The Story Economy

My View on Evolving Consumerism

On a warm afternoon in July, thousands of people file into Wimbledon, tickets ready in hand. What they await is a seat, a (hopefully) exciting tennis match, and, more importantly, a story. Strawberries and cream, the familiar dress code, rituals repeated every year. Long after the final point is forgotten, the value of the day survives in anecdotes shared over the dinner table, photographs, and the quiet way it becomes woven into one’s sense of self.

As belief in permanence erodes and the world becomes increasingly homogenised by technology, consumption has shifted away from possession and passive experience toward active authorship. This change points to the rise of a “story economy”, in which value lies less in what is purchased than in how it can be integrated into a personal, shareable account of identity.

In 1999, Pine and Gilmore introduced the concept of an “experience economy” (Pine II and Gilmore 1999), explaining how firms could create value through memorable events rather than simply selling goods or services. Yet, staged experience has since become abundant and increasingly replicable. Social media has quietly rewritten the logic of consumption by rewarding experiences that can be retold, displayed, and interpreted by others. Consumers increasingly seek authorship over their own stories, and value settles on what a purchase allows an individual to express about themselves.

Nowadays, a Met Gala ticket costs over twice as much as in 2019 (The Economist, n.d.), and the prices of Wimbledon tennis debenture seats have jumped 69% from 2022 to 73,000 pounds (Noble 2025). Elite events remain unchanged, yet their perceived worth has grown sharply. What is being purchased is not spectacle alone, but the capacity to frame oneself within a recognisable cultural moment. The same event can support multiple interpretations: a display of taste, a claim to continuity, or participation in a tradition. Events function less as experiences to be consumed than as channels through which meaning is constructed.

This emphasis on personal narrative is also reflected in the growing visibility of so-called “wearable art” across platforms such as Pinterest and TikTok. Clothing is increasingly sought out not for utility, but as a medium of self-expression. Painted gloves, embroidered hats, and customised garments have all surged in popularity. According to a recent report by Grand View Research, the global wearable art market is projected to reach a staggering USD 22.5 billion by 2025 (Bonnie Levinson 2026). Brands such as House of Errors translate artistic motifs into wearable form, allowing clothing to function as a portable signal whose significance is activated by the wearer. In this model, consumers become living canvases of their own identity and active participants in the artistic world.

By contrast, fine art has moved in the opposite direction. The Art Basel & UBS Global Art Market Report recorded a 12% decline in global art and antique sales in 2024, marking a second consecutive year of contraction (‘The Global Market — The Art Basel & UBS Art Market Report 2025 By Arts Economics’, 2025). This downturn reflects the deeper misalignment between fine art and the conditions of cultural value in the present. The traditional approach on long-term horizons, with value accruing slowly through institutional validation and deferred recognition, has lost relevance, and the present cultural environment is increasingly oriented towards immediate visibility. 

More broadly, belief in permanence has weakened. Institutions feel less reliable, career trajectories less predictable, and digital platforms more temporary. Housing, long a cornerstone of stability and social standing, has become inaccessible to many younger generations, weakening permanence as a shared reference point even among those with the means to attain it. Identity becomes provisional rather than anchored, and meaning is increasingly front-loaded into experiences that can be articulated and shared in the present.

In a world increasingly shaped by technology, the pursuit of visual uniqueness is perpetuated by a backdrop of deepening homogenisation. Algorithmic systems reward recognisable patterns, while advances in artificial intelligence increasingly reproduce dominant aesthetics at scale, flattening the visual and cultural environment as it becomes more difficult to achieve difference. Once an object or style is identified as desirable, it is rapidly replicated and distributed across global markets.  As outputs converge, traditional wealth signals saturate. Items that used to convey distinction become widely accessible and culturally exhausted, creating a paradox of abundance in which creative capacity expands but meaningful differentiation becomes harder to sustain. In response, consumers place greater emphasis on intention, process, and human authenticity in creativity. Distinction takes shape in the story of how and why attached to an object, not the object itself.

The story economy emerges in the shadow of mass standardisation, as identity is shaped through personally authored narratives of consumption. In a world of abundance, where attention flickers and moves on quickly, interest becomes the scarce resource. And increasingly, it is stories that hold their value.

Bibliography

Bonnie Levinson. 2026. ‘Wearable Art Trend: New Year of Self-Expression’. January 14. https://www.bonnielevinson.com/blog/wearable-art-trend-a-new-year-of-self-expression. 

Noble, Josh. 2025. ‘Price of Wimbledon Tennis Debenture Seats Jumps 59% to £73,000’. All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club Ltd. Financial Times, April 9. https://www.ft.com/content/b55b0888-c108-49ff-b225-992c04c97f7d. 

Pine II, B. Joseph, and James H. Gilmore. 1999. The Experience Economy: Work Is Theatre & Every Business a Stage. 1st edn. Harvard Business School Press. 

The Economist. n.d. ‘Why the Ultra-Rich Are Giving up on Luxury Assets’. Accessed 17 January 2026. https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2025/10/12/why-the-ultra-rich-are-giving-up-on-luxury-assets. 

‘The Global Market — The Art Basel & UBS Art Market Report 2025 By Arts Economics’. n.d. Accessed 17 January 2026. https://theartmarket.artbasel.com/the-art-market-2025/global-market

Questions:

• How does technology fit into this trend of personalisation? For example, Project Primrose, the digital dress that brings fabric to life.