"Consumer habits will change fast in a market with such explosive growth," said the report, citing the fact that Chinese customers now buy 60 percent of luxury goods on the mainland, though several years ago they just bought most of their luxury items overseas.

Lisa, for example, is buying more at home. She buys one fifth of all luxury items in Beijing or Shanghai now, as more choices and price discounts are offered.

"I never budget my spending on such items, and I buy if I think the price is appropriate or there is a discount for what I like, particularly during my trips to Europe or Hong Kong," she said.

You are what you buy

China's emerging middle class aspires to have more and better designer items as a symbol of social status, wealth, personality and taste, but their consumer behavior is not mature and need education and guidance.

In contrast to mature luxury buyers who choose only brands matching their personality and taste, a growing number of Chinese luxury buyers are novices to the luxury world, knowing little about luxury brands.

They usually prefer functional values, such as quality, material, design or craft, to emotional connections of a certain luxury item.

"China's young luxury shoppers at this moment are excited about owning a certain number of luxury goods. Not everyone understands the different connotations and history of luxury brands and different lifestyle they represent," said Sun Yimin, a marketing expert at Shanghai's Fudan University.

Furthermore, conspicuous consumption serves more or less a permit to enter one or more wealth-measured exclusive clubs for China's nouveau riche.

"Luxury goods for many Chinese represent a label of social status and wealth," said a former merchandise manager for Omega watch surnamed Liu. "If some of your friends who earn about the same salary as you do can buy Louis Vuitton bags, you are inclined to think that you can also afford it and should buy one too."

Lisa Li considered her purchasing of designer shoes and suits a necessity for her profession and working environment.

"It will make you feel comfortable and confident wearing them," she said. "It's also a way of expressing your taste and identity."

New money

China's luxury shoppers are strikingly young, many of them self-employed or part of a growing professional class. Eighty percent of them are under 45, compared with 30 percent of luxury shoppers in the United States and 19 percent in Japan, according to the McKinsey report.

According to Tian Dapeng, a rock singer who has been a luxury consumer for years, three generations of wealth accumulation will help foster a true class of luxury consumer.

"The first generation that built up from nothing is not likely to consume luxury goods and the second generation who witnessed the hardships their parents encountered in building up wealth are sensitive to prices of luxury goods," he said. "Only the third generation who have grown up with a golden spoon and begun to know a number of luxury brands since their childhood, are less price-sensitive and display a high loyalty to certain brands."

The mainstream luxury shoppers at present are the second generation between 30 to 38 years old, he said.

Connie Kang, the 38-year-old owner of a shipping company she founded 10 years ago in Shanghai, is one of them. The company yields her several million yuan (several hundred thousand dollars) every year and allows her to spend freely on whatever she likes.

"Luxury is something that will no longer bring you excitement or contentment once you own many items," she said.

But Li Xiaoyu, a 24-year-old new graduate of computer science in Beijing, is a third-generation luxury buyer. Born to a middle-class family in Beijing, Li had her first luxury item, a Hermes bracelet, in the early 1990s, and has since cultivated her taste for luxury from reading fashion magazines.

Li already has her favorite brand, Chanel, because "the elegance and consistency of its design suits a lady perfectly." She expects her monthly salary to reach 5,000 to 6,000 yuan ($732-878) after her current internship ends.

And she is not alone. One of every 10 classmates consumed luxury items during her high school years, she said.