Post by European University Institute

Who taught the new rich how to be rich? Emma Schwak, a PhD researcher in the EUI History Department, studies luxury objects in post-Revolutionary Paris. Her research shows that the Revolution did not simply sweep away the old social order. New classes of bankers and financiers emerged, but aristocratic taste still shaped how elites presented themselves. Money alone did not secure social standing, one also needed bon goût. Emma traces how a new kind of figure rose to fill that gap: writers, fashion leaders, and taste-makers who taught the new rich what to buy, where to shop, and how to be seen. As she puts it, we could safely call them the first 'influencers.'