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How Luxury Lost Its Luster
Penguin Press
August 2007
On Sale: August 16, 2007
384 pages
ISBN: 1594201293
EAN: 9781594201295
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
Dana Thomas, style and cultural reporter for Newsweek,
brings a hard-hitting behind-the-scenes look at the world of
"New Luxury" and how the massification of luxury goods has
ensured that luxury isn't luxurious any longer There was a time when luxury was available to only 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 a
pampered buying experience. Today's luxury marketplace would
be virtually unrecognizable to the old-world elite. Gone are
the family-owned businesses dedicated to integrity and
quality; the industry is now run by massive corporations
focused only on growth, visibility, brand awareness,
advertising, and, above all, profits. Handmade goods are
practically extinct, and almost all manufacturing has been
outsourced to large factories in places such 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 down 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 Christian Dior and Prada perfumes are
manufactured, 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 upscale
lifestyle is targeted mainly to the middle-class masses?
What are we paying for when quality has given way to
quantity, and luxury is no longer just for the upper-class
elite? Thomas has travelled all over the world to interview
corporate heads and factory workers, the old-money,
old-luxury clients and the new luxury-obsessed middle-class
consumer, 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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