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Lead book review

Splashing the cash at VIP nightclubs is now the favourite recreation of the rich

The spectacular extravagance of the VIP nightclub ‘experience’ could be the last bonfire of the vanities, says Lynn Barber

20 June 2020

9:00 AM

20 June 2020

9:00 AM

Very Important People: Status and Beauty in the Global Party Circuit Ashley Mears

Princeton University Press, pp.320, 25

The world described in this book is weird enough anyway, but reading about it during lockdown is positively surreal. It’s about VIP nightclubs, mainly in New York, but also in Miami, Cannes, St Tropez or wherever rich people congregate. Ashley Mears is a professor of sociology, as she likes to remind us with references to Bourdieu, Durkheim, Veblen, etc, but mainly she is a very good reporter.

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