Recession Shows the Real Meaning of Luxury

I only started realizing how out-of-whack the luxury industry had gotten back in October, while chatting with the well-respected publisher of a now-dead magazine at a charity event.

“You don’t watch Gossip Girl?” he said, incredulous. “But you’re in luxury!”

(That, of course, was when I still was In Luxury).

The next Monday I settled in to learn about my industry from a CW television drama about New York private school kids. After five minutes, I flipped it off, rattled. How was it luxury to watch 16-year-olds sporting handbags that even I couldn’t justify spending $10,000 on? How were they supposed to have acquired said bags? Is that what luxury had come to? Glee in watching people with expensive purses, and hoping that one day we might be able to own something similar?

How did this happen?…