sociology of luxury
my roman empire is how & why people signal status:
1. Patricians
high wealth, low need for status
ex: Loro Piana
2. Parvenus
high wealth, high need
ex: Birkin lawsuit
3. Poseurs
low wealth, high need
ex: dupes, Stanleys
4. Proletarians
low wealth, low need
ex: Carhartt
1. Patricians
high wealth, low need for status
ex: Loro Piana
2. Parvenus
high wealth, high need
ex: Birkin lawsuit
3. Poseurs
low wealth, high need
ex: dupes, Stanleys
4. Proletarians
low wealth, low need
ex: Carhartt
Danielle Vermeer • Tweet
Imagine showing Louis XIV your life. Almost everything would amaze him. He would offer you half of Gascony for your flat-screen television. Even driving a 20-year-old car would delight him. The Palace of Versailles consumed more water than the city of Paris, yet the cleanliness of your water supply would still astound him, as would your flushable
... See moreRory Sutherland • Louis XIV Would Envy Your Life
Of course, the most obvious example is Ozempic, the weight loss drug du jour among the elites, which works by suppressing hunger. Ozempic’s impact has been so seismic that analysts have reckoned the drug could have an unprecedented impact on food consumption. “I obviously don’t know when someone is taking drugs,” Anthony Geich, director of guest
... See moreSerena Smith • Why Don’t Rich People Eat Anymore?
You are earning a six-figure sum, and you decide to buy a house in Clapham. What this says is that you, as an immensely rich person in 2024, have no higher aspiration in life than to spend the next 25 years of your life devoting70 per cent of your discretionary income on acquiring an asset that a poor person could have owned in 1924. How is that
... See moreRory Sutherland • Louis XIV Would Envy Your Life
The spectator-buyer is meant to envy herself as she will become if she buys the product. She is meant to imagine herself transformed by the product into an object of envy for others, an envy which will then justify her loving herself. One could put this another way: the publicity image steals her love of herself as she is, and offers it back to her
... See more
Modern luxury is the ability to think clearly, sleep deeply, move slowly, and live quietly in a world designed to prevent all four.
– Justin Welsh
