Though rich in detail, these sections drag a bit, but the narrative pace picks up again in the last third. The real profits in the luxury trade come not from clothes, but from accessories like perfume and handbags, covered in the book’s middle chapters. In the author’s view, Arnault embodies the distasteful notion that what a luxury good represents is more important than what it is-and what it represents is shaped by the aesthetically empty practices of marketing and advertising. Each chapter focuses on elements of this history, starting with the ruthless corporate tactics of Bernard Arnault, president of Louis Vuitton parent company LVMH.

The result is an industry that spends billions influencing our sartorial decisions, all the while undermining its products and losing most of what made it special. Over the last 25 years, traditional fashion houses like Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Prada have gone from being small, family-owned businesses that cared singularly about quality and prestige to being publicly traded global conglomerates whose attention is firmly fixed on the bottom line. Now anyone can have piece of the magic for the right price. All that has changed, and not for the better.

There was a time, writes Paris-based cultural journalist Thomas, when only an elite few understood, appreciated and could afford to spend the money on one-of-a-kind luxuries. A scathing exposé demystifies the luxury-goods industry, detailing how venerable fashion houses have traded quality for profits.

Deluxe by Dana Thomas