Luxury is best understood as an exercise in technical prowess, imagination, and conceptual adeptness. These three active ingredients are present in any effort that is showcased as what a specific group of people, or culture can produce. This is probably why the most luxurious products throughout history were developed to provoke the admiration, awe, and […]

For the last six weeks I have been lecturing on luxury, its origins and evolution through history, including the business strategies that yield greater market share for luxury goods companies. The experience has reinforced my view of luxury as something timeless, universal, and gender-less.  Unexpectedly, I found proof of this view in the exhibition currently […]

The recent acquisition of eighteenth-century French porcelain announced by the Frick’s Board of Trustees inspired me to take the metro back in time. The hard-paste Sèvres Vase acquired in honor of the Frick’s recently retired Director, Anne L. Poulet is the first piece of hard-paste porcelain from the Royal Manufactory of Sèvres to enter the […]

Paris offers plenty of opportunities to all of us who like looking at art, or simply, at beautiful things. Place Vendôme, even if a little old-fashioned today, remains the center of Haute Joaillerie and occasionally offers illuminating, off-the-beaten-path exhibits on the history of jewelry and watch making. A tradition of about 200 years distinguishes La […]