Description

In a world that may be obsessed with luxury, critical luxury studies is a unexpectedly emerging field. That is the first book to explore the interplay between the actual and imaginary realms of luxury, making an allowance for the most significant developments in the theories and practices of luxurious places and spaces during the last fifty years.

Providing a critical approach to recent interpretations of luxury, the book interrogates the distinction between real places and imaginary spaces. Bringing together an interdisciplinary group of leading scholars, it includes a range of case studies which take the reader from the luxurious image of Coco Chanel 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, in addition to the actual locations of the home, hotel, apartment and palace. Full of original research, this is a key contribution to the study of consumption, design, fashion, and architecture.

[amz_corss_sell asin=”1350062774″]