Based in Paris, Dana Thomas has been a "fashion insider" since she began covering the style beat for The Washington Post in 1987. In 2007, Thomas debuted the New York Times bestseller How Luxury Lost Its Luster, published by The Penguin Press in 2007. A critical success, the book addresses the disparity between the rarefied world that luxury once represented- populated by private, family-owned businesses that catered to the aristocrasy and the billion-dollar, mass-producing and mass-marketing industry it is today. In the style of classic muckraking journalism, "Deluxe" focuses on the changing definition of luxury.
Dana Thomas is the author of the New York Times bestseller, How Luxury Lost Its Luster, published by The Penguin Press in 2007. She served as the European editor of Conde Nast Portfolio from 2008 to 2009, was European cultural and fashion correspondent for Newsweek in Paris from 1995 to 2008, and has contributed to various publications including the New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Vogue, Los Angeles Times and Financial Times in London. She is also the Paris correspondent for Australian Harper's Bazaar and is a regular contributor to Harper's Bazaar in the United States.
Raised on the Philadelphia Main Line, Dana began her journalism career in 1987 at The Washington Post while a student at American University in Washington D.C. Her first position at the paper was as the assistant to legendary fashion editor Nina Hyde. During her five years at The Washington Post, Dana also worked on the classical music desk, wrote features and profiles for Style, Metro, Business and Sports, and helped launch "The Reliable Source" personalities column. Two weeks after its debut, "The Reliable Source" became the page that most Post readers turned to after page one.
Washington Post's Style section as well as initiate a freelance career as a foreign correspondent for American publications. In 1995, she joined the Paris bureau at Newsweek, where she covered the death of Princess Diana, the murder of Gianni Versace and the boardroom battle between Gucci and LVMH. She co-created and wrote the quarterly Focus on Style section of the magazine and was responsible for all coverage of the luxury industry for Newsweek. She also served as the magazine's European Arts and Entertainment correspondent.
Dana is a member of the Anglo-American Press Association in Paris and the Overseas Press Club. She taught journalism at The American University of Paris from 1996 to 1999. In 1987, she received the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation Scholarship and the Ellis Haller Award for Outstanding Achievement in Journalism.