Senin, 17 Maret 2014

Ebook Free The Art of Navigation: Travels with Carlos Castaneda and BeyondBy Felix Wolf

Ebook Free The Art of Navigation: Travels with Carlos Castaneda and BeyondBy Felix Wolf

Remarkably, The Art Of Navigation: Travels With Carlos Castaneda And BeyondBy Felix Wolf that you really wait for now is coming. It's significant to wait for the agent and valuable books to read. Every book that is provided in much better way as well as articulation will be anticipated by many individuals. Also you are a great reader or otherwise, feeling to read this book will constantly show up when you find it. But, when you really feel difficult to discover it as yours, what to do? Obtain to your pals as well as aren't sure when to repay it to her or him.

The Art of Navigation: Travels with Carlos Castaneda and BeyondBy Felix Wolf

The Art of Navigation: Travels with Carlos Castaneda and BeyondBy Felix Wolf


The Art of Navigation: Travels with Carlos Castaneda and BeyondBy Felix Wolf


Ebook Free The Art of Navigation: Travels with Carlos Castaneda and BeyondBy Felix Wolf

Searching certain book in the books store might not assure you to get guide. Have you ever before dealt with that issue? This is a very common issue that lots of people encounter while getting or purchase such particular publication. Customarily, most of them will run out of guide detailed and stocks in guide stress furthermore, when it associates with the new launched book, the most effective seller publications, or one of the most prominent books, it will certainly let you wait for more times to get it, unless you have take care of it quickly.

As known, many individuals say that publications are the home windows for the globe. It does not imply that getting publication The Art Of Navigation: Travels With Carlos Castaneda And BeyondBy Felix Wolf will imply that you can acquire this world. Just for joke! Reading an e-book The Art Of Navigation: Travels With Carlos Castaneda And BeyondBy Felix Wolf will certainly opened an individual to believe better, to keep smile, to amuse themselves, and to urge the understanding. Every publication additionally has their unique to affect the reader. Have you understood why you review this The Art Of Navigation: Travels With Carlos Castaneda And BeyondBy Felix Wolf for?

Discovering the best The Art Of Navigation: Travels With Carlos Castaneda And BeyondBy Felix Wolf book as the right requirement is kind of lucks to have. To begin your day or to finish your day at night, this The Art Of Navigation: Travels With Carlos Castaneda And BeyondBy Felix Wolf will certainly appertain enough. You could merely hunt for the tile right here and also you will obtain the book The Art Of Navigation: Travels With Carlos Castaneda And BeyondBy Felix Wolf referred. It will not bother you to cut your important time to go for buying publication in store. By doing this, you will additionally spend cash to pay for transportation and various other time spent.

The Art of Navigation: Travels with Carlos Castaneda and BeyondBy Felix Wolf

The Art of Navigation examines the author's life-transforming association with the enigmatic shaman and anthropologist Carlos Castaneda, from a first encounter in 1980 up to the present, more than a decade after Castaneda's death. Journey with a modern-day shaman's apprentice on his more than thirty year trek across the globe, from hedonistic beginnings towards surrender and awakening, from a focus on magic and power to the emergence of love and compassion. The central theme of this memoir is the art of navigation, which entails living life in the spirit of an enchanting treasure hunt - playful, intuitive, fluid, and fully aware.

Starting with a mind-stopping event that occurred shortly after Castaneda's death, the narrative jumps back to follow an action-packed and magical path of discovery through Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, Germany, France, Mexico, and the United States. This is the Art of Navigation, an unusual and fascinating spiritual awakening into our essential nature.

