ABSTRACT
This chapter identifies the current state of knowledge regarding luxury consumption and luxury brands, tracing their origins from antiquity through the present trend of Western conceptions of luxury taking root in emerging economies in China and India. It explores the seldom-investigated fundamental concept of consumer dreams of luxury products and experiences. The chapter provides a scholarly perspective on past and extant research on the concept of luxury brands. A luxury brand watch that is also a piece of art is highly desirable given its exclusivity. The chapter explores the political and cultural contexts intrinsic to understanding luxury and luxury brands; whether through the lenses of consumer aspirations, dreams and desires, or consumer envy, such contexts matter. Luxury has an aspirational value across all cultures, especially post-colonial emerging markets such as India and China, where mimesis and hybridization provide an additional overlay. Context in such economies may be more challenging to decode, and even more essential to our understanding.
