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Luxury quotient: Today there is a staff of 100, and sales, which totaled $11.7 million in 2003, have been doubling every year. The company's specialty is hard-to-find fashion musts. (Waiting lists start as soon as the runway shows end.) Massenet has a simple explanation for her success: "We sell the must-haves, not the misses."
Bergdorf's Good Man Jim Gold
Claim to fame: At just 40 years old, Gold has climbed company ranks from his first job out of Harvard Business School--manager of a Trim-a-Tree shop--to become CEO of New York City's luxury retailer Bergdorf Goodman.
Defining moment: As a vice president at Neiman Marcus, Gold developed a business plan for the company's new clearance stores that upped revenues from $20 million to $80 million in three years.
Luxury quotient: With hopes of positioning Bergdorf's as a brand that cuts across generational lines, Gold is overseeing a top-to-bottom renovation of the Fifth Avenue emporium, and this month he launches the company's first fully transactional website.
Crystal Queen Nadja Swarovski
Claim to fame: As head of communications and a fifth-generation Swarovski, Nadja, 34, embodies the freshly glamorous image of the family-run Austrian crystal business.
Defining moment: Before joining Swarovski, Nadja worked for an art gallery and in public relations in New York City. "But crystals have always been inherently part of my life," she says.
Luxury quotient: She has focused on shedding the brand's Liberace image. This fall Swarovski is exhibiting "Rocks on the Runway"--a show featuring its work with jewelers like Fiona Knapp and Danilo. Arrivederci, Liberace.
Diamond in the Rough Francesco Trapani
Claim to fame: The Bulgari Group CEO transformed his family's business from a "club capable of making stable profits" to the third largest maker of fine jewelry, after Tiffany and Richemont.
Defining moment: He had accepted an offer from a London investment bank when his uncles stepped in. "The family said, 'If you stay, we will make you the chairman,'" he recalls.
Luxury quotient: Bulgari's product lines now include watches, perfume and accessories. In 1995 Trapani listed Bulgari on the Milan stock exchange. And he feted his 20th anniversary this year with the biggest gem yet: a posh Bulgari Hotel in Milan.
Retail Renegade Sheik Majed al-Sabah
Claim to fame: President and chairman of the Villa Moda empire, al-Sabah, 35, has brought luxury shopping to the Middle East and helped reeducate the West on the spending habits of the region.
Defining moment: He opened his first store--a 100,000-sq.-ft., $20 million, 24-hour emporium in Kuwait City--in 2002. He opened in Dubai the following year and in Qatar last May.
Luxury quotient: Al-Sabah continues to expand despite a volatile political situation. Bombay is next, followed by a store and a 50-room hotel in Bahrain. Al-Sabah says he plans to launch in Vietnam, Singapore and Saudi Arabia by 2005.
Department Head Shigeaki Wada
Claim to fame: Millennium Retailing Inc., the holding company headed by Wada, last year united two of Japan's largest department stores (Sogo and Seibu) to form the country's second largest department-store group (after Takashimaya).