Assembling the foremost scholars in this innovative, distinctive and expanding subject, internationally well-known critical theorists John Armitage and Joanne Roberts present a ground-breaking aesthetic, design-led and media-related examination of the relations between historical and, crucially, contemporary ideas of luxury. Critical Luxury Studies offers a technoculturally inspired survey of the mediated arts and design, as well as a means of comprehending the socio-economic order with novel philosophical tools and critical methods of interrogation that are re-defining the concept of luxury in the 21st century.

The concepts of artification and sustainability are now both at the heart of luxury brand marketing strategies; artification as an ongoing process of transformation in the world of art and sustainability as an indispensable response to the issues of our times. The Future of Luxury Brands examines three interrelated luxury-marketing segments—the art world, fashion and fine wines including hospitality services—through the dual lenses of sustainability and artification. From safeguarding human and natural resources to upholding labor rights and protecting the environment, sustainability has taken center stage in consumer consciousness, embodying both moral authority and sound business practices. At the same time, artification—the process by which non-art is reconceived as art—applies the cachet of art to business, affording commercial products the sacred status accorded to works of art. When commercial products enter the realm of aesthetic creation, artification and consumer engagement inevitably increases. This pioneering book examining artification and sustainability as strategic pillars of marketing strategies in the luxury industry will be essential reading for practitioners working in luxury product companies, as also students of luxury brand marketing.

This unique ethnographic investigation examines the role that fashion plays in the production of the contemporary Indian luxury aesthetic. Tracking luxury Indian fashion from its production in village craft workshops via upmarket design studios to fashion soirées, Kuldova investigates the Indian luxury fashion market's dependence on the production of thousands of artisans all over India, revealing a complex system of hierarchies and exploitation. In recent years, contemporary Indian design has dismissed the influence of the West and has focused on the opulent heritage luxury of the maharajas, Gulf monarchies and the Mughal Empire. Luxury Indian Fashion argues that the desire for a luxury aesthetic has become a significant force in the attempt to define contemporary Indian society. From the cultivation of erotic capital in businesswomen's dress to a discussion of masculinity and muscular neo-royals to staged designer funerals, Luxury Indian Fashion analyzes the production, consumption and aesthetics of luxury and power in India. Luxury Indian Fashion is essential reading for students of fashion history and theory, anthropology and visual culture.

What does luxury value mean? What constitutes luxury, and what does not? While previous research has focused on luxury as a global business and how companies have generated, communicated and monetized luxury, this book draws on empirical research to examine how consumers understand and interact with it. It identifies the components of luxury value, as seen by consumers, and the most influential factors that shape these perceptions. Drawing on a range of disciplinary approaches, the author investigates how consumer segments differ in their perception of luxury products, and how different generations understand value. A comprehensive overview of consumer perceptions of luxury, this book is a must-read for those students and researchers interested in luxury studies.

This study attempts to discover (1) the factors that generate support for a strong, substantive art education program in a district's curriculum, and (2) what factors influence the willingness and ability of school districts and teachers to carry out and maintain a discipline-based art education that strives for balance among the historical, critical, and productive domains of the visual arts. It uses case studies of seven sites (Whitehall, Ohio; Hopkins, Minnesota; Palo Alto, California; Decatur and Champaign, Illinois; Brooklyn, New York; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Virginia Beach, Virginia). As a group, the case studies illustrate the importance of support from school board members, superintendents, and principals, of a written curriculum, and of in-service training. They provide examples of school-museum collaboration, and dispel the notion that systematic instruction compromises or constrains individual creativity.

This interdisciplinary study presents a two-part survey of the production and ownership of luxury manuscripts in the late-medieval Netherlands. Part I analyses a corpus of 3,700 illustrated manuscripts produced between 1400 and 1550 in the Low Countries. The result is a cornucopia of information about many aspects of manuscript production: chronological, geographical and gender distribution, the genres of texts, the languages used, the dimensions of books, the number of illustrations, and the relationship between the making of hand-written and printed books. Part II examines the libraries of the pre-eminent owners of illustrated manuscripts in the Netherlands: the ducal family and the noble elite. The great bibliophile Philip the Good set an example of book collecting that was emulated by the nobles of the court, creating a typical 'Burgundian' fashion in book ownership by which a small elite demonstrated a well defined group identity. Luxury Bound charts this new vogue in books and reading, an important aspect of cultural change in the late-medieval Low Countries.