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Stories abound of wealthy consumers playing down their affluence by concealing their lavish purchases in plain paper bags and attending underground shopping parties. It's called "luxury shame." Greg Furman, chairman and founder of theLuxury Marketing Council responds to this new behavior and argues that the true, luxury brands will endure.
There's an enormous amount of sound and fury these days about luxury shame and the concept of luxury as pass and on and on.
True, luxury has been abused by "aspirational" brands wanting to capture some of the aura of "real" luxury products and services. And, yes, the consumer the "best customer" tuning out as a result of the barrage of overuse and misuse of the word by those that in the most robust of times wanted a piece of the pie.
Even though the economy is shrinking at its fastest pace in 26 years and the country is facing a deepening recession, the wealthy are increasingly snatching up smart phones like BlackBerrys and iPhones, according to a study by the Luxury Institute. Wealthy consumers from households with an average income of $332,000 and an average net worth of $3.3 million were surveyed on their use of mobile devices.
"Luxury advertisers and marketers should be aware that 3G devices are quickly gaining traction as ways to reach high networth individuals, especially the youngest and the wealthiest. Mobile devices will be an important component of the luxury experience," says Milton Pedraza, CEO of the Luxury Institute.
Legendary gossip columnist Liz Smith announced earlier this week that she's been canned by the
the New York Post . In an interview with the Daily Beast, the "Diva of Dish" calls being let go "emasculating" and says that it "makes you feel like you've lost your identity to some extent."
When asked whether or not she saw the layoff coming, Smith said, "No, I feared from the beginning I wasn't [Post's editor in chief] Col Allan's cup of tea. And I didn't hang around the Post. I never sucked up. I didn't go up to Elaine's and hang out." Smith went to the top of the chain and spoke with Rupert Murdoch, chairman and CEO of News Corp., who said that he couldn't overrule Allan's decision.
The New York Times reported today that the artist, who's been drowning in mortgage debt, borrowed more than $15 million from Art Capital Group, a company that assists art owners in creating liquidity from art assets. Sounds more like a glorified pawnshop.
Some of the images used for collateral include the infamous photo of a naked and very pregnant Demi Moore, the controversial picture of tween star Miley Cyrus for Vanity Fair , and images of first lady Michelle Obama used by the same magazine.
Leibovitz also put up for collateral several houses, including townhouses she owns in Greenwich Village and a country house.
The new era of air travel with exorbitant fees for things like checked baggage or traveling with a child or pet! see minor relief from US Airways, which will resume free beverage service on March 1. Gee, thanks!
US Airways' announcement that it will return complimentary sodas, juices, tea, coffee, and water reverses a portion of the la carte business model the company adopted last August, when it began charging $2 for all nonalcoholic beverages to economyclass passengers on domestic flights. While other carriers instituted this business model, charging consumers for premium seating, pillows, or curbside checkin, US Airways was the only airline to charge for nonalcoholic refreshments. Open in a remarkable playoff last June, when Tiger Woods grimaced and grunted in pain during every swing, the world's No. 1 player announced he would undergo reconstructive surgery on his anterior cruciate ligament and would need time off for rehabilitation. Let's be honest: The PGA tour has been pretty boring since then. Poor attendance for Tour events and a drop in TV ratings are proof of that.
A major comeback could be on the horizon, however. Caddie Steve Williams told Television New Zealand that Woods is "a few weeks" away from a return to the PGA Tour and could decide in the next few days where that return will happen. Williams also said that Tiger will come back to the tour mentally stronger.
"It's going to be anytime Williams said. "He's probably 95 percent of the way there. He was waiting for the birth of his second child, which just came last week, so he's ready to go. He just needs a little bit more walking. He hasn't been able to walk too well," he added. Williams noted that Woods has been doing six hours of rehab a day on his knee.
If you've ever had aspirations of owning your own town but didn't have the means, now might be the perfect time for you. The ghost town of Albert, which encompasses 13 acres nestled in the Texas hill country,[url=http://www.sport.fr/economie/airmax.html]chaussures nike pas cher[/url], 20 miles east of Fredericksburg, is up for sale. Price: $883,000.
The town's features include an 85yearold dance hall, an icehouse and beer garden, a creek, a historic limestone schoolhouse (attended by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1920), pecan and peach orchards, and a threebedroom, twobathroom home.
It was only a couple of years ago when analysts considered Russia to be the world's fourthlargest spender on luxury goods, behind the United States, Japan, and China. Big names setting up shop in Moscow included Tiffany, Prada, Versace, and Ferrari. But with today's global economic downturn and decline in oil prices, the most affluent Russians are tightening their grip on their wallets, demand for luxury goods is decreasing, and luxury retailers are closing their doors. With Russia's economy heavily dependent upon energy and commodities, low oil prices pose the biggest threat to the country's economic stability.
Designer brands like Stella McCartney, Alexander McQueen, and Lanvin have recently announced that they are closing their stores in Moscow, according to the AP.
I wrote in December about how LVMH Mo Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA shelved its plans for a Louis Vuitton flagship store in Tokyo's Ginza shopping district and how Japanese consumers are increasingly trading down for designerlike goods at chain stores such as H and Zara. Same appears to go for Russian consumers: "I think the consuming will simply be redistributed," said Anastasia Pyatina, editor of the Russian magazine Cosmopolitan Shopping. "People who can't afford Stella McCartney and McQueen would be buying H and this is not that bad."
"I was simply making a goofy face," blogged Miley Cyrus in a response to a photo in which the Disney star and her friends are seen pulling their eyes into a slant. Oh, Miley. Your mea culpa for the racially offensive gesture just wasn't enough.
A Los Angeles woman has filed a $4 billion classaction lawsuit against the 16yearold on behalf of the city's entire AsianPacific Islander population, claiming they are entitled to civil rights damages.
Although I'm also outraged by the tween star's infamous gesture, I do have a couple of questions about the lawsuit: 1) Can one woman legally represent an entire group? 2) Who even asked her to do this? It'll be interesting to see whether or not this case gets tossed out of court.