  • Sales Rank: #1546319 in Books
  • Brand: Brand: Millichap Books
  • Published on: 2010-04-15
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Dimensions: 8.98" h x .72" w x 6.42" l, 1.05 pounds
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 288 pages
Features
  • Used Book in Good Condition

Review
"It's an exciting ride! If you were a fan of Carlos Castaneda, or even if you weren't, you will enjoy The Art of Navigation." --Sharon Steffensen, editor of' YOGA Chicago

"Be prepared to step into a new way of being in the world as you turn the first page." --Donna Thomson, author of 'The Vibrant Life'

"Authentic and transformational - storytelling at its best!" --Gini Gentry, author of 'Dreaming Down Heaven'

"A thoroughly enjoyable read - Eat Pray Love meets The Power of Now." --Susanne Sims, author of 'Healing Vacations in Hawaii'

"A powerful new age collection addition." --Midwest Book Review

From the Back Cover
A 'navigator' moves through life as a result of his or her direct link with universal consciousness. For readers interested in practicing this art for themselves, Wolf summarizes the how-to of navigating life. It was first taught by Carlos Castaneda in his popular books of shamanic experience, books which sparked the New Age movement of the '70s and '80s. Now, Wolf tells his own amazing story of action guided by synchronicity. Whoever has the audacity to ask the question "What does Life want me to do?" will learn here to find the answer.

About the Author
While on a two year writing retreat in Sri Lanka, Felix Wolf found himself unexpectedly initiated into the mythological world of anthropologist and shaman Carlos Castaneda. This encounter led to a magical odyssey around the globe and culminated in a three-year apprenticeship with Castaneda until his death in 1998. During this time Wolf translated some of Castaneda's writings into his native German and served as his simultaneous translator.

Felix Wolf is an avid lucid dreamer and visionary, deeply engaged in furthering the process of our collective awakening. He has lectured internationally to a variety of audiences about holistic medicine, awareness, and the art of navigation. He currently lives in Honolulu, Hawaii, with his wife, Carmela.

The Art of Navigation: Travels with Carlos Castaneda and BeyondBy Felix Wolf PDF
The Art of Navigation: Travels with Carlos Castaneda and BeyondBy Felix Wolf EPub
The Art of Navigation: Travels with Carlos Castaneda and BeyondBy Felix Wolf Doc
The Art of Navigation: Travels with Carlos Castaneda and BeyondBy Felix Wolf iBooks
The Art of Navigation: Travels with Carlos Castaneda and BeyondBy Felix Wolf rtf
The Art of Navigation: Travels with Carlos Castaneda and BeyondBy Felix Wolf Mobipocket
The Art of Navigation: Travels with Carlos Castaneda and BeyondBy Felix Wolf Kindle

The Art of Navigation: Travels with Carlos Castaneda and BeyondBy Felix Wolf PDF

The Art of Navigation: Travels with Carlos Castaneda and BeyondBy Felix Wolf PDF

The Art of Navigation: Travels with Carlos Castaneda and BeyondBy Felix Wolf PDF
The Art of Navigation: Travels with Carlos Castaneda and BeyondBy Felix Wolf PDF

Kamis, 13 Maret 2014

Download PDF Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, by Dana Thomas

Download PDF Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, by Dana Thomas

Thanks for visiting our stunning site. This is a web site that can make everybody really feel so happy. This is the one that will certainly offer all competed book collections from the authors around the world. Finding guide from other nations in this sit is very easy, in addition to discover guides for within the country. That will be so simple then.

Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, by Dana Thomas

Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, by Dana Thomas


Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, by Dana Thomas


Download PDF Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, by Dana Thomas

Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, By Dana Thomas. Welcome to the very best website that provide hundreds type of book collections. Below, we will provide all books Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, By Dana Thomas that you need. Guides from popular writers and publishers are offered. So, you could enjoy now to obtain individually sort of book Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, By Dana Thomas that you will search. Well, pertaining to the book that you really want, is this Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, By Dana Thomas your choice?

Among the resources to obtain in this on-line library is the Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, By Dana Thomas This site with this book turns into one of the discovering centres to get the sources and materials. Great deals of books from many resources, authors, and authors from worldwide are supplied. This solution will offer not just the guidance books, the referrals, literary works, as well as standard publications are offered to find out.

