Neiman Marcus, the high-end American retailer, plunged to a $509.2 million (£370 million) net loss after the richest shoppers in the country kept their purses closed over the holiday period.

The Dallas-based luxury-goods store chain, which also owns Bergdorf Goodman in New York, made the loss in the 13 weeks to January 31 as sales dropped by more than 20 per cent to slightly more than $1 billion.

Neiman Marcus's slide into the red compared with a $44.3 million net profit over the same shopping period in 2008.

The stores, beloved of ladies who lunch and big-spending tourists who are in the market for diamond-encrusted chess sets, were bought by Warburg Pincus and TPG, the private equity groups, for $5.1 billion in 2005.

Bergdorf Goodman's name is so closely linked with luxury that in 2004 it inspired the novel Bergdorf Blondes by Plum Sykes, the socialite author, about the cosseted lives of the Park Avenue princesses of New York.

Over this past Christmas season, however, even wealthy shoppers reined in their spending, and the situation is unlikely to improve soon.

Bain & Company, the consultancy, said recently that demand for luxury goods would fall by as much as 15 per cent this year compared with 2008.

Neiman Marcus's loss arose mainly from a $560 million impairment charge taken by the company to reflect the devaulation of its goodwill and trade names.

The company said that it had tested assets to ascertain their chance of recovering in the economic downturn and found that some assets would not regain their previous value.

To regain its footing, Neiman Marcus has stepped up its appeals to customers, with a recent direct-mailing offering a $500 gift card for shoppers who took second-hand suits into its stores for donation to charity.

The shops had previously avoided the super-sales offered by rivals, but from March 20 they will shave $200 off handbags priced at more than $750.

The company has not abandoned all of its principles, however. The online final clearance area of the Neiman Marcus website sorts its sale items in to price brackets of below $1,000, $1,000 to $2,000 and $2,000 to $5,000.

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