Warning: do not buy another handbag before reading this book. Exhaustively researched and snappily written by Dana Thomas, this entertaining read examines the state of the luxury industry today, and how it got there. Sparing no-one, Thomas investigates how the big luxury fashion houses operate, as well as reporting on the fake luxury industry it has spawned. The cultural and fashion writer for Newsweek in Pars, Thomas is obviously well connected, and has access to everyone who matters in the industry (she interviews Tom Ford and Miuccia Prada among others). Whether she will be still welcome after the publication of this book is another matter, but, Thomas has done something few in the fashion industry have dared: told the truth. Essential reading. Published by Penguin Press. Available on Amazon.