Maturing from elementary to the grown-up, checking out publications will allow different reasons to think. At some time, we require guide due to the job deadline. Yet in other time, you can check out once again this Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, By Dana Thomas, for not only the job deadline requirement yet also for excited. So, is reading this publication your excellent eager to read. When you have sufficient to seek for another book that cannot make you really feel delighted, you will always try to find various other sources, won't you? This is why we involve you in order to help in discovering the ideal book.

By downloading the on-line Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, By Dana Thomas book here, you will certainly obtain some benefits not to go for the book establishment. Just hook up to the web and begin to download the web page web link we discuss. Currently, your Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, By Dana Thomas prepares to enjoy reading. This is your time and also your serenity to acquire all that you really want from this publication Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, By Dana Thomas

Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, by Dana Thomas

Review

The Devil Wears Herms (He Bought It at the Caesars Palace Mall in Las Vegas) By MICHIKO KAKUTANI Skip to next paragraph Back in the late 1980s, the Prada backpack made out of black or tobacco-brown parachute fabric trimmed in leather became the it bag for many would-be fashionistas. It was hip, modern, lightweight and at $450 expensive, but not as expensive as the stratospherically priced bags made by Herms and Chanel. According to the fashion reporter Dana Thomas, that Prada backpack was also the emblem of the radical change that luxury was undergoing at the time: the shift from small family businesses of beautifully handcrafted goods to global corporations selling to the middle market a shift from exclusivity to accessibility, from an emphasis on tradition and quality to an emphasis on growth and branding and profits. With Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, Ms. Thomas who has been the cultural and fashion writer for Newsweek in Paris for 12 years has written a crisp, witty social history thats as entertaining as it is informative. Traveling from French perfume laboratories to Las Vegas shopping malls to assembly-line factories in China, she traces the evolving face of the luxury goods business, from design through marketing to showroom sales. She gives us some sharply observed profiles of figures like Miuccia Prada, who was a Communist with a doctorate in political science when she took over her familys small luxury goods business in 1978, and the business tycoon Bernard Arnault, who relentlessly built LVMH into a luxury monolith with dozens of brands (including Louis Vuitton, Givenchy and Dior)sold around the world. Ms. Thomas peppers her narrative with lots of amusing asides about everything from how orange became Hermss signature color because it was the only color widely available during World War II to the money-saving benefits of raw-edge cutting, which has been marketed to the public as a cutting-edge, avant-garde innovation. But her focus remains on how a business that once catered to the wealthy elite has gone mass-market and the effects that democratization has had on the way ordinary people shop today, as conspicuous consumption and wretched excess have spread around the world. Labels, once discreetly stitched into couture clothes, have become logos adorning everything from baseball hats to supersized gold chains. Perfumes, once dreamed up by designers with an idea about a particular scent, are now concocted from briefs written by marketing executives brandishing polls and surveys and sales figures. With globalization, Paris and New York are no longer exclusive luxury meccas. Ms. Thomas notes that a gigantic 690,000-square-foot luxury mall called Crocus City (featuring 180 boutiques, including Armani, Pucci and Versace) is flourishing outside Moscow, and that a group of high-end boutiques will be part of a luxury complex called Legation Quarter, scheduled to open in Tiananmen Square later this year. Approximately 40 percent of all Japanese own a Vuitton product today, she says, and one recent poll showed that by 2004 the average American woman was buying more than four handbags a year. With more people visiting Caesars Palaces glitzy Forum Shops each year than Disney World, Las Vegashas made shopping synonymous with gambling and entertainment, even as outlet malls have brought designer clothing and accessories within the reach (and budget) of many suburbanites. High-profile luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, Herms and Cartier were founded in the 18th or 19th centuries by artisans dedicated to creating beautiful, finely made wares for the royal court in France and later, with the fall of the monarchy, for European aristocrats and prominent American families. Luxury remained, writes Ms. Thomas, a domain of the wealthy and the famous until the Youthquake of the 1960s pulled down social