After lean years, luxury retailers in Michigan see spike in sales

Local retailers say people are back to buying the best, no matter the cost. • Black Friday preview: Plan your holiday shopping Karen Daskas, co-owner of Tender, an upscale boutique in Birmingham, said her business suffered after the stock market crash in fall 2008, just after the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Wealthy people saw their portfolios dive, and they closed their wallets. Now that the market has seen some recovery, it's a different story. Daskas said customers started shopping more in August. And surprisingly, they were going for the very high-end pieces, such as a $16,000 soft white mink and fox fur coat. Luxury retail sales are an important gauge of the market's recovery because the wealthy consumer typically springs back from recessions ahead of the curve. Nate Forbes, managing partner for the Southfield-based Forbes Co., which owns Somerset Collection in Troy, said he expects sales to rise by 3.5% to 5% at the upscale mall this holiday season as people are feeling better about their job security and are less skeptical about the housing market. Brands doing well at the mall include Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Ralph Lauren and MaxMara. "There has been a little bit of a flight to quality this year that you didn't see last year. People are back to buying goods that have a certain timelessness in their design, that have a certain elegance to them," he said.