Luxury is artificial definition and cannot be easily transferred into real life. It is a notion of anything that is useless and superfluous in real life. However, it can be often associated with beauty (art, entertainment, design, décor or trend) and remains one of the driving forces behind society’s spending. It is true that luxury speaks and renown’s itself by big spending and indeed, outlandish expenditure is often associated with it.
The world luxury market is worth more than $130 billions and France is the country which owns the largest number of companies in the luxury and historically always been trend setter in the luxury market. Some of the world’s best symbol of lavish lifestyle is essentially French (such as Don Perignon champagne, Louis Vitton handbags or white truffles as a culinary ingredient). French is the language of choice for aristotles and diplomats. Shortly, France has long heritage in leading and dominating luxury market and therefore is an appropriate background for my analysis.
1. Luxury industry: presentation
The luxury industry is based on prestige brands which dominate luxury market and its spectre e.g. Perfumes, fashion design called “Haute Couture”, jewellery, leather, shoes and accessories. Fashion and luxury goods have an annual turnover of € 35 billion in France (campus.org 2006). Main players on the market are LVMH, Chanel and Hermes International.
In the sector of luxury especially la Haute Couture, lavishness is a notion difficult to comprehend. The leading designers such as Jean Paul Gauthier kept the introvert and indeed humble image for years, before breaking the bank with their designs.
We need to limit our seeking because there are 130 brands in France (Comité Colbert Website 2005) that one third is present on the market. For this reason I have chosen to detail through of a committee in Paris which gathers 70 best houses in the luxury sector and later more precisely LVMH.
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