Bella Katz on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn

Melbourne’s Chadstone shopping centre has opened its luxury wing to massive crowds. So massive in fact that rather than risk a riot, management started and finished a voucher promotion at 5am on opening day.

Yesterday, a beautiful sunny day, the queues to Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Tiffany, Chanel… were more than 30 deep with security staggering people allowed through the door. By all accounts it has been a veritable success.

Today, a rainy Melbourne day, Luxury has a different story and the new marble floor is dotted with blue plastic buckets as rain, rather than sunlight, pours through that designer glass ceiling.

I wonder what Karl Lagerfeld, Patrizio di Marco et al would have to say about that…