For many in the industry, 2009 opens on a very dismal note. News is that Chanel is cutting 10 per cent of its workforce—200 jobs in Paris, including 16 positions in their fabulous Rue Cambon flagship. Luxury companies have often been thought of as being above and beyond a recession, however severe. But if that were true, we’d never have the mini skirt, or the bikini.

If Chanel—considered the beacon of luxury labels with its tweeds, quilts and pearls checking in a US $5 billion in sales— is cutting back, whatever happens to the smaller labels? The fate of Indian and other new-market names, on the threshold of international stardom is especially ominous. Chanel has also announced it will cancel its Mobile Art touring museum, the stunning shell-like pavilion designed by Zaha Hadid.

In New York, The Devil Wears Prada has been a bad omen for Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of Vogue, USA. In the film, largely based on Wintour, Meryl Streep’s editor heroine is losing her enviable position to a French Vogue editor. And rumours of Wintour losing her haute seat to Carine Roitfeld, a decade-younger editor of Vogue France, are doing the rounds since a month already. Numerous reports on Vogue’s slipping numbers and stale content have said to have caused Wintour’s purported downfall, but insiders state that one of the editor’s (famous for her unchanging personal style—a sharp bob, big sunglasses) biggest strengths is her authority over advertisers. It’s especially important for Conde Nast, who not only monopolises but also has a symbiotic relationship with the high-end luxury market.

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