With the generalization of consumption, luxury has acquired new proportions in our society. It is no longer a marginal phenomenon limited to a minority elite. It has become a sector of the economy in its own right. Through brands, it is ubiquitous in the communication universe. However, the usual reading key to the phenomenon remains what it was a century ago. Luxury continues to be interpreted in terms of symbolic struggles between social classes, with their strategies of distinction and ostentation by the dominant. The contemporary expansion of the phenomenon forces us to reconsider its nature: such is the conviction that inspires this two-voiced essay. Gilles Lipovetsky proposes a social-historical analysis of luxury from the diachronic perspective. Elyette Roux makes a market and semiotic reading of the current situation.