The influence of popular film on the cultural imagination runs deep, and in shaping the image of today’s luxury independent escort in London, no single movie is more important than Pretty Woman (1990). Here, the transformation to luxury independent escort is a metamorphosis fuelled by money. Tellingly, Roberts only becomes the ‘Pretty Woman’ of the movie’s title when that transformation is complete. In Pretty Woman, luxury is, then, a function of conspicuous consumption, whether it’s long, scented bubble baths in expensive hotels; gorgeous silken lingerie; expert up-do hair blowouts; racks of designer dresses, diamond necklaces fit for a princess; or the chauffeur-driven limousine for the final ride home.
And, three decades after its release, the consumer-led notion of the high-end, luxury escort, as seen in Pretty Woman, continues to hold the popular imagination in its thrall. Values and tastes have changed, of course, since the global recession sparked off by the collapse of Lehmans, and then cemented by a worldwide lockdown, several international wars, rising mortgages, an energy crisis, and a cost-of-living crisis. Most likely, we’re not as gaudy as we once were in the yuppie era of the Eighties and early Nineties; we’re a bit more knowing and wary of branding; we’re more healthily cautious about ascribing value and meaning to things and would probably rather prioritise experiences instead.
Discerning the ‘luxury’ in ‘luxury independent escort’ in London
Yet the escort industry, as a whole, may not have moved as quickly. Too often, today’s luxury independent escort in London, the wild-child Pretty Woman in the little black number, carrying a designer handbag, with the bouffant hair and the slick of red across her lips, looks increasingly anachronous, starts to look—dare I even say it—like a retro fantasy your granddad might have had, rather than corresponding to anything contemporary.
But where does this leave luxury? Truthfully, luxury was never what the Eighties marketed it to be, never simply about the things you could walk into a shop to buy, or the meanings that those things accrued when seen by others. For the “work hard, play hard” culture of late capitalism, that was an easy sell, but the very notion of luxury has forever been more substantial, more complex.
One of the earliest uses of the word ‘luxurie’, from medieval times, will be familiar to readers today. In his “Monk’s Tale”, Geoffrey Chaucer describes how ‘Proud Emperor Nero, with all his worldly ‘luxurie’, beautified himself and dressed himself with the costly purple dyes of Tyre’. We’ve inherited that ‘luxurie’: it’s the same, showy, expensive opulence we already know. Elsewhere in The Canterbury Tales, however, a different meaning emerges: ‘luxurie’ is synonymous and used interchangeably with ‘lecherye’, that strong, irrepressible hunger for gratification. Excavated and freed from the past, the very concept of luxury becomes so much more than about branded consumer goods. Luxury is the experience of being left utterly satisfied and, yet, having more, and wanting more. It is the promise of indulgence without consequence — embodied today, perhaps, in the allure of the luxury independent escort, who exists not merely as a symbol of desire, but as an experience of it. Luxury in itself is positively dangerous, particularly in a religious context. Luxury is nothing less than an experience of excess that is, at once, daring; bold; enticing; seductive; in a word, more than any man deserves, or should ordinarily have.
Today we live in more relaxed, more permissive times where luxury is something you can have, if you know enough to choose it. And, when a woman describes herself as a ‘luxury independent escort’, she does so with the fullest meaning that word has always carried.
In the interests of full disclosure, many clients are turned away rather than accepted: this is to be expected, given the nature and amount of mutual trust required in this line of work. As an elite independent escort, discretion, quality, and genuine connection are not optional — they are foundational. If a meeting does occur, however, clients can expect punctuality and presentability; and soon rest assured, assured of utmost discretion. The escort will be relaxed, unhurried, and personable. Polite and present.
But then comes the magic, the luxury. Clients will find her empathetic, caring, and understanding. They will find her fast-becoming attuned to their needs; adept at seeing their desires; touching yearnings they never even knew existed; and soon fulfilling them in ways previously unknown. This is where the true essence of luxury unfolds.