Knowledge@wharton

When Givenchy dressed Audrey Hepburn for her role in the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany’s luxury was still exclusive the particular provenance of the refined social elite. By 1980 all that was changing. When Brooke Shields announced that nothing came between her and her Calvins the message was not that Calvin Klein jeans were for her alone; it was that they were for everyone. In the 20-year span between the film and the ad luxury entered the mass market -- and quite arguably stopped being truly luxurious as Dana Thomas cultural correspondent for Newsweek suggests in her book Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Luster. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.