barriers and overthrew elitism. It would remain out of style until a new and financially powerful demographic the unmarried female executive emerged in the 1980s. As both disposable income and credit-card debt soared in industrialized nations, the middle class became the target of luxury vendors, who poured money into provocative advertising campaigns and courted movie stars and celebrities as style icons. In order to maximize profits, many corporations looked for ways to cut corners: they began to use cheaper materials, outsource production to developing nations (while falsely claiming that their goods were made in Western Europe) and replace hand craftsmanship with assembly-line production. Classic goods meant to last for years gave way, increasingly, to trendy items with a short shelf life; cheaper lines (featuring lower-priced items like T-shirts and cosmetic cases) were introduced as well. Although this volume quotes Anna Wintour, the editor of Vogue, saying such changes mean that more people are going to get betterfashion and the more people who can have fashion, the better, the author reaches a more elitist and pessimistic conclusion. The luxury industry has changed the way people dress, she writes. 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. Luxury has lost its luster. "New York Times", 8/21/07 Luxury, and How It Became Common HARRY HURT III WANT to buy luxury products like Louis Vuitton handbags? Gucci shoes? Prada dresses? Theres no need to comb the fashion alleys of New York, Paris or Milan in search of the brands boutique stores. Just zip over to the nearest mall, where high-end department stores hawk luggage, footwear, apparel, jewelry and virtually every other designer-label item that ever appeared under the klieg lights. But be prepared to see scores of fellow shoppers already wearing the exact goods you covet. Therein lies the cruel commercial irony at the core of Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, by Dana Thomas, a Paris-based culture and fashion writer for Newsweek (Penguin Press, 375 pages, $27.95). Ms. Thomas documents in entertaining and sometimes heart-wrenching detail how the luxury industry evolved from a proudly diverse array of family-owned houses into a $157 billion-a-year mass market whose products now lack the exclusivity and in many cases the quality craftsmanship that formed the basis for their cachet in the first place. Along with changing the way we dress, the luxury industry has realigned our economic class system, Ms. Thomas asserts. It has changed the way we interact, she says. 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. At first lip-blush, that might seem like merely an elitist complaint. Ms. Thomas shows, however, that the repercussions of democratizing luxury have had dire effects across the globe, and on almost every socio-economic level. The corporate quest to reduce operating costs, for example, often leads to the creation of sweatshops. Along the way come an array of related crimes ranging from fraudulent labeling and counterfeiting to embezzlement and even prostitution paid for with luxury goods in lieu of cash. If the corporatization of luxury is new, the flaunting of wealth through acquisitions is not: It dates at least as far back as the ancient Greeks and Etruscans. The ancestry of modern extravagance traces to the Bourbons and the Bonapartes. (After France earned $15 million selling hundreds of millions of acres to the United States, Napoleons wife, Josephine, spent half of the money on clothes in 10 years, Ms. Thomas reports.) Ms. Thomas argues that luxury not only indicates our tastes in fashion, it also defines our political, social, and economic standing and our self-worth. In America, the prevailing standards of taste and style were once set by new rich industrialists like the Vanderbilts, Carnegies, Morgans and Rockefellers. Luxury wasnt simply a product, Ms. Thomas writes. It denoted a history of tradition, superior quality, and often a pampered buying experience. Luxury was a natural and expected element of upper-class life, like belonging to the right clubs or having the right surname. And it was produced in small quantities often made to order for an extremely limited and truly elite clientele. Enter the villains of Ms. Thomas book, the 35 leading luxury brands that now control over 60 percent of the global market. The list includes Prada, Gucci, Giorgio Armani, Herms and Chanel, all of which have revenue in excess of $1 billion a year. But the Mr. Big of the big luxury is LVMH Mot Hennessy Louis Vuitton, an $11 billion conglomerate whose labels also include Dior, Fendi and Berluti. Some of the best-written and most damning passages in Deluxe recount the rise of LVMHs chairman, Bernard Arnault, considered by his critics to be the Machiavelli of luxury industry finance. Ms. Thomas describes how Mr. Arnault forced out the founding Vuitton clan in a vicious battle fueled by accusations of espionage and public smear tactics. Citing startlingBack in the late 1980s, the Prada backpack - made out of black or tobacco-brown parachute fabric trimmed in leather - became the "it" bag for