Answer extracted from the Beyond Luxury podcast — listen to the full episode below.
How do you build authentic taste that's truly your own, independent of influencer trends?
Taste and style have nothing to do with how much money you have—they're built on curiosity and the deliberate choice of how you live, shaped by the people around you. Developing genuine taste requires active effort to explore and learn beyond what trends dictate, ensuring your perspective remains authentically yours rather than a passive echo of what influencers promote.
The foundation of authentic taste starts with a simple truth: wealth is not the architect of style. Two people with identical budgets can develop entirely different cultural perspectives based on their choices and the energy they invest in exploration. This distinction matters profoundly in an age when digital platforms normalize a narrow bandwidth of aesthetic choices.
Your immediate environment plays a decisive role in shaping what you value and pursue. The people you surround yourself with—their curiosity, their experiences, their willingness to question mainstream narratives—directly influence the trajectory of your own taste development. As Martine Assouline explains in the episode, the people around you become mirrors for what's possible.
"It's something that nobody can take from you. And it's going to shape you. And it's going to make your identity stronger."
Martine Assouline — Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Assouline, a luxury publishing house founded over 30 years ago with her husband Prosper. Built from a basement operation into a global platform with over 2,000 books spanning fashion, travel, art, design, architecture, and gastronomy, Assouline represents a lifetime commitment to capturing culture through beauty rather than commercial logic.
The real challenge emerges when you recognize how pervasive influencer culture has become. Everyone is, to some degree, influenced by what media repeats and what algorithms amplify. The difference between passive consumption and authentic taste lies in deliberate resistance and active learning. This means reading beyond trending topics, seeking out voices and perspectives that challenge rather than confirm, and allowing your taste to evolve through genuine engagement rather than borrowed aesthetics.
Building a distinctive cultural perspective requires understanding that taste is accumulated knowledge. When you read deeply about a subject, visit exhibitions that move you, or engage with craftsmanship and design intentionally, you're creating a personal library of references and experiences that cannot be replicated by following a trend cycle. Martine Assouline's three decades of publishing luxury books demonstrates how consistent, thoughtful curation creates authority and influence more durable than any viral moment.
The practical implication is clear: your taste becomes your identity, but only when you've chosen it consciously. This requires resisting the gravitational pull of what's easy, popular, or algorithmically rewarded. It demands that you invest time in curiosity—whether through books, conversations, travel, or direct observation—and trust that this investment compounds into a perspective no influencer can replicate or sell.
What makes this approach radical in 2026 is that it requires what digital culture actively discourages: patience, depth, and sustained attention. Yet this is precisely where authentic taste emerges. Discover how Martine Assouline's approach to cultural documentation shapes how we understand the relationship between permanence and taste in the full Beyond Luxury episode.
See also
How should luxury brands approach heritage documentation and storytelling in the digital age?
As digital and fast-moving as the world becomes, physical books offer tangible permanence that people can own, refer to, and develop relationships with over time, creating a counterbalance to ephemeral digital content.
What defines the editorial philosophy of a luxury lifestyle publisher focused on beauty and visual storytelling?
The publisher's approach is to show things in the best way possible, not just reality. When creating a book on a subject like tennis champion Roger Federer, the focus is on capturing the spirit and essence through visual beauty rather than mere documentation.
How did a luxury publishing house emerge from documenting a single family property in Provence?
Martine and Prosper discovered La Colombe d'Or, a property they loved in Provence, and decided to create a book about it to capture its spirit. This single project became the foundation of their global luxury publishing empire.