If most people can have it, is it Luxury?

Image by cdnbusiness via Flickr

Today, I went to London for a research visit and while sitting in the train for about 90 minutes I counted the number of handbags I could see and identify for fun. I was not scanning everywhere in the boggy but I was just looking at the people whom I can see directly and those who were passing down the isle. I counted 39 handbags in that period of time. The train stopped at only 3 stations in between and I had to change once, so, I guess there was not much movement but 39 still seems a hefty number.

My next objective was to identify which of these handbags could I identify and classify as luxury. Now, this is extremely subjective measure as I have relatively little knowledge of handbags however, I saw 9 LVMH and 5 Gucci handbags (so easy to identify). This is whopping 23% of all handbags I observed as LVMH and 13% of all handbags to be Gucci. By the way, I saw one Berkin handbag while walking near Canary Wharf.

If an LVMH of Gucci executive looked at it, I believe they will be extremely happy however, this made me worried. The penetration of these brands in mass market is amazing on the positive side. However, the question which arose in my mind was “if most people can have it, is it luxury?”

Would love to:

1. hear from you all about your own experiences of travel and spotting handbags too.

2. Moreover, I would really like to know how do you feel when someone else has got the same ‘luxury’ item you have got?

Waiting to hear from you all…