In this class we will assess luxury design from multiple perspectives. Issues pertaining to consumerism, economics, and labor will be addressed. Specifically, we will look at examples of luxury design and examine these spaces and products in relation to a variety of authors, including, but not limited to, Walter Benjamin, Henri Lebevre, Karl Marx, and Rachel Sherman. Additionally, we will take field trips to sites that our contemporary culture constructs as luxurious. These tours will investigate both the overt presentation of luxury and the labor that creates these deluxe experiences. By the end of the semester, students will be expected to formulate their own critique of luxury in a research project that will utilize both primary sources and the theoretical perspectives we have explored.