The Super rich keep buying - Slow Economy, what’s that?
Posted by v on June 30, 2008
This confirms that the rich are even less like you and I.
PARIS — One morning last January, a clutch of well-dressed women gathered outside the Christian Lacroix fashion house on the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré.
But the occasion wasn’t a sample sale. Rather it was the day after Lacroix’s summer couture show, and some of the most privileged women in the world were anxious to get dibs on some of the most expensive clothes in the world.
“At 8:30, they’re in front of the door,” marveled Marie Martinez, the chic, silver-haired couture director at Lacroix. “They know that after it’s sold, it’s impossible to have. They want to be the first appointment.”
“The demand for very, very high-end products continues to be very strong,” agreed Sidney Toledano, president of Christian Dior, citing an increase in couture sales of more than 35 percent last year and a “strong double-digit” growth so far this year. “Very rich people are not suffering from the crisis. The workshops have been very busy,” he said.
At Chanel, the team travels between two and three times a month to meet with clients for fittings or sales appointments, Pavlovsky said.
“We have to keep it totally exclusive, but there is no limit to the service in haute couture,” said Pavlovsky. “We are ready to go anywhere to see a customer. We are traveling more and more. Now when a customer needs something, we have to go to her.”
Over the past year, the Chanel team flew to Jamaica, Greece, Switzerland, the U.K., Russia, and several times to the Middle East for three major weddings.
“This clientele is very demanding and requires a lot of attention,” Caillaud at Gaultier agreed. “We can be asked to go to a boat in Monte Carlo, as well as to a chalet in Gstaad or a palace in Riyadh for just a day.”
Middle Eastern clients are famous for requesting evening dresses they wear on only one occasion and also special wedding dresses. Gaultier makes an average of four to five wedding gowns a year, each requiring between 200 and 500 hours of work, Caillaud said.
Yep, Rub it in! (WWD)
