DELUXE: How Luxury Lost Its Luster
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The Luxury Marketing Council -
Invites you to a special presentation at FIT
Thursday, September 6th
6.00pm-8.00pm
Location:
The Fashion Insitute of Technology
Katie Murphy Amphitheatre,
Fred P. Pomerantz Art and Design Center,
(D building), 1st Floor
(At West 27th Street and 7th Avenue)
Please RSVP to museuminfo@fitnyc.edu or by calling
212-217-4585.
6.00pm-8.00pm
Location:
The Fashion Insitute of Technology
Katie Murphy Amphitheatre,
Fred P. Pomerantz Art and Design Center,
(D building), 1st Floor
(At West 27th Street and 7th Avenue)
Please RSVP to museuminfo@fitnyc.edu or by calling
212-217-4585.
DELUXE: How Luxury Lost Its Luster
Special Event: Lecture & Book Signing with Dana ThomasOn Thursday September 6th, Dana Thomas, Newsweek style and cultural reporter, and contributor to The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, and The Financial Times in London, will explore the dark side of the new luxury industry in a presentation based on her book DELUXE: How Luxury Lost Its Luster (The Penguin Press).
Dana 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 and aristocratic world of old money and royalty. Luxury wasn't simply a product, it was a lifestyle, one that denoted a history of tradition, superior quality, and a pampered buying experience. Today's luxury marketplace would be virtually unrecognizable to the old-world elite. Gone are the family owned businesses dedicated to integrity and quality; the industry is now run by massive corporations focused only on growth, visibility, brand awareness, advertising, and, above all, profits. Handmade goods are practically extinct, and almost all manufacturing has been outsourced to large factories in places such as China, where your expensive brand-name handbag is being assembled right next to one from a mass-market label the will cost substantially less.
Dana Thomas digs down into the dark side of the luxury industry to uncover all the secrets that Luxury brands don't want us to know- from perfume manufacture to crowded factories in China, where workers glue together "Made in Italy " bags by the thousands. Thomas explores the whole of today's high-end shopping experience to answer some pressing questions:
- What is the new definition of luxury when advertising for this upscale lifestyle is targeted mainly to middle-class masses?
- What are we paying for when quality has given way to quantity, and luxury is no longer just for the upper-class elite?
Thomas has traveled all over the world to interview corporate heads and factory workers, the old-money, old-luxury clients and the new luxury-obsessed middle-class consumer, and she paints a surprising picture of today's New Luxury. With Deluxe, she delivers a fast-paced, uncompromising look at the real world behind the glossy magazines and red carpet couture and asks: How did luxury lose its luster?
* * *
The event coincides with FIT’s current Luxury exhibit, on display through November 10th at The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT). Luxury covers over 250 years of fashion history and features more than 150 extraordinary garments, accessories, and textiles from the museum’s permanent collection of 80,000 objects. The exhibition encompasses aristocratic luxury fashions from the 18th century; contributions from great couturiers such as Chanel, Dior, Worth, and Poiret; and contemporary accessories by Hermès and Lanvin.
About Dana Thomas:
Dana Thomas has been the cultural and fashion writer for Newsweek in Paris for twelve years. She has written about style for The New York Times Magazine since 1994, and has contributed to various publications, including The New Yorker, Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, The Los Angeles Times, and The Financial Times in London. She is the Paris correspondent for Australian Harper's Bazaar and a member of the Anglo-American Press Association in Paris and the Overseas Press Club. Thomas taught journalism at The American University of Paris from 1996 to 1999. In 1987, she received the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation Scholarship and the Ellis Haller Award for Outstanding Achievement in Journalism. She lives in Paris with her husband, HervŽ d'Halluin, and their six-year-old daughter, Lucie Lee.
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