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Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster
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List Price:
$15.00
Global Home Business Price:
$4.13
Your Savings: $ 10.87 ( 72% )
Subject To Change Without Notice
Availability: N/A
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 306
EAN: 9780143113706
ISBN: 0143113704
Label: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 384
Publication Date: 2008-07-29
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Studio: Penguin (Non-Classics)
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Editorial Reviews:
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Once luxury was available only to the rarefied and aristocratic world of old money and royalty. It offered a history of tradition, superior quality, and a pampered buying experience. Today, however, luxury is simply a product packaged and sold by multibillion-dollar global corporations focused on growth, visibility, brand awareness, advertising, and, above all, profits. Award-winning journalist Dana Thomas 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. Deluxe is an uncompromising look behind the glossy façade that will enthrall anyone interested in fashion, finance, or culture.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: A Must Read for anyone who Buys Anything Designer!
Comment: 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!
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Is mass market luxury possible, or an oxymoron?
Comment: 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.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Comment: 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.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Deluxe. How Luxury Lost Its Luster
Comment: 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.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent overview of luxury market from a somewhat snobby perspective
Comment: As a person who tends to stay away from luxury brands though remains interested in this cultural phenomenon, I found this book to be extremely insightful, engaging and a very fair history of the luxury brand market. Dana Thomas takes us through the history of luxury houses as they move from small family owned creators of the absolute best in their field to corporate owned behemoths catering to the nouveau riche and wannabes as they sell a sexy and successful lifestyle image.
I found her in person reporting to be the most engaging as she shows us the people behind the luxury brands and the personality clashes and twists of fate that give us the brands and designs we have today. However, Ms. Thomas takes a somewhat snobby, though not rude tone, when talking about the democratization of luxury goods. Overall, an extremely good book.
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