Luxury and gender in European towns, 1700–1914. Deborah Simonton, Marjo Kaartinen, and Anne Montenach (eds)

• Main Author: WILLIAMSON, Fiona
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2015
• Subjects: Eastern European Studies
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cis_research/244; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/cis_research/article/1243/viewcontent/Luxury_and_Gender_in_European_Towns__1700_1914DEBORAH_SIMONTON__MARJO_KAARTINEN___ANNE_MONTENACH__Eds___1_.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

The concept and consumption of ‘luxury’ was at the heart of many preconceptions about gender, status and identity during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Acting as a determinant of—yet also blurring the boundaries of—social class, luxury was a fundamental component of identity for both men and women. Towns operated as hubs in the luxury goods trade and urban inhabitants were the main producers and consumers of the newest fashions. This collection of essays, stemming from the pan-European Gender in European Towns Network launched in 2006, seeks to explore how luxury connected to, and shaped, urban senses of self and status across a broad temporal and geographic framework. The essays collectively argue the centrality of gender in shaping urban cultures and vice versa, and the role of towns in disseminating and transmitting gendered ideas across regional and national borders.