Like the European designers, he put on lavish shows featuring clothes that only models could wear.
The lavish food, wine, clothes, cars and sensuous self-indulgence – the easy grace of the true aristocracy – is deeply envied by the middle-class upstart Ryder: the outsider, looking in – who yearns to emulate such consummate style.
In Florence itself during his predominance, the patriciate pursued a more aristocratic lifestyle, expressed among other ways by a revival of jousting and lavish expenditure on clothes, palaces, and the arts all of which were at odds with older traditions of republicanism.
For example, one Easter she purchased lots of lavish gifts and clothes for her kids, while my siblings and I only received a basket of chocolate.
I have, in my time, overheard some complaints about the coverage of Brooks's outfit at the Leveson inquiry and, indeed, the coverage lavished on the clothes of high-profile women in general.
I always had a soft spot for the New Romantics, with their ludicrous clothes and lavish make-up.
And as usual, the clothes had lavish embellishments like mirrors, crystal beading and elaborate metallic embroidery, which was done in India.
By this time, more than £1m had slipped through De-Laurey's fingers, yet no one in Goldman Sachs seemed to notice her increasingly lavish lifestyle, the designer clothes and jewellery she wore, or the expensive holidays she took.
