Who are you, Mr. Alain Dominique Perrin, to say what is luxury?

True, Mr. Perrin owns the company that owns Cartier, but really, we all know that the Fashion and Luxury businesses are not the dictatorships they once were. The internet has allowed people like yours truly to become educated in all things fashion and luxury-- even if I can't afford to shop at Chanel and Cartier, I can afford to read all the critique on their lines and to see them for myself on their websites and on the runway (thank you style.com, nymag.com, wwd.com, etc).

The following is an excerpt from today's New York Times Business section, Luxury Brands and the Case for $4000 Sunglasses, By ERIC PFANNER (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/19/business/global/19lux.html?ref=business)
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Not everyone in the luxury goods business sees technology as a revolutionary — or even recent — influence.

Alain Dominique Perrin, executive director of Richemont, which owns jewelry and watch brands like Cartier, Jaeger-LeCoultre and Piaget, said Swiss watchmakers had always embraced advanced technology in manufacturing.

But he questioned the durability of any change in cultural perceptions of luxury. While the company’s brands have integrated technology in some unusual ways — a new watch from Jaeger LeCoultre, for example, doubles as a car key fob — Mr. Perrin said he saw little similarity between a fine Swiss watch and some arriviste icons of the technology world.

“To me, these products are worlds apart,” he said. “Who would consider handing down an iPhone, or even a Swatch, to their child or grandchild?”
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Reading the end of this article made me a little mad at the snobbery of Mr. Alain Dominique Perrin. Who is he to say what a luxury good is?

Luxury goods are the goods that people most want but don't need. In the past when the population at large was forced to look to the sky for the time of day, or to the church bells, it was a luxury to have a timepiece on one’s body. One didn't need it, but it made things much easier. Thus, the watch became a luxury item. This tradition has carried over into the new millennium; however, as technology brings about new products, that which is considered luxury will change. In a time when the timepiece was the luxury, they were made extremely durable, and handed down from fathers to sons. Once they had perfected keeping time there wasn’t a need to improve upon them. Thus one timepiece could be handed down through generations.

In today’s world, luxury is still that which most people want. Information is the biggest commodity, and so to have internet on one's cell phone, to have perfect connectivity, lightning speed, and a user friendly interface is a luxury. To know in advance where the pile-up is, so one can avoid the traffic and get home in time for dinner-- this is a luxury. Who is Mr. Perrin to say it is not? True, an iPhone cannot be handed down generations, but why would your grandchildren want your iPhone? In sixty years there will be something that is better, and so the iPhone will become obsolete.

Now this is not to say that technology is incapable of creating something that lasts. Take the example of Oakley’s $4000 sunglasses. Ninety-six hours of labor are put into making a single pair. They are specially designed, and made from the same materials that make up race cars. Now, please tell me that you think that given the same care that you give your grandfather's pocket watch, these won’t last to be handed down to your grandchildren.