Million-dollar birthday parties, megayachts on the French Riviera, and $40,000 bottles of champagne. In today’s New Gilded Age, the world’s moneyed classes have taken conspicuous consumption to new extremes. In Very Important People, sociologist, author, and former fashion model Ashley Mears takes readers inside the exclusive global nightclub and party circuit—from New York City and the Hamptons to Miami and Saint-Tropez—to reveal the intricate economy of beauty, status, and money that lies behind these spectacular displays of wealth and leisure.
Mears spent eighteen months in this world of “models and bottles” to write this captivating, sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking narrative. She describes how clubs and restaurants pay promoters to recruit beautiful young women to their venues in order to attract men and get them to spend huge sums in the ritual of bottle service. These “girls” enhance the status of the men and enrich club owners, exchanging their bodily capital for as little as free drinks and a chance to party with men who are rich or aspire to be. Though they are priceless assets in the party circuit, these women are regarded as worthless as long-term relationship prospects, and their bodies are constantly assessed against men’s money.
A story of extreme gender inequality in a seductive world, Very Important People unveils troubling realities behind moneyed leisure in an age of record economic disparity.
Awards and Recognition
- One of Amazon's Best Books of 2020 in Business and Leadership
- Honorable Mention for the Distinguished Scholarly Publication Award, Consumers and Consumption Section of the American Sociological Association
"Fascinating."—Helen Rosner, New Yorker
"The most colourful investigation into nightlife and gender politics since Gloria Steinem went incognito as a Playboy Bunny in 1963."—Mark Smith, The Times
"Riveting. . . . The results of her investigation are astonishing. Mears has amassed pages of enthralling, richly human testimony. . . . The anecdotes are hugely entertaining, in a throw-up-in-your-mouth way. . . . Mears’s thesis—that nightclubs aren’t exceptions to ‘real life,’ but a distilled, brutal caricature of it—gathers strength as the details accumulate. . . . Elegantly written and genuinely page-turning, with revelations about life that go far beyond nightclubs."—Iona McLaren, Daily Telegraph
"Mears is a very good reporter. . . . A fascinating read."—Lynn Barber, The Spectator
"Riveting. . . . Mears is an excellent storyteller, resulting in a book that’s well-informed and critical but also animated and engaging."—Tatler
"Very Important People was written before the coronavirus pandemic, but Covid-19 makes it more relevant. Lockdown has widened inequality as poorer households lose jobs and rely on their savings. Meanwhile, the rich are getting richer, leading to pent up demand for parties, girls and bottle trains among those who have already missed a season of it."—Ollie Williams, Forbes
"Very Important People depicts a complex world of exchange and exploitation, and warrants praise for doing so without passing predictable moral judgement. More than offering a mere window into the exotic lives of others, Ashley Mears emphasizes themes that should resonate with us all: the labour of marginalized others that lurks behind so much status-seeking consumption, the risks of conflating work with fun and friendship, and the sad fact that 'girl power' remains as oxymoronic as ever."—Alice Bloch, Times Literary Supplement
"Enlightening. . . . A fascinating glimpse into life behind the velvet rope."—Matthew Partridge, Money Week
"Compelling, vivid and curiously poignant. . . . Very Important People succeeds in exposing the intriguing and often distressing realities of a culture whose values seem both alien and unpleasantly persistent."—Lisa Hilton, The Critic
"Mears takes her readers inside the exclusive global nightclub and party circuit, from New York City to Miami and Saint-Tropez, in order to reveal a world constituted by spectacular displays of wealth."—Laurie Taylor, BBC Radio 4, Thinking Allowed
"Throughout the seven chapters of the book, Mears dissects the economy of “ models and bottles ” (p. 17), or the formula by which we designate those parties in which the super rich display their power by attending models and making flaunting their wealth by wasting money and buying many bottles at exorbitant prices.”"—Giulia Mensitieri, La Vie Des Idees
“With sharp analytical insight and riveting evidence, Ashley Mears takes us backstage into the glamorous global world of parties and nightclubs. Behind the flowing bottles of Dom Pérignon and other displays of extreme wealth, Mears reveals an intricate social web connecting enterprising party promoters, rich clients, and beautiful women. Updating Veblen for the twenty-first century, Very Important People makes crucial contributions to our understanding of consumption and more broadly to economic sociology.”—Viviana A. Zelizer, author of Economic Lives: How Culture Shapes the Economy
“This fascinating book provides an eye-opening account of how beautiful ‘girls’—unpaid models—are shuttled by promoters around the globe to provide atmosphere in elite clubs for rich men. In a gripping narrative, Mears vividly describes the lavish consumption of elites to illuminate, in a fresh way, how gender works in daily life. Highly recommended.”—Annette Lareau, author of Unequal Childhoods
"Ashley Mears's page-turning account of the VIP global party circuit is simply terrific. In a snappy narrative, Mears takes readers into a world that is equal parts thrilling and heartbreaking, doused with moments that are by turn laugh-out-loud funny and tragically sad. No one but Mears could have written this book. The research is heroic and fearless, and the access it required was nearly impossible."—David Grazian, author of On the Make: The Hustle of Urban Nightlife
"A rich exposé of the elite party circuit written in a lively style, Very Important People is like a night out on the town with a glamorous, insightful guide."—James Farrer, coauthor of Shanghai Nightscapes: A Nocturnal Biography of a Global City
