In less than a year the world has witnessed one of the most crippling financial crises of the century. Perhaps coincidentally the luxury industry chose the same period to converge its key players for two events related to its own sustainability - the International Herald Tribune’s Sustainable Luxury Conference held in Delhi in March and the First Sustainable Luxury Fair in Paris in May. These are token events in an evolution towards conscious consumption. But what does the luxury industry really mean by sustainability? Indeed, social and environmental responsibility is the means and not the end itself. Does it mean the end of the sustainability of future profits rather than the sustainability of the wider society? This key question goes further: do these two interest areas have to be mutually exclusive?

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