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INTRODUCTION
Despite the recent global financial crisis and economic turmoil, luxury brands are doing well with a growth of over 10 per cent per year since 2009 (Bain and Co., 2012). As a result of their unique performance, luxury brands become a focus of attention through multiple articles in the press. The downside of this growth and high visibility has also increased exposure to criticism. In particular, as luxury brands become more visible and promote themselves to wider audiences, the most recognised luxury brands also turn into more attractive targets for sustainable development activists and watchgroups such as Greenpeace (www.thefashionduel.com). As they are well aware of the challenges of sustainability in today's business context, some luxury companies have emphasised the way sustainability issues feature in their business practices and today, most luxury companies produce extensive reports of their efforts.
Faced by this increasingly relevant challenge for luxury brands, it seems to us relevant to detach ourselves from the companies' reports on sustainability to focus more extensively on the perceptions that consumers have of the sustainable orientation of luxury companies.
The present article, therefore, intends to explore issues related to luxury brands and sustainability, with two main objectives: (i) to explore the extent of the perceived contradiction between their luxury consumption and sustainability in the eye of the luxury consumer and (ii) to understand the drivers of this perceived contradiction. A study enabling to uncover the drivers of the perceived contradiction between luxury and sustainability is an effective management tool for luxury brands to better develop their sustainability strategies and associated communication.
In order to achieve these objectives, this article is organised as follows. In its first part, the article focuses on explaining why sustainability has not been central to luxury brands concerns, at least in an explicit manner, until recently. In a second step, it emphasises how recent evolutions in the context have dramatically changed the situation and increased the importance of sustainability for luxury brands. The research investigates the level of sensitivity of actual luxury buyers to the cause of sustainability, insofar as it concerns the luxury sector, luxury brands and their purchases. The dependent variable, their perception of a contradiction between luxury and sustainability, allows identifying the variables that increase consumers' scepticism about...