When I ran into Steve Schwarzman at a charity dinner last month, I asked him whether his private-equity firm, Blackstone Group, was planning any “Richistan” plays–betting, for example, on the burgeoning demand for megayachts.
“The trouble with yachts,” he said, “is that when business is good, it’s really good. But when it falls, it really crashes.”

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OK, we weren?t actually able to call it the Richistan Index. But with help from me and Money & Investing Editor Ken Brown, Dow Jones has launched a new way to track the economy of the wealthy. It?s called the Dow Jones Luxury Index.
The idea is simple. We now live in two economies: that of [...]

Held each year at the Villa Noailles in the South of France, The Festival International de Mode et de Photographie à Hyères offers up an unparalleled cornucopia of fashion and photographic talent. It has been an invaluable incubator and launchpad for some of fashion’s top up-and-coming names, including Viktor & Rolf, Gaspard Yurkievich, Christian Wijnants, [...]

Our colleagues over at Savigny Partners released their regular newsletter today, demonstrating just how tough things have been for many luxury and fashion stocks in recent months and highlighting an investment opportunity for those who believe in the long-term fundamentals of the luxury market.
The Savigny Luxury Index (SLI) has plummeted by 29% since its peak [...]

Kellogg, the prestigious school of management at Northwestern University in suburban Chicago, has announced plans for a business course on fashion — or at least, how fashion can play a role in industries as varied as fast-moving consumer goods to consumer electronics and home computers. ESSEC, the French business school, has an entire MBA program [...]