many would-be fashionistas. It was hip, modern, lightweight and at $450 expensive, but not as expensive as the stratospherically priced bags made by Herms and Chanel. According to the fashion reporter Dana Thomas, that Prada backpack was also "the emblem of the radical change that luxury was undergoing at the time: the shift from small family businesses of beautifully handcrafted goods to global corporations selling to the middle market" - a shift from exclusivity to accessibility, from an emphasis on tradition and quality to an emphasis on growth and branding and profits. With "Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, " Ms. Thomas - who has been the cultural and fashion writer for Newsweek in Paris for 12 years - has written a crisp, witty social history that's as entertaining as it is informative. Traveling from French perfume laboratories to Las Vegas shopping malls to assembly-line factories in China, she traces the evolving face of the luxury goods business, from design through marketing to showroom sales. She gives us some sharply observed profiles of figures like Miuccia Prada, who was a Communist with a doctorate in political science when she took over her family's small luxury goods business in 1978, and the business tycoon Bernard Arnault , who relentlessly built LVMH into a luxury monolith with dozens of brands (including Louis Vuitton, Givenchy and Dior) sold around theworld. Ms. Thomas peppers her narrative with lots of amusing asides about everything from how orange became Herms's signature color because it was the only color widely available during World War II to the money-saving benefits of raw-edge cutting, which has been marketed to the public as a cutting-edge, avant-garde innovation. But her focus remains on how a business that once catered to the wealthy elite has gone mass-market and the effects that democratization has had on the way ordinary people shop today, as conspicuous consumption and wretched excess have spread around the world. Labels, once discreetly stitched into couture clothes, have become logos adorning everything from baseball hats to supersized gold chains. Perfumes, once dreamed up by designers with an idea about a particular scent, are now concocted from briefs written by marketing executives brandishing polls and surveys and sales figures. With globalization, Paris and New York are no longer exclusive luxury meccas. Ms. Thomas notes that a gigantic 690,000-square-foot luxury mall called Crocus City (featuring 180 boutiques, including Armani, Pucci and Versace) is flourishing outside Moscow, and that a group of high-end boutiques will be part of a luxury complex called Legation Quarter, scheduled to open in Tiananmen Square later this year. "Approximately 40 percent of all Japanese own a Vuitton product" today, she says, and one recent poll showed that by 2004 the average American woman was buying more than four handbags a year. With more people visiting Caesars Palace's glitzy Forum Shops each year than Disney World, Las Vegas has made shoppingsynonymous with gambling and entertainment, even as outlet malls have brought designer clothing and accessories within the reach (and budget) of many suburbanites. High-profile luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, Herms and Cartier were founded in the 18th or 19th centuries by artisans dedicated to creating beautiful, finely made wares for the royal court in France and later, with the fall of the monarchy, for European aristocrats and prominent American families. Luxury remained, writes Ms. Thomas, "a domain of the wealthy and the famous" until "the Youthquake of the 1960s" pulled down social barriers and overthrew elitism. It would remain out of style "until a new and financially powerful demographic - the unmarried female executive - emerged in the 1980s." As both disposable income and credit-card debt soared in industrialized nations, the middle class became the target of luxury vendors, who poured money into provocative advertising campaigns and courted movie stars and celebrities as style icons. In order to maximize profits, many corporations looked for ways to cut corners: they began to use cheaper materials, outsource production to developing nations (while falsely claiming that their goods were made in Western Europe) and replace hand craftsmanship with assembly-line production. Classic goods meant to last for years gave way, increasingly, to trendy items with a short shelf life; cheaper lines (featuring lower-priced items like T-shirts and cosmetic cases) were introduced as well. Although this volume quotes Anna Wintour, the editor of Vogue, saying such changes mean that "more people are going to get betterfashion" and "the more people who can have fashion, the better," the author reaches a more elitist and pessimistic conclusion. "The luxury industry has changed the way people dress," she writes. "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. "Luxury has lost its luster." --"Sunday New York Times" 8/19/07 Luxury, and How It Became Common HARRY HURT III WANT to buy luxury products like Louis Vuitton handbags? Gucci shoes? Prada dresses? There's