Deluxe
How Luxury Lost Its Luster
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- $179.00
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- $179.00
Descripción editorial
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A hard-hitting behind-the-scenes look at how luxury fashion went global, revealing manufacturing secrets that Prada, Gucci, and Burberry don’t want you to know
“Fascinating . . . The story of luxury goods today is really about globalization, capitalization, class, and culture.”—Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek
“What Fast Food Nation did for food service, this book does for fashion.”—Los Angeles Times
Luxury was once available only to the rarefied, aristocratic world of old money. 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 like LVMH, Kering, and Gucci, that focus on growth, visibility, brand awareness, advertising, and, above all, profits. Journalist Dana Thomas digs deep into the dark side of the luxury industry with this uncompromising look behind the glossy facade, to ask: How did luxury lose its luster?
From the author of Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Newsweek reporter Thomas skillfully narrates European fashion houses' evolution from exclusive ateliers to marketing juggernauts. Telling the story through characters like the French mogul Bernard Arnault, she details how the perfection of old-time manufacturing, still seen in Herm s handbags, has bowed to sweatshops and wild profits on mediocre merchandise. After a brisk history of luxury, Thomas shows why handbags and perfume are as susceptible to globalization and corporate greed as less rarefied industries. She follows the overarching story, parts of which are familiar, from boardrooms to street markets that unload millions in counterfeit goods, dropping irresistible details like a Japanese monk obsessed with Comme des Gar ons. But she's no killjoy. If anything, she's fond of the aristocratic past, snarks at "behemoths that churn out perfume like Kraft makes cheese" and is too credulous of fashionistas' towering egos. Despite her grasp of business machinations, her argument that conglomerates have stolen luxury's soul doesn't entirely wash. As her tales of quotidian vs. ultra luxury make clear, the rich and chic can still distinguish themselves, even when Las Vegas hosts the world's ritziest brands. Thomas might have delved deeper into why fashion labels inspire such mania, beyond "selling dreams," but her curiosity is contagious.
