For example, since the 19th century, among English jewelers, part of the luxury industry has been oriented towards the explosive spread of products for the general public. 2 A luxury product represents, above all, a label of quality: the buyer knows in advance that it has been produced thanks to know-how at the peak of the “state of the art” of a profession and is therefore willing to pay for the quality of such a product.

In truth, luxury is not always considered an important economic stimulus: in France in the 18th century, it was generally distinguished by a number of evils, such as increasing its value at the expense of the basic needs of the poor or fostering the corruption of morals, particularly those of the young. Yet Paris acquired from this time a reputation as the “capital of luxury” even if this reputation was not appreciated by everyone: “That luxury, growing every day, begins to become an expensive and unsustainable custom in the world that invented it, that it is from here [Paris] that it spreads throughout Europe…” (Massillon, Panegyric of Saint Louis). Starting with a few great couturiers, perfumers and industrialists3, the formation of large alliances in the luxury industry was nevertheless made in France4 around the 1990s and today, luxury remains a dynamic field in full growth5. With the composition of these entities, luxury, composed for half of the fashion sector, has experienced an average annual improvement of 5% per year for more than three decades