luxury
Luxury is one of the key words of our time, driving a multi billion dollar global industry, and used ubiquitously to describe exclusive objects and aspirational lifestyles. Pinning down the concept in concrete terms, however, is more elusive and problematic.
This hub is dedicated to interrogating the idea of luxury through its changing definitions and manifestations from the ancient world until the present day. It is also committed to examining issues of sustainable luxury, and the concept of luxury as emotion. Workshops, symposia, and exhibitions are held on a regular basis both at the University of Melbourne, and internationally, involving a range of researchers whose work impacts on these broad themes of consumption across time and space.
This hub is curated by Catherine Kovesi, whose research on Luxury in the Early Modern World is based on a view of luxury as a contingent historical product - in word, concept, and practice - which evoked and continues to evoke ambivalent and strong emotions in every period.
Click through for more details …
An exciting new initiative, sponsored by the Australasian Centre for Italian Studies, seeks to tease out the what, the how, and the why of the clothing, textiles, and accoutrements in the courts of northern Italy. In particular, it focuses on the court of Isabella d’Este (1474-1539), Marchioness of Mantua, and one of the foremost consumers and widely imitated icons of style of the Renaissance. This project is allied to the award-winning digital site Isabella d’Este Archive project – produced and co-directed by Deanna Shemek, Anne MacNeil, and Daniela Ferrari in collaboration with Roberta Piccinelli and numerous other scholars. The ‘Isabella D’Este Archive’, or IDEA, takes as its focus the extraordinary corpus of letters written by the marchioness and explores her artistic and musical patronage. At present there is a marked gap on the IDEA website regarding the clothing of Isabella, despite the importance of this aspect of her public persona. This project targets precisely this gap.
publication news
Lynn Johnson and Catherine Kovesi have continued their collaboration in issues of wildlife and sustainability which led to the Emporium events Breaking the Brand and The Rhino in Venice with an article on ‘Mammoth Tusk Beads and Vintage Elephant Skin Bags: Wildlife, Conservation, and Rethinking Ethical Fashion’, in Fashion Theory (published online 14 August 2019).
>ePrints can be downloaded here.
December 2018 saw the publication of Luxury and the Ethics of Greed in Early Modern Italy. Edited by Catherine Kovesi, and with contributions from a range of scholars both established and emerging, the book was the outcome of an international two-day conference Luxury and the Ethics of Greed in the Early Modern World. Convened by Catherine Kovesi in 2014 and hosted jointly by the Harvard Centre for Renaissance Studies at Villa I Tatti, Florence and the European University Institute, Fiesole, the conference was sponsored by the Leverhulme Trust-funded Luxury Network.
Edited and introduced by Catherine Kovesi, contributing scholars include Lino Pertile, Peter Howard, Laura Giannetti, Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli, Jola Pellumbi, Timothy Wilson, Sean Roberts, Timothy McCall, Rebecca Earle, and Paula Hohti.
The book was launched by Giorgio Riello from the European University Institute, together with a lecture on ‘Pandora’s Legacy: Venice and the Invention of Luxury’ by Catherine Kovesi in an event jointly hosted by Warwick University and Ca’ Foscari, the University of Venice, in Venice on 5 December 2019.
the luxury network
Between 2013 and 2015, the Leverhulme Trust funded an International Partnership Network on the topic ‘Luxury and the Manipulation of Desire: Historical Perspectives for Contemporary Debates.’
Based at the University of Warwick, under the co-directorship of Giorgio Riello and Rosa Salzberg, this network included Marta Ajmar of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Glenn Adamson of the Museum of Art and Design, New York; Peter McNeil of the University of Stockholm and UTS Sydney; Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli of the University of Bologna; and Catherine Kovesi of the University of Melbourne.
A series of international conferences and workshops were held, and several publications have resulted from this network, which also witnessed the launch of a new journal Luxury: History, Culture Consumption edited by Jonathan Faiers founder member and co-director of the Luxury Research Group based at the Winchester College of Art. This is the first peer-reviewed, academic journal to investigate this globally contested term. The Luxury Network’s activities culminated in an exhibition ‘What is Luxury?’ held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2015.
Although the network’s official activities have concluded, its members continue to work in the field, to collaborate, and to engage with its core ideas. Consequently a decision was made to give the network’s website an additional platform here within the Luxury Hub of Emporium.