University of Hertfordshire

This symposium dealt with current topics in the field of luxury. The presentation by Berry focused on his book The Idea of Luxury was very informative and provided an introduction to his way of seeing luxury. The In Conversation on the moral dimensions of luxury as vice or virtue brought in Andrew O’Connor a priest and designer. He spoke of Plato, Aristotle, Marx and others. He introduced philosophical problems and raised current issues such as wage inequality while at the same time inviting Berry to expand on his ideas and formulate new ones. It was a fascinating conversation on the state of luxury which connected nicely to the two panels comprised of academics from a variety of disciplines and political positions some of whom were designers and architects which added to their knowledge about the fields they discussed. The panels both dealt with luxury and its manifestations as a concept or ideal and a business which is important economically and socially and has been challenged for

This conference was really superb! The panelists were brilliant and came from a variety of professional and academic backgrounds which made for an interesting dialogue.