Luxury Fever

Consumers are buying up everything from diamond-encrusted handbags and private jets to souped-up trash cans and designer toilets. How long will the boom last?

Michael Kors is a pro at selling expensive clothes to very rich women. At personal appearances in department stores, he has been known to move $85,000 worth of merchandise in just one hour. But this year has been different. This year Kors says his wealthy clientele is out of control--they're spending like it's 1999. One New Yorker ordered two pairs of gold-beaded pants for $8,900 each. At a trunk show in Short Hills, N.J., Kors sold five purple mink ponchos for $7,825 each. Like many purveyors of luxury goods, Kors has seen his business increase 40% in the past year. And...

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