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Portero Creates Private Sale Site

portero privateLuxury auction retailer Portero has created a new private sale site. Portero Private is currently in beta and is an invitation-only site similar to Ideeli or Gilt Groupe offering 24- to 72-hour sales with a limited inventory of luxury brands at special prices.

Like most of these private sale sites Portero Private is starting off small. a select group has already been invited and each member has three invitations. The first sale event,starts on Thursday and will sell Hermes scarves. The Examiner reports that future sales will include Temple St Clair, Montblanc, Chanel, Cartier and others.

Blogging From the Luxury Summit: Luxury Brands and the Green Movement

Filed under: Green


The green movement in luxury and the new philanthropy go hand in hand and have the same basic charge, finding a way to do good and do well. Unfortunately it's not quite as easy as it sounds. After all, the luxury consumer wants to have it all they want the feeling of being green and knowing they are doing something to combat climate change but they aren't really willing to give anything up. For the companies at the American Express Publishing Luxury Summit this week, green seems to be something that they are all wrestling with, wanting to satisfy a public clamoring for green but also knowing the customer expects the same level of performance and service as they have always enjoyed. While other tiers of the green market seem to be about compromise and perhaps restraint, luxury consumers want green and fabulous in the same package.

Gucci Is The "Most Coveted" Luxury Brand


It's official, according to the latest Global Luxury Brands Survey the "most coveted luxury brand" in the world is Gucci -- 1 in 5 global customers said that if money was not an issue they would choose Gucci over every other luxury brand. The survey was done this past November and this marks Gucci's third year holding on to the top spot in what is a more challenging and competitive luxury market than ever before.

It's worth noting that this survey ranked Gucci as #1 globally, not regionally. Other brands ranked better in specific places, like Chanel was #1 in China and Christian Dior did the best in Russia.

Is Your Favorite Luxury Brand Unethical?

Filed under: Green


When you buy expensive luxury items are you helping to kill the planet? Depending on your favorite brands you just might be. In a recent study done for WWF it came to light that many luxury brands are making use of environmentally damaging materials and practices, and although some did worse than others none of them did very well. The study looked at the top ten luxury brands and found them all seriously lacking in some way. The solution? Some say getting this information out to the public (you can download the entire report for free here) and calling for celebrities to use their endorsement powers for the greater environmental good is the first step. What's your take?

Luxury Market Tight in China

Are luxury retailers too optimistic about the opportunities in China? As the economy rapidly grows, retailers are faced with rising costs for labor and rent and a customer base that is more reluctant to purchase luxury items than in other countries. Many high end brands - Cartier, Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Hermès, to name but a few - are all in competition for the same small segment of the population. While that doesn't sound so different from the way the retailers operate in other parts of the world, there is on big difference. In China, consumers are primarily interested in things that are "obvious status symbols," with easily visible logos from only the top brand, so many companies, even big name ones, are barely breaking even after years in the country.

But the segment of the population that can afford luxury is growing and as the country moves more towards a market economy, they grow more willing to purchase such goods. The lesson to retailers? Start small and learn the market. It's probably only a matter of time before more consumers start to want to add some luxury to their lives.

U.S. Airport Shops Go Posh

Filed under: Wings

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal covered the high end shopping in airports both in the U.S. and abroad. Brands like Prada, Louis Vuitton, Sephora and Versace have stores in airports.%uFFFD While foreign airports have often ample shopping, the U.S. has been slow to catch up because U.S. shoppers haven't really expressed a big interest in airport shopping. But the trend is shifting, in May, French jeweler Cartier opened a shop at New York's JFK airport and Terminal A/B at Baltimore/Washington International has the first airport location of menswear chain Jos. A. Bank Clothiers. It's part of an overall trend of making American airports more luxurious. Recently we have seen an increase inairport spas and fine dining in U.S. airports but I wonder if Americans are really ready to shop in domestic airports (although we seem more than happy to do it overseas). The article suggests that the fact that prices for simple items like gum and water are so deeply inflated that Americans may fear they won't get a good deal in boutiques but I'm not certain that's the only reason. Do you shop in airports and if not, why not?


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