A 52,000 square meter shopping mall to open in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city, will feature Louis Vuitton, Stella McCartney & Saks Fifth Avenue.

Hermes is to open fewer new stores over the next five years to protect its high-end image from over-exposure in a retail market where being one of the most exclusive brands seems to guarantee smooth sailing through global financial turmoil.

Andrew Lewicki knows that people have gotten used to seeing luxury brands extend their influence into other industries.

From bicycles to tennis, rugby, football and golf balls, not to mention every kind of object and gadget, luxury brands have left their stamp on a multitude of products.

This time, fashionistas who are already dreaming of soft, yummy, branded waffles in the morning will have to wait, as this branded waffle maker is not for sale.

The UK has topped a ranking of countries with the highest affinity for luxury handbags, while labels including Coach, Louis Vuitton and Chanel top a compilation of the most searched luxury handbag brands globally.

This first digital analysis of the luxury handbag market, dubbed World Luxury Index Handbags, has been presented by Paris-based luxury executives’ online community Luxury Society and international company Digital Luxury Group.

While much has been made of China’s ever-growing appetite for luxury items, a new report suggests that more than ever it is the nation’s children who are being pampered with goods from the world’s elite brands.

The Hong Kong-based consultancy Albatross Global Solutions claims that 60 percent of a group of 900 Chinese consumers surveyed said they spent more than 3,000 yuan ($470) per month on luxury items for their children, up from the previous year’s 40 percent who had said the same.

French luxury brands from Chanel to Vuitton on Wednesday launch a campaign with several European countries to fight back against the increasingly lucrative and damaging flood of counterfeit goods.

The global market for luxury fakes has exploded, fed by Asia where 85 percent of articles seized in Europe are produced and the increasing popularity of on-line shops that give the buyer a sense of anonymity and impunity.