no need to comb the fashion alleys of New York, Paris or Milan in search of the brands' boutique stores. Just zip over to the nearest mall, where high-end department stores hawk luggage, footwear, apparel, jewelry and virtually every other designer-label item that ever appeared under the klieg lights. But be prepared to see scores of fellow shoppers already wearing the exact goods you covet. Therein lies the cruel commercial irony at the core of "Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster", by Dana Thomas, a Paris-based culture and fashion writer for Newsweek (Penguin Press, 375 pages, $27.95). Ms. Thomas documents in entertaining and sometimes heart-wrenching detail how the luxury industry evolved from a proudly diverse array of family-owned houses into a $157 billion-a-year mass market whose products now lack the exclusivity - and in many cases the quality craftsmanship - that formed the basis for their cachet in the first place. Along with changing the way we dress, the luxury industry "has realigned our economic class system," Ms. Thomas asserts. "It has changed the way we interact," she says. "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." At first lip-blush, that might seem like merely an elitist complaint. Ms. Thomas shows, however, that the repercussions of "democratizing" luxury have had dire effects across the globe, and on almost every socio-economic level. The corporate quest to reduce operating costs, for example, often leads to the creation of sweatshops. Along the way come an array of related crimes ranging from fraudulent labeling and counterfeiting to embezzlement and even prostitution paid for with luxury goods in lieu of cash. If the corporatization of luxury is new, the flaunting of wealth through acquisitions is not: It dates at least as far back as the ancient Greeks and Etruscans. The ancestry of modern extravagance traces to the Bourbons and the Bonapartes. (After France earned $15 million selling hundreds of millions of acres to the United States, Napoleon's wife, Josephine, spent half of the money on clothes in 10 years, Ms. Thomas reports.) Ms. Thomas argues that luxury not only indicates our tastes in fashion, it also defines our political, social, and economic standing and our self-worth. In America, the prevailing standards of taste and style were once set by new rich industrialists like the Vanderbilts, Carnegies, Morgans and Rockefellers. "Luxury wasn't simply a product," Ms. Thomas writes. "It denoted a history of tradition, superior quality, and often a pampered buying experience. "Luxury was a natural and expected element of upper-class life, like belonging to the right clubs or having the right surname. And it was produced in small quantities - often made to order - for an extremely limited and truly elite clientele." Enter the villains of Ms. Thomas' book, the 35 leading luxury brands that now control over 60 percent of the global market. The list includes Prada, Gucci, Giorgio Armani, Herms and Chanel, all of which have revenue in excess of $1 billion a year. But the "Mr. Big" of the big luxury is LVMH Mot Hennessy Louis Vuitton, an $11 billion conglomerate whose labels also include Dior, Fendi and Berluti. Some of the best-written - and most damning - passages in ""Deluxe"" recount the rise of LVMH's chairman, Bernard Arnault, considered by his critics to be the Machiavelli of luxury industry finance. Ms. Thomas describes how Mr. Arnault forced out the founding Vuitton clan in a vicious battle fueled by accusations of espionage and publica What Fast Food Nation did for food service, this book does for fashiona a"Los Angeles Times" a A crisp, witty social history thatas as entertaining as it is informative.a aMichiko Kakutani, "The New York Times" a Globalization, capitalization, class, and culture . . . A fascinating book.a aFareed Zakaria, "Newsweek" a What Fast Food Nation did for food service, this book does for fashion, exposing the underbelly of the $157-billion luxury industry and the lockstep consumer psychology behind its glamorous veneer.a a"Los Angeles Times"What Fast Food Nation did for food service, this book does for fashion "Los Angeles Times" A crisp, witty social history that s as entertaining as it is informative. Michiko Kakutani, "The New York Times" Globalization, capitalization, class, and culture . . . A fascinating book. Fareed Zakaria, "Newsweek" What Fast Food Nation did for food service, this book does for fashion, exposing the underbelly of the $157-billion luxury industry and the lockstep consumer psychology behind its glamorous veneer. "Los Angeles Times"? What Fast Food Nation did for food service, this book does for fashion? ?"Los Angeles Times" ? A crisp, witty social history that's as entertaining as it is informative.? ?Michiko Kakutani, "The New York Times" ? Globalization, capitalization, class, and culture . . . A fascinating book.? ?Fareed Zakaria, "Newsweek" ? What Fast Food Nation did for food service, this book does for fashion, exposing the underbelly of the $157-billion luxury industry and the lockstep consumer psychology behind its glamorous veneer.? ?"Los Angeles Times"

