updated 9d ago
Very Important People: Status and Beauty in the Global Party Circuit
After authentic models, the next best thing is a woman who looks like she could be a model, a “good civilian.”
from Very Important People: Status and Beauty in the Global Party Circuit by Ashley Mears
Zach Kirshner added 8mo ago
The first modern models appeared in the Paris salon of English courtier Charles Frederic Worth in the late 1850s, when the famous dressmaker pulled young women from his workshop floor to be mannequins for his wealthy clientele.
from Very Important People: Status and Beauty in the Global Party Circuit by Ashley Mears
Zach Kirshner added 8mo ago
The club Marquee on Tenth Avenue in Manhattan is often attributed with pioneering bottle culture by hiring image promoters to bring models to attract spenders.
from Very Important People: Status and Beauty in the Global Party Circuit by Ashley Mears
Zach Kirshner added 7mo ago
The Hamptons has been a destination for rich New Yorkers since the late nineteenth century, when the city’s old moneyed aristocrats and newly minted tycoons transformed the quiet farmland and saltboxes into a summer colony of mansions for high society.
from Very Important People: Status and Beauty in the Global Party Circuit by Ashley Mears
Zach Kirshner added 8mo ago
A promoter seeks girls for whom all three motivations align: if she needs subsidized meals, if she is loyal to his friendship, and if she genuinely enjoys whatever fun can be shared in during the night, she will likely become a regular presence at his table.
from Very Important People: Status and Beauty in the Global Party Circuit by Ashley Mears
Zach Kirshner added 8mo ago
That age “progressively destroys” women, but not men, is the crux of what Susan Sontag termed the double standard of aging, back in 1972.
from Very Important People: Status and Beauty in the Global Party Circuit by Ashley Mears
Zach Kirshner added 8mo ago
Beauty may look like a route to get ahead for women, but, in fact, beauty is worth more in men’s hands than in women’s own.
from Very Important People: Status and Beauty in the Global Party Circuit by Ashley Mears
Zach Kirshner added 8mo ago
In contemporary market society, we draw sharp distinctions between interested and disinterested ties. But “pure” friendship is always an idealization, one that misleads us from seeing reciprocity and mutual obligation at the very foundation of all social relations.
from Very Important People: Status and Beauty in the Global Party Circuit by Ashley Mears
Zach Kirshner added 8mo ago
Like girls, champagne bottles are put to work in the service of showing off clients’ expenditures. Champagne has been associated with exclusive celebrations for at least a century and associated with elites since court society monopolized its consumption in prerevolutionary Europe.
from Very Important People: Status and Beauty in the Global Party Circuit by Ashley Mears
Zach Kirshner added 8mo ago