There is a scene in Shelter in Place, a novel by David Leavitt about a woman who longs to flee New York after the 2016 presidential election, in which her investment banker husband tallies her bathroom products. The first brand name he spots? La Prairie.

The name – along with the Yves Klein Blue packaging, the lowercase sans serif font – is shorthand for luxury, in other words, even for readers who are not familiar with wealth, or indeed the contents of cosmetics shelves.