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| Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster | 
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (based on 38 reviews)
Sales Rank: 16314
Category: Book
Author: Dana Thomas
Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The
Studio: Penguin Press HC, The
Manufacturer: Penguin Press HC, The
Label: Penguin Press HC, The
Format: Bargain Price
Language: English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.1
Dewey Decimal Number: 338.47
ASIN: B001IDZK8U
Publication Date: August 16, 2007
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Product Description
A hard-hitting behind-the-scenes look at the luxury fashion industry today
There was a time when luxury was available only to the rarefied and aristocratic world of old money and royalty. Luxury wasn't simply a product, it was a lifestyle, one that denoted a history of tradition, superior quality and offered a pampered buying experience. Today's luxury marketplace would be virtually unrecognizable to its founders. Gone are the family-owned businesses dedicated to integrity and quality; the industry is now run by multi-billion dollar global corporations focused on growth, visibility, brand-awareness, advertising and above all, profits. Handcrafted goods are practically extinct, and almost all manufacturing has been outsourced to large factories in such places as China, where your expensive brand-name handbag is being assembled right next to one from a mass-market label that will cost substantially less.
Dana Thomas, a journalist who has covered style and the luxury business for The Washington Post, Newsweek and The New York Times Magazine from Paris for the past fifteen years, digs deep into the dark side of the luxury industry to uncover all the secrets that Prada, Gucci and Burberry don't want us to know. Traveling from the laboratories in Grasse, where the ingredients for Christian Dior and Prada perfumes are produced, to the crowded factories in China, where workers glue together "Made in Italy" bags by the thousands, Thomas explores the whole of today's high-end shopping experience to answer some pressing questions: What is the new definition of luxury when advertising for this lifestyle is targeted mainly toward the mass market? What are we paying for when quality has given way to quantity? Can integrity survive in a corporate culture driven to meet regular growth and profit projections? Is luxury still the best that money can buy?
Thomas has traveled all over the world to interview corporate heads and factory workers, old-money, old-luxury clients and new luxury-obsessed middle-market consumers, and she paints a surprising picture of today's New Luxury. With Deluxe, she delivers a fast-paced, uncompromising look at the real world behind the glossy magazines and red carpet couture and asks: How did luxury lose its luster?
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| Customer Reviews: Read 33 more reviews...
 Absolutely Fantastic!! January 8, 2009
This book is an easy, wonderful, entertaining and informative read that will bring you in from the first sentence. It is a requirement for anyone who is interested in the luxury market. You will not want to put it down.
A Must Read for anyone who Buys Anything Designer! December 28, 2008
This book was recommended by a fellow handbag collector, so I decided to give it a try. Once I opened it up and started reading, I could not put it down! As riveting as some of the best novels I read, I couldn't wait to read the next page/chapter!!
It was so interesting learning the back stories of some of today's most coveted designers and to know about what really happens behind the scenes. It truly is an eye opener and changes your views on luxury brands and what designer labels really mean in today's society.
Will it stop me from buying my favorite designers? No, but it does make me see them in a different way.
If you're buying designer items for the name and prestige it brings, this book will likely change the way you shop or how you choose your items. But if you've always bought purely based on your own personal tastes and are NOT influenced by the latest trends and "IT" bags, then this book will open your eyes a little wider and give you some back story. Either way, you won't look at "luxury" items the same way after reading this book.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
 Is mass market luxury possible, or an oxymoron? December 3, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
To what extent does the idea of 'luxury' correspond with the reality of a luxury brand?
That's the question at the heart of Deluxe, in which veteran fashion reporter Dana Thomas leaves no Gucci logo or Birkin bag unturned in search of an answer. Historically, the brand WAS the luxury good -- without exclusivity and superb quality, old money simply wouldn't buy the item in question. But in the latter decades of the 20th century, a new breed of luxury moguls from LVMH's Bernard Arnault to the Versace clan have brought their goods -- or least a solidly profitable subset of them. principally accessories -- to the middle market. What has been lost and gained over the course of that transformation?
Thomas takes us to the scene to explore that question -- whether it's to the production lines in Paris or China, the offices of the fashion moguls and the stores where customers queue up to buy coveted items. She digs into the ugly underside of the industry, from the young Japanese women who work as prostitutes to be able to afford an Louis Vuitton handbag, to the sweatshop workers who toil over making some of those handbags (which specific ones, buyers are never likely to know, thanks to labeling techniques and strategies that Thomas discusses.)
An underlying question that Thomas rarely attempts to address directly is why consumers have proved to be such suckers for these brand name products, paying hundreds or thousands of dollars in exchange for a brand name and not always getting superior workmanship in exchange these days. (Leslie Caron's thoughts on the demise of couture and what the "luxury" of couture really meant, compared to the more mass-produced luxury garments of today, is rather intriguing.) The ways in which luxury goods manufacturers are able to whip up overexcited demand is, in some ways, just as disturbing as the questions surrounding the industry's business practices. Without that demand, there would be little to no piracy (no profit motive), and thus none of the organized crime, etc. that Thomas exposes.
Most intriguing and most likely to be "new" to many readers, is Thomas's discussion of those manufacturers and designers who have resisted the trend to "go mass market". Some view her evident approval of these individuals and firms as snobbish -- what I find intriguing is her evident fascination with the degree of personal attention of these people toward both the design and the craft of assembling the items, from shoes to clothing. Perhaps true luxury was never intended to be mass market? If Mozart had written advertising jingles, would they have lasted for centuries? It's perhaps an unanswerable question, and certainly these businesses are bucking the trend, but I found myself most fascinated with the details of how "true" luxury items are constructed.
Overall, this book will be a gripping inside look at the luxury brand business for anyone who has ever ambled down Fifth Avenue or Rodeo Drive and wondered how Prada et. al. have taken over the landscape, or wandered into a Coach store and noticed how much more rapidly the inventory is changing as the retailer tries to whet our appetite for one "must have" item after another.
Excellent October 10, 2008
What an excellent easy to read book. It's always good to get an "insiders'" view of an industry such as the luxury goods industry. I had never thought about the way they market or the activities that they cover until reading this book. It is definitely worth the time to read.
Deluxe. How Luxury Lost Its Luster October 4, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Book is amazing. One does have a different opinion when you shop at Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Gucci, etc. and you know in most cases the founders and their families have no say in their product. It's a corporate world and the bottom line is money. A must read for a luxury brand shopper. Enjoyed the historical info on the original designer.
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