Read more

About the Author

Dana Thomas began her career writing for the style section of The Washington Post and served for 15 years as the European cultural and fashion correspondent for Newsweek in Paris. She is a contributing editor for T: The New York Times Style Magazine and has written for The New Yorker, the Wall Street Journal, Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and the Financial Times. She lives in Paris.

Read more

Product details

Paperback: 384 pages

Publisher: Penguin Books; Reprint edition (July 29, 2008)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0143113704

ISBN-13: 978-0143113706

Product Dimensions:

5.5 x 0.8 x 8.4 inches

Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review:

4.4 out of 5 stars

155 customer reviews

Amazon Best Sellers Rank:

#81,705 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

What should we do with fashion? Should we keep it small and artisanal or should we make it available for the mass?How to balance exclusivity with increasing profit for shareholders is tricky. I certainly would not want to be in the shoes of the head of fashion houses or the CEO of a fashion corp.i hope Ms Thomas will write a follow up on how fast fashion, street fashion, and fashion bloggers have influence brands and brand management. Now a days I see more and more cooperation between brands and bloggers/editors. I find that I am influenced by seeing what the fashion bloggers wear and what street fashion photogs capture. I know more about the name of a purse and recognize certain trends this way, much more than fashion mags and editorials.

I read this book a while back and a lot of the things in it are still in my mind. It has changed the way I think and shop. This book will make you think twice about the luxury products you buy. Having just entered the job market and being in need of good quality wardrobe staples this book was right on time. I've learned that some so called luxury products aren't even worth the wrapping they come in. While other products still retain the quality of a hundred years ago. Being a seamstress I already had suspicions about some of the things called luxury nowadays and this book has not only confirmed my suspicions but informed me greatly.One big thing about this book is that it is big on history. Many famous houses' histories are detailed in this book and while you might feel it a little boring at times, I think it contributes very much to the bigger picture.If you are trying to become a more conscientious shopper like myself, also watch the documentary "The True Cost".

Top reviews sum the book up pretty well. It is a very informative history of luxury production, and goes into quite a lot of detail on the formation of the main luxury houses and follows them through their transition into modern growth-focused companies. It also goes into a lot of detail on how international consumers (particularly in Japan, China, India, and Russia) have influenced the industry. The non-trivial amount of typos throughout the text (kindle edition) was a bit annoying, but overall the writing was definitely readable (it is not in academese). I wish that there was a follow-up chapter as it has been about a decade since this was published, so if you are looking for the most up-to-date information, this is probably not your book.

