The author of the New York Times bestseller, Deluxe - How Luxury Lost its Luster and European editor of Condé Nast Portfolio, Dana Thomas, will talk about the impact of China as a manufacturing powerhouse on the luxury landscape next Monday at a luncheon to be hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong.

She will also share her personal and global observation on the current and future state of the frills industry, which is now run by multi-billion dollar global corporations focused on brand-awareness, visibility, advertising and above all, profits. As most manufacturing has been outsourced to large factories, handcrafted goods are practically extinct.

Ms. Thomas began her career in the Style section of The Washington Post in Washington, D.C. and in Paris, and from 1995 to 2008, she served as the cultural and fashion writer for Newsweek in Paris. She has written for the New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, the Los Angeles Times and the Financial Times in London. She is also the Paris correspondent for BlackBook and Australian Harper's Bazaar.

Ms. Thomas 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. She lives in Paris with her husband Hervé, and their daughter, Lucie.

You are cordially invited to cover her speech. Details are as follows:
Date : March 17, 2008 (Monday)
Time : 1:00 – 2:00 pm (Media registration starts at 12:45 pm)
Venue : Club Lusitano, 27/F, 16 Ice House Street, Central, Hong Kong
Details: http://www.amcham.org.hk/component/option,com_gigcal/task,details/gigcal_gigs_id,212/Itemid,483/

Notes to the press:
* Press access is free but journalists must pay if they consume any food or drinks.
* Please silence all mobile phones and/or pagers all the time while inside the venue.
* The Question & Answer session is exclusively for guests. Press questions will be answered on an individual basis after the event, at the speaker’s discretion.
* Photos of speaker at the event will be made available on request. Please make sure you leave a business card or your email address on registration.

For inquiries, please contact AmCham’s Press Affairs Manager, Ms Toni Lau, on 2530-6915, or by email: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it