1st Edition

The Evolution of Luxury

By Ian Malcolm Taplin Copyright 2020
    182 Pages
    by Routledge

    182 Pages
    by Routledge

    This book offers a unique analysis of how our definitions of luxury have changed over the ages, and with that the role and actions of both suppliers and buyers of luxury products. It traces the way luxury was seen as avarice and emblematic of morally corrosive behavior in past societies, to being viewed in more virtuous terms as the inevitable outcome of structural changes that legitimize the acquisition and display of wealth. It examines the origins of the shift from criticism to acceptance, and traces these changes to fundamentally different notions of what constitutes the basis for social order.

    Whereas pre-industrial hierarchies cloaked inequality in various secular and sacred guises to mitigate its presence, capitalism justified and reified inequality as a measure of individual success and initiative through interdependent market behavior. The result of this transformation is that status markers have become aspirational tools as hierarchies became porous and self-identity less ascriptive.

    Correspondingly, as demand for luxury became legitimized, the supply side underwent dramatic changes. Such changes are explored fully in the sectors of fashion, art and wine. As demand for high priced and scarce goods in each of these sectors has increased, in each case key actors have manipulated markets to purposefully either consolidate their pre-eminence or manufacture the requisite scarcity that affords them canonical status.

    The demand for and supply of luxury goods is now global; consumers seeking validation and affirmation of their status whilst producers engineer scarcity. Luxury is seen not only as good; it is virtuous, its demand possibly insatiable and extremely profitable.

    List of Tables

    Acknowledgements

    1. Introduction

      Luxury fashion

      Market for art

      Fine wine

      Individuals, organizations and globalization

    2. Luxury in historical context

      Luxury as vice

      Christianity and luxury

      Money, markets and morality

      The advent of capitalism

    3. Industrialism, materialism and the birth of a consumer society

    Culture of consumption

    Industrialism

    Home as domestic refuge and emblem of success

    The dawn of mass consumption

    Conclusion: Reconciling old and new

    4. Mass production, mass consumption and new consumers of luxury

    Mass production and mass consumption come of age

    More money for workers to buy things

    Selling the acquisitive lifestyle

    Rethinking status

    Inequality and materialism

    What are people buying?

    5. At Home in the Fields of Luxury: From artisan production to global brands

      Luxury branding

      Luxury goods firms

      The business of fashion

      Consolidation and growth

    6. Art: From aesthetics to investment grade collateral

    Art’s changing role

      Market intermediaries: Auction houses and dealers

      Modern art and the new marketplace

      Revitalized auction houses and dealers become galleries

      Is art a good investment?

      Conclusion

       

    7. Fine wine: Creating luxury in a bottle

       

      Evaluating wine

      Wine’s early history

      Quality control

      California’s early wine history

      Napa’s rebirth

      Cult Napa: luxury wines from the new world

      Conclusion

    8. Conclusion: Pilgrims on the luxury road

    Bibliography

    Index

    Biography

    Ian Malcolm Taplin is Professor of Sociology and International Studies at Wake Forest University and Visiting Professor at Kedge Business School, Bordeaux. He is the author of numerous articles and books on the organization of work in the clothing industry and the evolving structure of markets in the wine industry in Napa California, North Carolina and Bordeaux. He is the North American Editor of the Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management.