William & Son, the luxury goods emporium located in London's elegant Mayfair district founded by William Asprey after his family's business, Asprey of London, was sold off back in the '90s, was recently granted a Royal Warrant to HM Queen Elizabeth II. The firm (which we wrote about last year), offers high-end jewelry, silver, watches, leathergoods, china and crystal, as well as custom-made shotguns and other bespoke services. The Royal Warrant is awarded as a mark of recognition to companies who have regularly supplied goods or services for at least five years to members of the Royal Family. Warrants have always been regarded as a mark of excellence and quality, and are highly prized. Other firms holding the Royal Warrant include Asprey, Swaine Adeney Brigg, Barbour and Laphroaig.

Things may not be going as swimmingly as they once were in the oil rich nations of the UAE, but that doesn't mean there aren't still plenty of people there with disposable incomes the size of some countries' GDPs. In April, Abu Dhabi will host its first Big Boys Toys Super Show, showcasing the world's top luxury products for men, at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC). So far the star of the show looks like the $3 million Maxximus G-Force supercar (above), a 1600 hp beast billed as the world's fastest street legal automobile capable of 0 - 60 mph in 2.1 seconds. The Big Boy Toys show will be divided into seven "hi-octane zones designed to appeal to anyone with a Y chromosome": Drive, Ride, Off Road, Marine, Aviation, Lifestyle and Wired. It's expected to attract tens of thousands of visitors.

For Vogue India's latest issue, editors decided to shoot some of the country's poorest citizens modeling such luxury goods as a Hermes Birkin bag and a Burberry umbrella. An older woman -- missing her upper teeth -- held a baby wearing a Fendi bib which cost as much as she might earn over a several month period. (Remember most of India still lives on little more than a dollar a day.) The juxtaposition has a number of Vogue readers (and non-readers) astir.

In a place polarized by caste and an exceptionally apparent disparity of wealth, one would think Vogue might have been a little more discreet. Perhaps most infuriating about the photo spread is that Vogue didn't even get the names of the men, women and children posing. They are simply referred to as "lady" or "man" while the cutline goes into great detail about the various objects they model -- people as props, handbags as the main story.

The real shame? That somehow poverty never quite goes out of fashion.

Asprey, the 200-year-old London luxury goods firm, is dropping its clothing and footwear lines to concentrate on core businesses like jewelry, silver and leathergoods. WWD reports the move is part of an initiative by the company's new President and CEO Robert Procop to shore up the historic brand. As we reported previously, Asprey changed direction in 1996 when the company was sold to Prince Jefri of Brunei. Its gunrooms were shuttered and additional clothing and accessory lines launched in an attempt to make the firm more fashionable. Gorgeous actress Keira Knightley (above, in Asprey designs) was subsequently hired on as spokesmodel.

The global economic picture may be grim but Compagnie Financière Richemont SA, the luxury goods group behind Cartier, Piaget, IWC, Panerai and many other luxury brands had a pretty good fiscal year. They reported that for their year ending March 31, the company had an 18 percent rise in net profits to 1.57 billion euros, or $2.22 billion, on a 10 percent increase in sales to 5.3 billion euros, or $7.51 billion. The strong brands included the group's watch and jewelry businesses while Chloé, its main women's wear business was relatively flat. Obviously this is good news but these days no company spokesperson can comment on earnings without a bit of gloom and doom. WWD reports that Johann Rupert, Richemont's chairman delivered the same cautious but hopeful line that we've seen from other luxury companies. Many including LVMH and Hermes have predicted that even in these tough times their profits will continue to rise.

It's one of the economic vagaries of the business that storied British luxury goods firm Asprey of London no longer has any connection (save an historical one) with the actual Asprey family. After the 200-year-old company was sold to Prince Jeffri of Brunei in the '90s, family scion William Asprey decided to start his own firm catering to the aristocratic trade (Asprey had long held royal warrants). However, he discovered to his dismay that he was no longer entitled to the use of his own last name; while Prince Jefri subsequently unloaded Asprey to a hedge fund, William opened a beautiful shop in London's Mayfair under the name William & Son.

Under its new owners Asprey has gone in an increasingly fashionable direction, and while producing some beautiful things it has suffered financial setbacks from over-enthusiastic expansion. William & Son by contrast hearkens back to Asprey's traditional roots, and still maintains an air of clubby exclusivity in its Mayfair premises (pictured above), which stocks high-end jewelry, silver, watches, leathergoods, china and crystal. A key facet of the business is its bespoke service, which will basically fashion anything you like in whatever precious material strikes your fancy as long as you can afford it. More recently William added an adjacent gun room, where beautiful silver-inlaid shotguns can now be had for $100,000 and up. He is certainly following through on his promise to "maintain his family's reputation in the historic splendour of No. 10 Mount Street." And what's in a name, after all?

It's a match made in commerce heaven: Russians on the quest for the latest in expensive goods and a man who lives to provide old-fashioned luxury updated with modern kinks. Tom Ford, the designer who sexed up Gucci and then moved on to his own line of luxury goods for men, is planning to open two new stores in Moscow next year. Bloomberg reports that Ford and franchisee Mercury Group plan to offer Ford's line of $5,000 custom- made men's suits as well as items for the local market such as sable hats. The stores will be located in Tretyakovsky Passage, a city-center lane of boutiques, and Barvikha Village on the capital's fringe. The Bloomberg article contains some classic Tom quotes including his assertion that Russians have been denied nice things for years. Only Tom Ford could make selling high-priced luxury goods sound like an altruistic gesture.

When I began writing for Luxist back in 2004 one of the first things I did was pick up a copy of the Robb Report, the magazine for the ultra-rich is one of the standard sources for information on the luxury market. Now the magazine has its own stock index, the Claymore /Robb Report Global Luxury Index ROB. CNN Money reports that Claymore Securities launched an exchange-traded fund on Monday based on an index created by CurtCo Robb Media, publisher of the Robb Report.

The financial reasoning behind this is that companies catering to the luxury market may be a safer bet because spending by the rich is less affected by gas prices or mortgage rates, things that may throw off other consumers. And with luxury spending on the rise in countries like Russia, China and India many of these companies are looking at continue growth. The 42-stock portfolio includes many brands you might expect such as Porsche, BMW, and LVMH.

This follows the news that came out last month that Dominion Group had launched the Chic investment fund which cover 61 designer names and 2,300 brands such as Stella McCartney and Ralph Lauren. After all, if you are going to buy the luxury brands, why not also invest in the companies that make them?