But other luxury makers have acknowledged that a ceiling exists even for exclusive goods
. When French luxury-house Hermes raised yen-denominated sticker prices 50% over three years between 2004 and 2007, sales began slipping, and the brand has hardly dared to raise prices since. 'We must take the market's capacity to absorb the price hikes into account,' says Mireille Maury, Hermes's managing director for finance and administration. Hermes's commercial teams will decide by January whether to raise or lower prices in the U.S. and Japan, she says.