Lorre White, The Guru of Luxury

Warren Buffett with Lorre White at his golf club in Omaha, NB

Warren Buffett, the world's most successful investor, hosts Lorre White and top clients at a private aviation function.

For all of the American Luxury Guru blog readers we wish you a Happy Independance Day

Happy Birthday America

and all of Lorre White's blog readers in the US

from :

Lorre White & all of us at the Guru Of Luxury staff

Luxury Retail - Brand Status - web

Private equity firms prove to be capable of maintaining--even building-- brand prestige among wealthy shoppers. Private investment groups own all of the top three brands in the 2008 Luxury Institute Luxury Brand Status Index (LBSI) survey for luxury retailers. Bergdorf Goodman earns the highest overall score from wealthy consumers, who gush about the "level of personalization in service and the quality of merchandise Bergdorf is the boutique division of Neiman Marcus Group, which was taken private in 2005 by Texas Pacific Group and Warburg Pincus. Neiman Marcus' flagship brand ranks third, while a resurgent Barneys, owned by Dubai-based private equity group Istithmar, earns a second-place ranking from wealthy consumers earning an average income of $348,000 and with an average net worth of $3.6 million. The Wealth Report Leading Edge Insights Into the World of the Wealthy published by the Luxury Institute Milton Pedraza, CEO

Wealthy women are certainly no idlers

Wealthy Women At Work

Wealthy women are certainly no idlers: 72 percent work on at least a part-time basis and 54 percent work full-time. Most are well compensated for their efforts: 60 percent of wealthy women who work earn at least $100,000 a year; 20 percent earn at least $200,000 and the median annual income of working wealthy women is $124,000.

Onethird of these women (and 45 percent from households with income greater than$300,000) support another family member through their work; 28 percent support two family members, and 18 percent support three or more dependents. The average amount spent on supporting additional family members: $22,400.

The financial influence of affluent females is powerful and growing in the business world, with women increasingly holding positions of executive authority. One-third of working wealthy women hold jobs at the vice-president level or higher and another 22 percent hold some type of managerial position. Twelve percent of wealthy women serve on a company's board of directors; eight percent are partners in a firm; and two percent hold C-level corporate positions.

Fifteen percent of wealthy women own their own businesses, and lifestyle is a primary consideration in doing so. One-third say that they launched a business to have a more flexible schedule, and nine percent did so to be able to spend more time with family and friends. One in six wealthy women who started a business did so to pursue financial ndependence or to take advantage of a better opportunity than they had in their previous work. Women 55 and older, as well as those with household income greater than 300,000, are 50 percent more likely to be business owners. Just four percent of women rom high-income households with a net worth less than $1 million, and 10 percent who are younger than 45 years of age, are entrepreneurs.

Educational attainment helps to explain the financial success of wealthy women. This is an overwhelmingly college-educated group, with 88 percent of wealthy women holding at least a bachelor's degree. Overall in the U.S. population, just 26 percent of women and 29 percent of men) have earned a bachelor's degree. Twenty-eight percent of wealthy women have earned a master's degree; another seven percent have an M.B.A and 10 percent have received more advanced degrees. The rate of women with a college egree rises to 92 percent in households with a net worth of at least $1 million, and to 95 percent for women from households with income between $200,000 and $300,000. For two decades, women have been outpacing men in earning college degrees—women took 58 percent of all bachelor's degrees awarded in the United States in 2004—so the accompanying financial achievements of women should continue to grow both on an absolute level and relative to the earnings of men.

The Wealth report by the Luxury Institute

Best ranked R retailer www.LucGuru.Typepad.com

Luxury E-Tailers - Brand Status Opportunity abounds for consolidation and growth as online luxurydestinations grapple with brand building and competition from established retailers. Some firms, however, do stand out with wealthy consumers. In particular, Net-a-Porter earns the highest ranking in the 2008 LBSI survey for online luxury retailers. "Truly unique merchandise" and fashion forward items pulled together in new and current ways" are what wealthy consumers say they like about Net-a-Porter.

by the Luxury Institute

The Global Superyacht Market -www.luxguru.typepad.com

Finally, some good data on the rapidly growing market for the largest, most luxurious yachts to cruise the seas - the first "superyacht" index. Too often, the yachting business is viewed as opaque, offering outsiders little in the way of visibility into how the industry works - from shipyards to brokers, buyers, charter managers, and all of the ancillary service providers - but the first annual installment of the Superyachting Index should help the yachting community (and especially new entrants) get a handle on what's happening in the market. Luxury yachting company Camper & Nicholsons International (CNI), a U.K.-based global leader in yacht sales brokerage, new construction, crew placement and charter management, compiled primary (proprietary sales data) and secondary (publicly available industry data) research to assess market size, market growth, and characteristics of owners of superyachts and their vessels. Camper has shipbuilding roots going back to 1782 and built the first diesel-powered yacht in 1913. The Luxury Institute assisted in the index's conceptualization, verified research data to ensure objectivity, and reviewed findings to ensure that the index meets the educational needs of a growing number of wealthy consumers worldwide. Superyacht Market Segmentation The superyacht market has grown nearly fourfold in the past decade by selling more vessels into developed markets and expanding into emerging ones. In 1997, only 241 yachts of 80-feet in length or greater were on order. By the end of 2007, there were 916 such yachts scheduled for delivery in 2008 and beyond. That's a 10-year increase of 380 percent The Wealth Report Leading Edge Insights Into the World of the Wealthy published by the Luxury Institute Milton Pedraza, CEO

LORRE WHITE, is the Featured Celebrity today on

LORRE WHITE, “THE LUXURY GURU”

is the Featured Celebrity today on

eVelvetRope’s on line magazine.

Check it out….

www.EVRMag.com

Sometimes being in the know is all about knowing the right people. So now you know us.

eVelvetRope will also be airing Lorre’s Luxury Channel Video Podcasts.

e Velvet Rope Magazine feature Lorre White, The Luxury Guru

e Velvet Rope an on line magazine features an interview with Lorre White, check it out to see what she learned growing up in Virginia, how she became the Luxury Guru, etc.

www.EVRMag.com

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What’s behind the virtual Velvet Rope – eVelvetRope.com

For those into cuisine and nightlife, especially in San Francisco and Los Angeles, I've stumbled upon an interesting and very sexy review site called eVelvetRope.com and it's sister site, EVRMag.com. It's a review and recommendations site that encourages members to share their opinions. While there are very well established review sites out there (i.e. Yelp and CitySearch) this one is different in that not anyone can be a reviewer. Membership is attained primarily by invitation, and there are protections in place to prevent the invitation process from being abused. Without an invitation, it is still possible to apply for membership.

From what I have seen, members seem to be the well-heeled, young-ish entrepreneurial set–from restaurateurs and club owners to investment bankers. When I joined the community, their featured member interviewee was a 25-year old who had sold his company to Yahoo! for 300 Million. Apparently, their aim is to filter the onslaught of web-based information in order to extract the most relevant, useful and trusted . Think 'aSmallWorld meets Yelp', however, unlike aSW, their membership policy is not designed to be elitist. They simply want to protect the integrity of the community and the content. You won't find profiles with cartoon pictures or pets in this network.

Besides the user generated content (reviews, events, etc.) eVelvetRope has a team of in-house writers contributing interesting editorial content on everything from home cooking to fashion. I think this is a great concept, so I have decided to contribute some content myself, including my video series on various luxury lifestyle topics.

I would recommend checking out EVRMag.com before eVelvetRope.com, as it does not require membership. This is a relatively new venture, but definitely one to watch out for. There is simply nothing else like it out there.