Luxury Without Luster: Win Dana Thomas's Book

Dana Thomas, author of Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster (praised by DG's Paige Phelps as "one of the best fashion books I've read in a long while" in our roundup of holiday gift ideas) was in Santa Monica this evening, signing books and mingling at a book party thrown by Lisa Bittan and Mickey Kaus at Lisa's lovely home. In brief  remarks, Dana entertained guests with the story of how she wound up covering the fashion industry, despite no specific ambitions to do so: "I never set out to be a business reporter. I just knew French."

She learned early, she said, that lacking a fashionista's lust for the merchandise is essential to good reporting--and, indeed, Deluxe is hard on the "luxury industry," an oxymoron in Thomas's view. In pursuit of growth, she argues, the big luxury conglomerates have allowed quality to deteriorate, so that "luxury" brands may be no better than their cheaper counterparts. Sometimes prestige brands aren't even as good as basic mall merchandise. "The jacket from the Gap is fine, but the buttons on the Prada jacket break." (She says she'd never buy Prada.)

One luxury maker did get a nod from Thomas. Be the first reader to tell us in the comments who made her supersoft red-suede boots, and we'll send you a signed copy of Deluxe. (Party attendees are not allowed to enter--I'm looking at you, Amy.) Here's a closer look: