Prologue Luxury brands are successful because they enable customers to project an image that may not be a true reflection of themselves. Tod's bags uses the concept of piccolo sogno, a little dream, to help customers bridge the gap between who they really are and who they want to be. Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia uses the concept of piccolo sogno, a little dream, to help customers become the person they want to be…a little at a time.

A Little Dream -- A Little Lie

Diego Della Valle understands me. That is the main reason I would buy a pair of his shoes or think I have to have one of his luscious bags. Sure, the soft crushable caramel-colored leather is seductive, but not as seductive as the image the products can convey. Once, in the span of two terrible weeks, I was laid off from a job I loved and left a man I once loved. I no longer felt like a valuable employee (I wasn't anymore, apparently); I no longer felt valued by a man I had trusted (I shouldn't have, clearly). My daughter, a young woman with less experience than I -- except in the area of lost jobs...

Something new and glamorous can take away almost any sting. An extravagant item is the manifestation of a piccolo sogno, a little dream.
With a chunk of my severance money, I followed the siren -- my piccolo sogno, right into Nordstrom. I bought a pair of Prada sunglasses -- the lenses dark enough to hide teary red-rimmed eyes, while conveying that sense of mystery and aloofness the very rich or the very famous display, and that we all covet. I bought two bags. An over -- the shoulder classic caramel-colored bag that could never be mistaken for anything but a Tod's product. And, at half the price of the Tod's bag, a glossy black back with an impractical tassel on the motorcycle-leather style zipper, and a metal tag that flashed Cole Haan.

Sporting these items, not only would I not be recognized as a wronged woman, I would evoke a degree of envy from women I passed and curiosity from men. In buying these products, I had admitted to myself that I wanted "something a little higher" than…