While the Western markets are faltering, luxury retailers are searching for the next location to sell their high-end goods, and it looks like India might just be the place.

While India makes up just 0.4 percent of global luxury good sales, the market is growing at 25 percent a year, according to a recent Bain & Co. study.

There are 1.5 million households in India who could afford luxury goods, compared with 1.6 million households in China, according to McKinsey.

Quintessentially, one of the most established concierge services launched an iPhone Application for its iPhone users today.

The application provides members with luxury insider tips and information on hotels, restaurants and night life events in cities around the world.

The service is available to all iPhone users, but the concierge service requires membership.

Do you guys know CBC Television Show called FORTUNE HUNTERS (which is all about Canadian entrepreneurs) ?

They’ve just launched their second season, and you should watch their upcoming luxury-themed episode.

They’re featuring two stories : one about an entrepreneur who is starting up a caviar business and the other one is about an entrepreneur that has made it big with a jet-sharing company.

The whole episode is streamed on their website.

This isn’t a piano you can allow your kids to flounder with! As it is, Schimmel is the brand that is behind its creation; therefore, until your tot becomes an expert pianist, you dare not allow him/her touch it. Dubbed the K213, Schimmel chooses one of the most brittle yet elegant material; glass, to enclose the exterior of the instrument.

The K213 isn’t just elegant for its design as the quality of music it rendered is equally classy. The only place where you would find iron is beneath strings that produce the magical symphony. This piano is definitely not for the space drenched halls but has pride of place in rich homes and gatherings. It just soaks in the party atmosphere while on display.

In order to add that extra bit of shimmer to the dazzlingly opulent parties, it would cost the one an estimated $124,780 to own this glamorous piano.

One of the things that impressed us most of Bottega Veneta in recent years was the addition of their home collection, which is always a great pleasure for the eye. Now, with the colder months in sight, their new fuss-free design leather desk is a perfect addition to any study. The size is just right and the leather details are fantastic and timeless.

The unambiguous shaped desk has room for three drawers placed under the tabletop. Each of these drawers can be pulled out with flat leather handles. One can move this desk around by simply pulling the stiff leather handles fitted to both sides of the desk. Every inch of this desk is made of leather except for the matte metal trimmings. This masculine yet chic desk comes in five shades and retails for $19,700 at Bottega Veneta Store.

A new book out by author Dana Thomas, called Deluxe: How Luxury Lost its Lustre, explores how the manufacture of luxury goods, and in particular luxury clothing, has been outsourced almost in its entirety to a handful of developing countries such as China and Turkey.

Dana Thomas knew it was time to investigate ‘luxury’ when her clothes started falling off. ‘In 2002, I bought a pair of cotton-poplin cropped trousers at Prada for $500. I put them on, and the gentle passing of my foot ripped the hem out. I put my hand in the pocket and it tore away from its seam. I squatted down to pick up my two-year-old and the derrière split open. I hadn’t had those trousers on 10 minutes and they were literally falling apart at the seams. I mentioned this to a former Prada design assistant. “It’s the thread,” he told me. “It’s cheaper and breaks easily.” Of course, not all Prada goods are shoddy . ..’

Thomas explains that despite the protestations of certain luxury house owners, the competitive landscape for luxury goods companies is one which makes this phenomenon hard to resist.

For the last sixty years, the actual production of luxury goods themselves has become much like any other type of product. The big difference is the way in which these luxury goods have been marketed to make you feel a particular way.

How? By creating a desire so powerful that, as Tom Ford, the designer and marketing genius behind Gucci, puts it, “It’s like you’ve gotta have it or you’ll die.”

As Thomas notes in her book, the lion’s share of a product is made in China but then a small piece (a piece of stitching or pocket, for instance) is added in the West so that the ubiquitous ‘Made in China’ label can be avoided and the luxury illusion can be maintained…

The book isn’t especially well written or well edited but Dana has a wicked sense of humor and pulls no punches in describing the decadent denizens of the “Deluxe” world.
Even if you know nothing about fashion, this book will fascinate, educate and entertain. The section on Louis Vuitton is eye-opening. The chapter on the making of a Hermes bag is priceless. Also, in the last few pages of the book, Thomas describes what the truly rich now buy, which is basically what you can see everyday on Luxuo :)

DELUXE: How Luxury Lost Its Lustre by Dana Thomas
Allen Lane £20/$40 pp376