Book review: Deluxe; How luxury lost its lust

This book has been written by Dana Thomas, a Newsweek correspondent with many years of experience in the fashion and luxury industry. I heard about the book from my husband who listened to the author's interview on NPR and since it is my line of work, I rushed to read the book.

I found the book fascinating from beginning to end. The book includes a short story of luxury and how the industry has evolved from craftsmanship and personalization to mass marketing of manufactured products (now) made in China.

Dana takes the veil away from the luxury industry and reveals how marketing and corporate greed manipulate us to buy overpriced goods that in reality are mass-market products made in China. The book is an investigative report that included visits to many countries and many interviews with people in the industry. Dana talks how fragrances and handbags are the products that are heavily promoted by corporations because they do not need many sizes and there are fewer returns. The handbag has become the most important product to sell for designers; the markups in these products are huge (from 10 to 13 times in the case of Louis Vuitton).

Dana talks about something that we all have noticed. Not long ago the designer houses had classic bags that one bought with the hope that they would be in fashion for years to come. That is not the case anymore. There are very few classic bags; the collections change every season. It is very difficult for most people to keep up with the "It" bag of the moment. The prices, despite mass production and distribution, have gone up in total contrast to all other product categories where products typically go down as companies send productions in cheap countries. So we are paying more money for lower quality and less exclusivity.

Dana also touches on the exploitation of the red carpet as a promotional campaign for designers and how in the beginning the stylists just got money to put the clothes on their clients but now the clients (the celebrities) get money to wear the dresses, jewelry, shoes, etc. and all they have to do is to repeat the name of the designer whenever a television host asks.

The chapter on fake designer bags is very interesting. The bags are mainly made in sweatshops in China, many of them with forced child labor. She also argues that terrorist groups, realizing the potential for huge profits from selling fake goods all over the world, are behind many such counterfeit businesses and use the profits for terrorist activities and it is believed that the money from counterfeit products has been used to support the September 11 attacks in New York.

As I said I really enjoyed this book and it makes me think more about paying all that money for designer goods. I am not saying I will not buy them again, most probably I will, but I will now know what went on before I got hold of a handbag.