LuxuryLab Daily Digest

E-Commerce Is Getting Chinese to Loosen Their Purse Strings (New York Times)
For all the talk that the Chinese are spending too little, business is booming for the country’s online retailers, heralding the emergence of young, affluent consumers who will reshape the global economy over the next decade.

The Rich Expect to Get Richer Next Year (Wealth Bulletin)
Nearly 80% of the world’s wealthy expect to grow their wealth in 2010, according to new research revealing remarkable confidence among the world’s wealthy.

Halogen Paves The Way for Ivanka to be Queen of Brand Tweet (Halogen Network)
Ivanka Trump’s followers have doubled since the Digital IQ Index mentioned Trump Hotels (tweeting as @ivankatrump) as a “luxe expemplar.”

Luxury Retailers See Rents Drop Globally (CBS News)
The average price to rent space in some of the world’s most exclusive shopping districts dropped by the largest amount on record last year, a global survey has found.

CEO of Richemont’s Lange & Soehne Steps Down (Reuters)
The head of watchmaker Lange & Soehne, part of Swiss-based luxury goods group Richemont (CFR.VX), has stepped down due to differences of opinion over strategy, the German watch brand said.

Luxury Retailers See Rents Drop Globally

The average price to rent space in some of the world’s most exclusive shopping districts dropped by the largest amount on record last year, a global survey has found. (CBS News)

LuxuryLab Daily Digest | Swankiest Neighborhoods in America, “The September Issue,” Social Good Conference, Fifth Avenue to Tokyo

The Swankiest Neighborhoods In America (Halogen Life)
What’s the most expensive neighborhood in the United States? Here’s a hint. It may be one of the most entertaining, as many of the most prominent hip-hop stars live there. Welcome to Alpine, New Jersey, home of Sean “Diddy” Combs and some of the ritziest pads imaginable. It’s 20 miles from Manhattan, and has few commercial or industry zones of note — but it’s got a collection of sprawling mansions with a median asking price of $4.14 million. Stevie Wonder and Chris Rock also call it home, sweet home. The rest of the top 10 zip codes are in New Jersey, New York or California.

Art, Commerce, Anna Wintour, and “The September Issue” (Salon)
When filmmaker R.J. Cutler first met Grace Coddington, the striking, red-haired former London hippie who is now the creative director of Vogue magazine, Coddington told Cutler to go away. But as a leading practitioner of the documentary technique known as cinéma-vérité, which involves direct observation and no narration, and strives to keep the filmmaker behind the camera, Cutler didn’t go away. He just hung around and hung around — he had permission from Vogue’s legendary editor, Anna Wintour, to document the process of creating the magazine’s September 2007 issue, a fashion-industry bible — and finally Coddington got used to him. If anything, she’s the central figure in Cutler’s remarkable film “The September Issue” or at least a central countervailing force to the inscrutable, seemingly capricious and notoriously hard-to-please Wintour.

Social Good Conference (Mashable)
Mashable is hosting our first ever Social Good Conference, a one-day educational event celebrating the finale of the Summer of Social Good charitable campaign. The event is being held at the prestigious 92nd Street Y in New York City, but you don’t have to be in New York to watch to participate! Below we’ve embedded a live stream of the event so you can view presentations from well known and respected organizations and professionals as well as take part in discussions via chat.

Fifth Avenue to Tokyo (New York Times)
“There’s a certain demand that’s gone with the asset destruction and the job destruction,” a New York store executive told me the other day. That’s the reality these days. Try as retailers might to entice customers into stores—with spiffy renovations at Saks and Bloomingdale’s, some great-looking fall merchandise—there just isn’t enough demand.

Fifth Avenue to Tokyo

“There’s a certain demand that’s gone with the asset destruction and the job destruction,” a New York store executive told me the other day. That’s the reality these days. Try as retailers might to entice customers into stores—with spiffy renovations at Saks and Bloomingdale’s, some great-looking fall merchandise—there just isn’t enough demand. Let’s hope things pick up in September. As I’ve been out and about in stores (and I’m by no means done), I’ve been impressed with the selection. There is more to buy, in my opinion, than there was last August—and some better buys. Retailers and designers seemed to make an effort to have more dresses, for example, in the $750-to-$900 range. I noticed at Barneys a terrific Isabel Toledo jersey dress (maybe a reprise of an earlier style) for $850. And I loved all the trousers I saw around—full, pegged, skinny. And the shoes. Oh, I could go on. Sooner or later one collapses in defeat and joy before a sales counter. (New York Times)