The Third Realm of Luxury: Connecting Real Places and Imaginary Spaces

Description

In a world that is obsessed with luxury, critical luxury studies is a rapidly emerging field. This is the first book to explore the interplay between the real and imaginary realms of luxury, considering the most significant developments in the theories and practices of luxurious places and spaces over the last fifty years. Providing a critical approach to contemporary interpretations of luxury, the book interrogates the distinction between real places and imaginary spaces. Bringing together an interdisciplinary group of leading scholars, it features a range of case studies which take the reader from the Rolls-Royce Ghost Black Badge to expressions of sensuality in the 1970s domestic interior, and global conceptions of fine wine and art. The Third Realm of Luxury considers the interplay between luxury and space in both the past and the present, examining the abstract conception of excess and exoticism, as well as the real locations of the home, hotel, apartment, and palace. Full of original research, it is a key contribution to the study of consumption, design, fashion, and architecture. Title Page Copyright Page Contents Illustrations Figures Table Acknowledgments Chapter 1: The third realm of luxury: Conceptualizing the connections between real places and imaginary spaces Introduction Luxury: From an idea to a reality Connecting real places and imaginary spaces: Toward the third realm of luxury Exploring the third realm of luxury: The book References Chapter 2: Being luxurious: On the Rolls-Royce Ghost Black Badge and beyond Introduction Being, time, and space Being luxurious On the Rolls-Royce Ghost Black Badge and beyond Ghost Black Badge Conclusion References Chapter 3: The architecture of authoritarian luxury Ontic luxury things and ontological luxury space Home, unhome, and the housing problems of the rich and famous From Nazi to American luxury References Chapter 4: Inhabiting luxury spaces Luxury and habitable spaces A brief history of a term Waning existential territories Third realm of luxury The experience of luxury Marketing luxury Is there true luxury? References Chapter 5: A touch of the exotic: Sensuality as luxury in the 1970s’ domestic interior Introduction The modern home: The private becomes public It’s only natural The “other” woman and the experience of home Sex at home: Consuming men consuming women Summary References Chapter 6: The emptying of the interior: Luxury, space, and the hotel effect in contemporary life Grand hotel The hotel room as luxury model/module Housing and the hotel Barefoot luxury Generation next Gentrification and its after-effects Room at the top Acknowledgments References Chapter 7: “The Collective”: Luxury in lounge space The Collective, London, 2016 A collective, Moscow 1928 Lounge space and luxury Bringing lounge space back home Curating the community of the collective lounge Conclusion References Chapter 8: “The third realm of luxury” as I experienced it in the legacies of Getty and the Rockefellers: Elite enclosure, “as far as the eye can see . . .” Two exhibits of moments of enclosed privileged seeing at variable horizons Envoi Postscript: “University Hills—the nation’s foremost on-campus community” References Chapter 9: Secret spaces of luxury: Ignorance, free ports, and art Introduction Ignorance and secrecy Luxury and secret spaces Free ports as secret spaces Transforming art in real places to assets in imaginary secret spaces Free ports as secret spaces of luxury: The social implications Conclusion References Chapter 10: Of space and time in California wine Early history of Californian wine Industry rebirth In vino luxe Discussion and conclusion Acknowledgments References Notes Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Contributors Index