Dana Thomas, one of the few fashion journos with the integrity (or is it balls?) to report on the less than glam side of the business, is leaving her 12-year post at Newsweek to become the first European correspondent for Conde Nast's
Portfolio. A coup, indeed. The Paris-based writer's investigative book, "
Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster," hit
The New York Times bestseller list out the door last fall, and continues to attract interest as Thomas winds her way to far-flung bookstores and television stations.
In an overnight email exchange between us, Dana wrote she's on her way soon to Hong Kong, New Zealand and Australia--and
not Argentina, as
WWD reported yesterday. The industry bible had also reported last year that she was notoriously "disinvited" to a Louis Vuitton show during Paris Fashion Week because chief executive Yves Carcelle was incensed by her unfavorable (some would say scathing) report of the luxury behemoth in her book. But Dana points out the reason did not involve the critique of LVMH head Bernard Arnault. Ditto any complaints of inaccuracies in the book. Read it for yourself.
I love that Dana flew to New York last week to do "The Tyra Banks Show," too. As the cover art for the American edition reveals with its Prada-branded McDonalds feast (Tom Sachs' brilliant 1998 work, "Prada Value Meal"), the democratization of luxury has been bad for the health of the category, the workforce that churns it out and, ultimately, the consumers who lap it up.
Not all is book tours and article deadlines for Dana these days. On Tuesday, she and her precocious little Lucie (who could inspire her own fanciful children's book) had tea. At the next table was a French bulldog named Moujik and his keeper, the ailing legend of modern luxury, Yves Saint Laurent.
