Faster, higher, stronger: Luxury pricing goes for gold

It's a question the luxury industry has been posing for years as it skipped through the financial crisis in diamond slingbacks - House of Borgezie, 120,000 euros.

"There is a tendency among the most high-end buyers to forget about cost. They want the best. They want what they want," said Michel Chevalier, author of Luxury Brand Management.

It is the most expensive brands, dubbed "absolute" luxury - among them Hermes , Van Cleef & Arpels and Bottega Veneta - that are growing the fastest of all, thanks to emerging market demand, particularly from China.

According to Bain research, the "absolute" segment has grown 6% a year, outperforming the general luxury market, since 2000. It now accounts for 40 billion euros of the 191 billion euro luxury market and is expected to grow faster than other segments through 2014.

"There is limited supply of these products," said Citigroup luxury analyst Thomas Chauvet of prestige and vintage cognacs and champagnes, which come from just a small region of France. "This is a fantastic opportunity to increase prices."

Analysts say prices in the luxury industry have surged from 2001 to 2011 and will keep rising faster than broader prices. Thomas Mesmin at Cheuvreux estimates that prices for fashion and leather goods rose 62% in that period, while watches and jewellery have risen 78%. Euro zone inflation has totalled just 26% over the 11 years.

Much of the rise in luxury prices occurred before the 2008 crisis, but prices have been rising again since the second half of 2010. In 2011 Cheuvreux estimates that luxury prices rose 7% across the board.

Prices for champagne, leather goods, jewellery and the like have been particularly buoyant for the past two years.

A Hermes Cape Cod watch that sold for 1,300 euros in 2009 now sells for 2,200. A bottle of Moët & Chandon Imperial Rosé that sold for $60 in 2010 in the United States now fetches USD 75.99.

LVMH , the world's largest luxury brand, has been especially assertive, raising prices in its Louis Vuitton and high-prestige champagne lines by up to 15% in 2011. Chauvet says systematic price increases at LVMH account for a third of its revenue growth.