Week 3_Toan Tran

      Reading Living Luxe really opened up my eyes to the paradigm we have been looking through of France. It is interesting to see how France was not seen as exquisite or refined back in the sixteenth century and how it eventually worked its way up to the level of national aesthetics it holds today. However, if France apparently holds a "monopoly" of sorts on culture, style, and refined living, then how did it reach that level? I suppose that with France having Paris as its pillar, it had an advantage to attracting more and more tourists as it outcompeted its other nearby cities such as Venice or London. But this was due to France knowing how to market and it all started back to during the renaissance period when fashion was not so well run as a business. Louix XIV, a former king of France, gave it his all when it came to branding the country to build it to the way it is today. He basically decided that France needed to have a certain unique make to it, so this vision came with food, fashion, architecture, basically anything that he could set his eyes towards. What an ambitious and intelligent man to be able to market France the way that he did, but it was also with the help of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, who assisted in the economic side of things. I suppose that with even more advertising and globalization, it can reach an even higher level of national aesthetics, but at the moment, I feel that France has already made quite a mark on the world.

And as mentioned in the book, French culture is something that also supports its national image when it comes to talking about food, fashion, and fine wines, so this continues to perpetuate this paradigm of France to foreigners.

Refined City Life of Bordeaux, France

References:

DeJean, Joan E. The Essence of Style: How the French Invented High Fashion, Fine Food, Chic Cafés, Style, Sophistication, and Glamour. Free Press, 2005.

Bordeaux France - Google Search. https://www.google.com/search?q=bordeaux+france&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS789US789&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiIl4mD8f3fAhVmFTQIHSUBDscQ_AUIDigB&biw=1440&bih=722#imgrc=3dOVimdQO0kVQM: Accessed 21 Jan. 2019.