Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster Paperback – Illustrated, July 29, 2008

I found DELUXE: HOW LUXURY LOST ITS LUSTER by Dana Thomas from a suggestion that someone made on the purse forum. The thread had to do with brand name bags and the noticeable decline in quality, yet prices are on the rise.This book is FASCINATING! Thomas has access to all the major players in fashion and provides details on how some of the most iconic brands got their start. Names like Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Versace etc., and how they have evolved into today.Many of these brands started out very small with lots of attention paid to detail and quality. Only the most richest people of society could afford some of these brands until there was a marketing explosion during the 80s and 90s in which most of these brands were bought out by corporations.Anyway, that's when the decline started happening and some of these brand names actually have stuff produced and made in China, but assembled in Italy or France so that they can still carry the "made in Italy or France" label.It's really interesting how Thomas traces these brand names from their respective family owned businesses to when they were bought out by corporations.She also discusses the issues of buying fake bags and counterfeit goods. Many think that buying a knock-off version of an expensive bag is a victimless crime, but it is not. You'll find out why in this book.Also, even though the "crossover" of luxury brands to the masses is a good thing -- meaning more people can afford to own one or two luxury items even if they aren't millionaires -- the downside is that now the quality has gone down, and since there must be a high turn over rate of selling more and more, nothing is made to last, unlike items that were made a decade or so ago.I would definitely recommend this book if you buy brand names like Chanel, Vuitton or the like, or even if you don't because this book will have you rethinking the whole idea of what luxury is.

By exposing the deteriorating quality and mass marketing of many so-called luxury goods, Dana Thomas has driven home a truth--if EVERYBODY has it, no matter how much it costs it's no longer a luxury item. Today, the malls are jammed with women of every economic strata proudly brandishing (mostly fake and a few real) LV bags. They are logo soldiers in LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault's LV army. Though it's usually easy to spot the fakes (as of this writing on fake LV's, the LV' is not upside down on the reverse) the bags are so ubiquitous that it hardly matters anymore.Hermes is one of the few large companies that still gets it right. Smaller leather goods makers and perfumers such as Valextra and Lorenzo Villoresi continue to carry the torch. One complaint is that many of these smaller companies were not mentioned in the book. Superb quality and true luxury will always be there if you know where to look.For some, luxury still means exclusivity; as Thomas points out, wealthy cognescenti will continue to quietly raise the bar by seeking out rare items of exquisite quality, leaving the "mass affluents" behind in logo purgatory. Of course, the hoi polloi will be giddily buying "luxury" bags that the upper crusties wouldn't be caught dead with.There is some justice in all this. With all her vast wealth and power, Delphine Arnault cannot carry an exquisite, handmade Hermes bag,(at least not in public.) Poor thing! She's stuck with her daddy's lackluster, "McLuxury" brands.UPDATE: Although he has denied it, it is clear that Bernard Arnault is lining up his ducks for an eventual takeover of Hermes. So far, the family has been able to block him from taking a majority stake. I hope that this never happens. I bought my first Hermes bag in 1983. I still carry and love it. Thanks to M. Claude of Hermes in New York, It is as beautiful now as the day that I bought it. I can't bear to think of Hermes in Arnaut's grip. E company should remain in family hands.I deduct one star for the numerous typos: this is UNFORGIVABLE in a book about the decline of quality.

Full Disclosure: I write about fashion, entertainment and celebrities for a living and have known Dana Thomas for a decade or more. I knew she was working on a book about luxury (yawn) and for the past three years, she was always exhausted, trotting off to China, Milan, Grasse or Lake Como, sometimes popping into my hood in Hollywood, constantly doing research for the book.But frankly, I'm not a big designer brand buyer and would sooner plunk $400 on a Pottery Barn couch than a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes. So I never imagined how engrossed i would be by this book. In fact, I was shocked.Dana makes this elitist world come alive by putting luxury in a historical context (Caesar wore only silk togas and the Senate was POed at the expense!) and taking the reader with her on a personal journey behind the scenes and around the world, to find out the sad truth about the decline of the luxury goods industry.It's utterly fascinating and engrossing. And it's funny! Dana has a wicked snse of humor and pulls no punches in describing the decadent denizens of the "Deluxe" world. Even if you know nothing about fashion, couldn't tell a Gucci bag from a Prada purse, and don't own a single designer knockoff product, this book will fascinate, educate and entertain. Plus any book that can make me put down the last Harry Potter - in the middle! - has to be some kind of good read.