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Title: Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster
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Manufacturer: Penguin Press HC, The
List Price: $27.95
Our Price: $6.82
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| Customer Reviews: |
| Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster by Penguin Press HC, The Eye opening!!! | | This is an excellent tutorial on the global black market and illegal trade. Part of my job is to fight the piracy of intellectual property in the tech industry. But the theft of IP doesn't stop with illegal downloading and copying of software. Piracy is rampant and supports a global economy (see another book called "Illicit") that - if we all knew more about it - we wouldn't even DREAM of buying that cheap knock off handbag we see on the streets. In addition to the degradation of luxury goods thru their rampant availability, this book points out that pirated goods have become an all too common way of life that does nothing but cheapen everything. Its time to STOP! Better to carry a great bag from Target than to carry a cheap knockoff Louis V. | | Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster by Penguin Press HC, The Must read for all brand snobs | | This is an excellent book, especially for a person who is a brand snob (ie. guilty!). Must read. The section on Louis Vuitton is eye-opening. The chapter on the making of a Hermes bag is priceless. Louis Vuitton is just good marketing, and this has caused the mass hysteria that makes everyone want a LV. Chanel and Hermes remain true luxury. This book will help you understand the difference between marketed perceived luxury and true luxury. | | Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster by Penguin Press HC, The Well researched and full of fascinating stories | This comprehensive look at the luxury industry is a fascinating read that looks behind the scenes at the worlds of high fashion, designer perfumes and other luxury goods. If you ever read "The Fashion Conspiracy" by Nicholas Coleridge, this covers similar (but broader) territory. Dana Thomas has traveled extensively and clearly knows the industry well. She is also a gifted writer who can skillfully use anecdotes to bring well known figures to life, eg: Bernard Arnault of LVMH who has no hesitation in screwing over family friends to get ahead and who is so secretive that his own secretary didn't know when his wife had a baby, stylist Jessica Paster screaming at and threatening designers during Oscar week, Georgio Armani giving his mother style advice at the age of 12.
Although I very much enjoyed reading "Deluxe", it wasn't one of those books that you can't put down. It felt like I was reading a series of well-written articles in Vanity Fair rather than a book with a continuous narrative. It does contain some photographs, but I wish there had been a lot more. I wanted to see all these people who she was describing and understand what the products that she was talking about looked like. The index isn't very good - I spotted several omissions or only partial indexing. I also felt that the book could have been about 50 pages shorter - sometimes she didn't need to tell us absolutely everything about a given topic!
Halfway through reading this book I picked up the latest issue of Vogue magazine and looked through the advertisements. It was an interesting exercise and there is no question that I viewed them quite differently. Dana Thomas also talks about the evolutions in the retail and manufacturing industries that have contributed to the growth and improved profitability of the luxury goods industries. It's a very comprehensive and interesting book which I recommend to anyone who has an interest in fashion.
| | Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster by Penguin Press HC, The Deluxe: How luxury lost its luster, not per se! | A very interesting book, especially if your a bit interested in the world of fashion.
It gives you a glimp of what goes about behind the scenes of large international fashionhouses like Louis Vuitton.
Also a bit of history, and the way they work today.
And a prophetic look into the future, what will be the future of luxury.
And what will the extremely rich and famous purchase to destinct them self from the "common people". | | Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster by Penguin Press HC, The A++++++ | | there's no words to describe how amazing this book is for someone that works in the industry - the writing is clear as water and 100 points for the first person that has the guts to say it all - the research is detailed to an extreme, i cannot wait for the next book - LOVED IT - it might be not so incredible to read but still very informative, precise and true if you are not in fashion | | Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster by Penguin Press HC, The 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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