Living It Up: America's Love Affair with LuxurySimon and Schuster, 2003 M07 2 - 306 páginas Luxury isn't just for the rich, says James B. Twitchell. Today you don't need a six-figure income to wear pashmina, drink a limited-edition coffee at Starbucks, or drive a Mercedes home to collapse on the couch in front of a flat-screen plasma TV. In Living It Up, sharp-eyed consumer anthropologist Twitchell takes a witty and insightful look at luxury -- what it is, who defines it, and why we can't seem to get enough of it. In recent years, says Twitchell, luxury spending has grown much faster than overall spending -- and it continues to grow despite the economic recession. Luxury has become such a powerful marketing force that it cuts across every layer of society, spawning a magazine devoted to spas, cashmere bedspreads on sale at Kmart, and a dazzling array of bottled waters. Twitchell says that the democratization of luxury has had a unifying effect on culture. Luxury items tell a story that we want to identify with, and more people than ever aspire to the story of Ralph Lauren's Polo or Patek Philippe. Shopping itself is no longer a chore but a transcendent experience in which we shop not so much for goods as for an identity. Sharply observed and wickedly funny, Living It Up is a revealing and entertaining examination of why we are all part of the cult of luxury. |
Contenido
Over the | 1 |
The Social Construction of Luxury | 41 |
Lets Go Shopping | 80 |
Where Opuluxe Is Made and Who Makes | 123 |
How Luxury Becomes Necessity | 153 |
From Shirts to Tulips | 175 |
Viva Las Vegas | 215 |
Still Learning from Las Vegas | 239 |
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Términos y frases comunes
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