ABSTRACT

Victorian taste is complex but can be simplistically reduced to four divisions: elite, arriviste, reform and mass. The elitist consumption was clearly based on using the power of objects and their symbols to maintain self-centred social strata that used goods to retain the acquired status. For the arrivistes it was essential to distance oneself from the common culture but to be seen to fit in. The reform movement carried forward the idea that goods had pedagogical natures and they could change and resocialize people in a democratic way, as opposed to the self-centred way of the elites. The mass consumers took their cues from each other, but most particularly from the retailer and the professional tastemakers. The popularity of suites of furniture for bedrooms, lounges, etc., as symbols of respectability and unity as opposed to the bohemian fragmentation and individuality of the reformers grew.