Our latest D CEO cover story takes a hard look at prospects for the luxury retail icon. CEO Burt Tansky declined to be interviewed for the article, but here’s what he told analysts in December:

“The declines have started to diminish,” noting that over-the-knee boots, cashmere, contemporary sportswear, skinny jeans, leggings and new handbag shapes were pacing the holiday season.

There was more enthusiasm in November and December than all of the rest of year, he added.

“We see improvements and are pleased by that. But like anything else, improvements are slow in coming. They can be tentative,” Tansky said. “The customer is still facing the challenges of economic recovery. It’s hard to predict whether we have bottomed out. Hopefully we have.”

Last week Glenn suggested that the company rededicate itself to Stanley Marcus’ vision to find future success. But Tansky says they haven’t strayed from their original business plan:

“We have no intention of changing our business model or trading down … It’s important to reiterate that we will continue to offer our customers the luxury and designer merchandise that they want to buy and, in fact, some of our best-selling merchandise is at the upper end of our price ranges.”

Wait, he’s got more tattoos than I expected.

You’ll remember that Tommy Fazio, the previous men’s fashion director, left the company last fall — reportedly because he wasn’t too happy about having responsibility for both the Neiman’s and Bergdorf stores.

UPDATE: I’m told Wooster’s Facebook page (linked above) has disappeared. You can still find his photo on Twitter.

The only other North Texas company to crack the top 50 this year was Fort Worth’s Radio Shack (or “the Shack,” or whatever it is they want to be called these days.)

Southwest Airlines comes out on top. It’s the only Dallas-area company in the top 50. This is hardly the first survey to call Southwest a great place to work, but I was surprised to find that the company didn’t rank among even the top 50 on last year’s list. I’d like to think that Southwest made some spectacular changes in the last year that caused it to vault to the top. They might have been the same decisions that led us to name Gary Kelly the D CEO of the Year.

But no, it’s probably just a flawed methodology. Maybe they just pick them out of hats. Then again, it makes sense that Whole Foods (ranked No. 6 last year) would fall (down to No. 48 this year), after all the brouhaha over the Wall Street Journal op-ed written by its CEO.

Update: You know what’s not awesome? ShopSavvy. I installed it on my iPhone. I tried to launch it six times. Each time, it crashed. I rebooted the phone and tried again. Still crashed. What is up indeed, Mr. Muse?