experience actually embody longevity. Storytelling should reinforce that reality, not disguise its absence.
Campaigns that simply borrow the look of heritage will fade with the trend cycle. Campaigns that tie permanence to real practices (durability guarantees, repair programs, investment in timeless design) will sustain credibility and trust.
Sustainability and the Longevity Advantage
The sustainability argument for heritage is twofold:
Consumer behavior: With cost-of-living pressures mounting, Australians are increasingly selective. Just look at mortgage and housing pressures. Households are prioritising essentials over discretionary retail purchases. Heritage products signal a meaningful counter-narrative: splurge smartly, invest in objects that age with grace.
Environmental impact: Long-lasting objects reduce waste and the peril of trend-driven consumption. When products are bought to endure, not expire, they align deeply with the slow-living ethos, and sustainability becomes authentic, not performative.
Heritage clearly sells. In 2025 Australia, it appeals both to our longing for permanence and to financial sensibility. But brands must do more than package heritage, they must embody it. The future belongs to objects designed to last, to narratives rooted in real craft and continuity, not just fleeting nostalgia.
The real sheen of heritage lies not in how it looks, but how it lives, and brands that grasp this will stand timeless, even when the aesthetic wave recedes.