It is an irony of the luxury industry’s explosion – global sales were an estimated €135bn ($174bn, £93bn) last year, up from €80bn in 2000 – that in its success may lie the seeds of its undoing.

As big-name brands promise growth of at least 10 per cent a year and open shops not only in emerging markets but in places ranging from Leeds in the UK to Australia’s Surfer’s Paradise, they face accusations of crossing the line from an exclusive to a mass market.