Article: The splendor of splendor. (Versailles palace, Las Vegas and Gianni Versace fashions) (What's Glorious) (Illustration)

We all need it. Freedom. Excitement. Abandon. Decadence. The promise of riches. Back in the stone age of social consciousness, when it was really interesting to be rich, people who had the wherewithal built monuments to these things. The palace of Versailles, for instance, was a theme park for the aristocracy. This tradition of excess continues today in democratic theme cities like Las Vegas and in the everyday theater of life, such as with fashion--take the work of couturier Gianni Versace. These examples of the art of adornment destroy our notions of scale and image and have given consumers an opportunity to respond to the promise of rising above the mundane and the ...

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