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Deluxe
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Deluxe (2007) (edit title/settings)

How Luxury Lost Its Luster

by Dana Thomas (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

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... read more

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Quotes edit see section history

  • “The luxury industry has changed the way people dress. It has realigned our economic class system. It has changed the way we interact with others. It has become part of our social fabric. To achieve this, it has sacrificed its integrity, undermined its products, tarnished its history and hoodwinked its consumers. In order to make luxury 'accessible' tycoons have stripped away all that has made it special.”
  • Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
  • Arnault and his fellow luxury tycoons have shifted the focus from what the product is to what it represents.
    Highlighted by 43 Kindle customers
  • “If you control your factories, you control your quality,” Arnault explained. “If you control your distribution, you control your image.”
    Highlighted by 32 Kindle customers
  • Luxury is not consumerism. It is educating the eyes to see that special quality.”
    Highlighted by 32 Kindle customers
  • that…Real luxurious people hate status. You don’t look rich because you have a rich dress. When you look at a person, do you see the spirit or the sexiness or the creativity? Just to see a big diamond, what does it mean? It’s all about satisfaction. I think it’s horrible, this judgment based on money. It’s all an illusion that you look better because you have a symbol of luxury. Really, it doesn’t bring you anything. It’s so banal.”
    Highlighted by 28 Kindle customers
  • If there is one thing that has changed in luxury in the last thirty years, it is the single-minded focus on profitability. In the old days, when luxury brands were privately held companies, owners cared about making a profit but the primary objective in-house was to produce the finest products possible. Since the tycoons have taken over, however, that objective has been replaced by a phenomenon I call the cult of luxury.
    Highlighted by 28 Kindle customers
  • Luxury is not how much you can buy. Luxury is the knowledge of how to do it right, how to take the time to understand and choose well. Luxury is buying the right thing.”
    Highlighted by 24 Kindle customers
  • Dior understood that the middle market was the future of luxury fashion, and sold not only his ideas but also his name to companies that could spread the Dior gospel to those who could not afford a made-to-measure frock.
    Highlighted by 24 Kindle customers
  • Publicly traded companies are required to be transparent—that is, they must publish their financial data in their annual reports. But when luxury brands are consolidated into groups, they can lump all their figures together to disguise what’s really happening. Overall, LVMH is raking in profits and its brands, thanks to the hype, seem highly successful. What you don’t know is that, as Vuitton is doing record sales each year, the Givenchy and Kenzo fashion houses are muddling along.
    Highlighted by 23 Kindle customers
  • “Luxury is a necessity that begins where necessity ends.” —COCO CHANEL
    Highlighted by 20 Kindle customers
  • For me, luxury is about pleasing yourself, not dressing for other people.”
    Highlighted by 19 Kindle customers
Show all 11 quotes from this book

First Sentence edit see section history

Down the dusty roads of Xi'an the motor scooters zoom, weaving around potholes and rickety bicycles, bip-bip-bipping their horns as they circle the city's sixteenth-century bell tower.

Table of Contents edit see section history

Introduction

Part One
1. An Industry Is Born
2. Group Mentality
3. Going Global

Part Two
4. Stars Get in Your Eyes
5. The Sweet Smell of Success
6. It's in the Bag
7. The Needle and the Damage Done

Part Three
8. Going Mass
9. Faux Amis
10. What Now?
11. New Luxury

Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Dana Thomas (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Penguin Group USA
Country: USA
Publication Date: 2007
ISBN: 1594201293
Page Count: 384

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: HD9999.L852 T46 2007
  • Dewey: 338.47

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