Holiday luxe shopping seems to have already started in the big city.

On a random afternoon this past week, we walked into Louis Vuitton in Greenbelt 4 and observed that the store was abuzz, with most of the shoppers milling by the bag bar near the entrance, where the second installment of the Louis Vuitton x Yayoi Kusama collection is displayed.

We couldn’t help but overhear one middle-aged male shopper, who was checking out a Neverfull bag from the collection, say he’ll buy it as a present in December. The sales agent warned him, however, that that style may be long gone by Christmastime. (True, if the collection’s global popularity is anything to go by.)

We didn’t stay to see if the SA made the sale. But we lingered long enough in a café nearby to see other shoppers walk past toting large brown bags from the French luxury house. Some had multiple shopping bags from the other Greenbelt boutiques.

It made us think: Those luxury brand principals aren’t kidding when they say that they have utmost confidence in the Philippine market, that there is a market. No wonder new brands, from midrange to high-end, are coming in left and right.

At the launch of Bulgari’s Serpenti jewelry also this week, the sales agents milled around this famous ex couple, as the woman tried on pieces from the collection. We heard her cajole her ex into buying her something.

She’s one of the most successful entrepreneurs around, and doesn’t exactly need anyone—much less an ex—to buy her jewelry priced in the seven- to low eight-figures. But this couple is an anomaly among exes; they’ve stayed friends and, yes, he’s been known to gift her with jewelry.

Wonder which gem-studded piece she went home with that night?