The way I look at it, many of the "luxury" items out there are pretty much mass produced but for a smaller group of people so that doesn't really have anything to do with it. Anyway, my thoughts on this are:
A luxury good can be made in Europe, Canada, the U.S. or any other country that will produce a truly fine item, BUT if the manufacturer has taken the cheapest path, and their prices are going insane, then something is wrong with that picture. I'll use Kooba, Brahmin,
Coach, Stone Mountain and LV to illustrate my views.
Kooba started out with Italian leather handbags made in Italy for about half their current prices. When the company was successful in getting them pictured on various celebs' arms, the demand went up, and so did the price because a cool bag couldn't be seen as "cheap" in the eyes of the fashion crowd. Somewhere in this process they shifted production over to China, and now that means they're more profitable than ever, and the consumer is getting ripped off.
Bramin uses some of the most beautiful Italian leathers available, and until recently, they were assembled in the U.S. Again, as the demand increased, they chose to shift some of their production overseas, and from what I've seen in the stores, the U.S.-made bags are few and far between. Instead of investing in more jobs here, they dramatically cut their costs, and the prices remained the same or went up. Not cool. Not luxurious.
Coach, like Brahmin, used to proudly be made in the U.S., and the website makes themselves look like a fabulous all-American company, but they're anything but. In the 90s it was important to not only produce a quality item but to also offer up something to the trend lovers, and Coach was VERY Successful in this area. The stores expanded in number and size, the shelves were filled with a wider variety of items....but to do all this, they tossed the American jobs and shifted production to China. Now as they've become more chic than ever, the prices have gone up, up and up ($698 for a Chinese-made fabric bag with leather trim?). Some luxury good.
Stone Mountain was another company that used to be U.S. made (near me BTW), but then shifted some and then all of their production overseas as their market expanded. Most of what they have in their various lines is of good to high quality, and they never marketed themselves as a "luxury" company. They just produce leather bags in the, mostly, $150 range and under. They're also widely available at T.J. Maxx, Ross and Marshall's for $39.99. IOW, they don't pretend to be what they're not, but they're producing a quality Chinse-made item at what are reasonable prices when on sale or discounted at mass merchants.
LV always was a luxury company, and there they've stayed. Back in the day, traveling was a VERY Expensive proposition, and the trunks they were producing were anything but reasonably priced. While everything used to be made in France, they've expanded their manufacturing to Italy, Germany, Spain (the old
Loewe factory), and the U.S. ALL of these countries involve a more expensive labor force, higher costs, and as a rational consumer, I would expect to be paying for all of that. I also expect to pay for a bit of their long history when I pay serious $$ for a bag that I know they'll stand behind, and that I'll have for years to come.
I'm not saying the Chinese can't produce amazing goods because they can, and I have some in my home. I'm also not saying that anything and everything that comes out of France, Italy or whereever is always of the highest quality because it can be just as junky as anyone else's cheaper goods. I cannot for the life of me fathom though how a "luxury" good can be labeled as such when the company has gone to the cheapest manufacturing source, possibly raised their prices along the way for the sheer heck of it and left their talented craftspeople behind in the dust.
I am hopeful about that.