Dana Thomas, writing as a well informed journalist, provides an entertaining expose of the burgeoning luxury market. She provides detailed profiles of the world's most sought after brand names and how they have transformed their industry from made to order to made in China/India/Russia.The book is well written and avoids any technical jargon. The anecotes and first hand research is admirable. She definitely put her time and energy in researching famous luxury houses and provides some interesting commentary on how things are changing.I would highly recommend this book to anyone wishing to learn about the behind the scenes business of famous luxury brands and the "democratization of luxury."

A must-read if you are: a connoisseur of old school luxury items (artisanal couture type) OR a throwaway fashion type who never saw much difference between the faux and the fine handbag OR the international traveler or culturally curious person who wonders about the definition of luxury as it crosses state boundaries in the global marketplace.... finely researched, well presented in a highly readable style. A truly insider view. I've had a personal boycott against LVMH since reading it a few years ago. highly recommended.

If luxury is available to all - does it cease to be luxury? This is the primary argument of Dana Thomas' fascinating examination of an industry that tends to defy rational consumer behavior (but who said we consumers were ever rational!). She has thoroughly researched the subject and the book is replete with facts and figures embedded in a narrative that reads more like a novel. Given it is written in 2007, there are some statistics or trends that will have been tested by our economic troubles, however, the primary premise and other key facets of the book remain true and relevant. And what overwhelms is the author's curiosity and nose for appropriate detail.It is equal parts history, sociology, and brand and business strategy treatise. Overall, it is a compelling indictment of how the luxury industry has evolved from artisans to staggering brand behemoths presiding over a $157 billion industry (35 brands control 60% of the business). As Thomas explains, "The way we dress reflects not only our personality but also our economic, political, and social standing and our self-worth." Luxury brands have leveraged this insight and rolled out calculated marketing strategies to feed our desires and insecurities. And we have responded appropriately pursuing luxury to differentiate ourselves.The author defines the subject, "Luxury wasn't simply a product. It denoted a history of tradition, superior quality, and often a pampered buying experience. Luxury was a natural and expected element of upper-class life, like belonging to the right clubs or having the right surname." Yet, soon, in the interests of profits, luxury companies, "turned their sights on a new target audience: the middle market, that broad socioeconomic demographic that includes everyone one from teachers and sales executives to high-tech entrepreneurs, McMansion suburbanites, the ghetto fabulous, even the criminally wealthy."This democratization of luxury made the goods accessible to more and grew the top and bottom lines. However, as Thomas concludes, this eroded all that made it special in the first place. She argues that Louis Vuitton now "has a logo as recognizable as the Golden Arches". Business leaders who control these brands "have shifted the focus from what the product is to what it represents". Francoise Montenay of Chanel believes, "Luxury is exclusivity. At a minimum, it must be impeccable. Maximum, unique."I enjoyed the histories of many of the luxury brands, characters featured like Bernard Arnault and Tom Ford, facts such as Charles Frederick Worth being among the first to stage fashion shows and the first to put a signature label on his clothes, pros and cons of brand licensing, designers becoming superstars, the always staggering practice of counterfeiting, the vintage market, and the impact of outlet malls.In terms of the book's premise, Tom Ford says, "Luxury fashion brands today are too available, everything is too uniform, and customer business too pedestrian." I suggest you draw your own conclusion by reading this tremendous book which is available to all but that will be read by a few.

Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, by Dana Thomas PDF
Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, by Dana Thomas EPub
Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, by Dana Thomas Doc
Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, by Dana Thomas iBooks
Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, by Dana Thomas rtf
Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, by Dana Thomas Mobipocket
Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, by Dana Thomas Kindle

Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, by Dana Thomas PDF

Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, by Dana Thomas PDF

Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, by Dana Thomas PDF
Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster, by Dana Thomas PDF