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Recently the weekly magazine Veja (a Brazilian Time Magazine wannabe that belongs to the largest local publishing company), had and article explaining a new measure of economic growth for the country: the Louis Vuitton bag indicator (I kid you not!).

This is howthe mag did it: they measured the steep growth of LV bag being sold and and looked closely at who is buying them now. The magazine claims that this is a sign not only of Brazil’s economic prosperity but also of its economic stability. Most buyers are middle class, working women that until very recently in Brazilian history would not be able to afford such purchases.

Similar to what Dana Thomas reported about chinese working women in her book “Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster“, Brazilians LV bag owners are all about showing off that they are moving on up, the most coveted bags are the ones covered with monograms, so its owners can easily show them off.

Another important reason for the growth in LV bag sales is that they allow its Brazilian buyers to pay in installments (which is very common here). It works like a lay-away of sorts but customers do take the bags with them immediately and pay the monthly installments via their credit cards. One of the women mentioned is the owner of a beauty salon in the countryside of Sao Paulo state, who has purchased no less than 7 LV bags in the last 2 years (chances are she spent 24 months paying for all of them).  Also, interestingly enough, these women mentioned that they had already purchased cheaper knock-offs before being able to afford the real thing.

Also curious is that LV has been the brand of choice for these emerging customers, while of ther logo-covered options lag behind (Gucci, for instance). It either means that LVMH has been doing an amazing branding job on these markets, or the other companies are doing a rather poor one.