High Tea

Bergdorf Goodman Restaurant

For my final field experiment, I decided to observe conspicuous leisure through high tea. I initially decided to go to The Plaza in Midtown but the restaurant that served high tea was completely full and I couldn’t get a table unless I had a reservation. I noticed that the tables were full of tourists and it worked out better because my observations would be skewed if I had stayed at The Plaza. I decided to go next door to Bergdorf Goodman to their restaurant that served high tea as well. For this observation field experiment, I was curious to see who would be enjoying high tea at 4pm on a Friday. 

My all black conspicuous under-consumption ensemble 

I purposely dressed in all black to test conspicuous under-consumption we discussed briefly in class. In Anne Hollander’s Seeing Through Clothes, she states that black clothing in the 19^th century connotes “antifashion”, “rebellious tradition”, “conventionally sober”, and “isolating” (Hollander 377). My black sweater was purposely knitted with holes and while this may be acceptable in downtown Manhattan, I wondered what response I would get from the other people in the restaurant. I completed my look with a black Chanel bag which is subtle and non-flashy and in Lynn Yaeger’s “Carried Away”, she states that “handbags have nosed their way in a place once occupied almost exclusively by diamonds and fancy furs, functioning as badges of honor, announcements that you’ve arrived at a particular economic or social level” (Yaeger, 2007). Apart from observing the people enjoying high tea on a Friday afternoon, I also wanted to test whether people would judge my social status based on my bag or on my conspicuous under-consuming outfit as a whole.

Typical items offered in high tea

The British categorize tea time to low tea and high tea. Low tea is from 3pm to 5pm and tea is accompanied with small sandwiches and scones. High tea is from 5pm to 6pm and consists of cold meats, cakes, and sandwiches. In the US, high tea refers to a tea party which is a formal gathering where coffee and tea is served on fancy china accompanied by sandwiches and cakes. Which the British distinguish low and high tea according to the height of the table, Americans’ use of high tea refers to high social status. I decided to observe high tea as conspicuous leisure as Veblen defines it as unproductive consumption of time. High tea starts from $35 per person for a drink and a plate of mini sandwiches and pastries. It is not an essential meal as it is between lunch and dinner time. 

My discreet photo of the restaurant

As I sit alone in a throne-like chair with my one cup of black coffee, I looked around the half empty restaurant and observed the tables around me. When I first sat down, I noticed two tables were having a business meeting while the other tables were tourists visiting New York. Around 5pm, various Bergdorf shoppers stopped in to enjoy high tea after a long day of hard work—shopping.  As they walked in with their 4 inch heels and a sea of purple Bergdorf shopping bags, they were ready for a much needed break. The predominately female shoppers varied from older women in their 50s, mother-daughter duos, to women in their mid 20s. For a day of shopping, the women in the restaurant were very dressed up and adorned with large custom jewelry and large visible diamonds. In Zygmunt Bauman’s Consuming Life, the author highlights that “the ‘raw’, unadorned, un-re-formed and unprocessed body is something be ashamed of” as it connotes “ineptitude, ignorance, impotence and resourcelessness to ‘the self’” (Bauman 59). Their dress exemplified conspicuous leisure as Veblen states that “elegant dress serves its purpose of elegance not only in that it is expensive, but also because it is the insignia of leisure” (Veblen 126). The women walked in to enjoy their high tea in 3 to 4 inch heels which signifies “evidence of enforced leisure afforded by its polish” as these women most likely did not have to take the subway in their uncomfortable shoes (Veblen 126). 

What the Bergdorf High Tea consists of (taken from a friend's Facebook photo)

As women carrying crocodile Birkins walk pass me, they seem confused as they look at my empty table with only one cup of coffee (which I abused my free refills to the fullest) while the tables next to me were filled with tiers of sandwiches and scones and the women were sipping on champagne. As I look at the menu, I see that high tea starts from $35 per person and I wonder why this extravagance was necessary. My $4 coffee at the Bergdorf restaurant was nothing special so I wonder why people did not opt for coffee and scones at Starbucks instead.

Was high tea simply an extension of their expensive handbags and another form of conspicuous consumption? Bauman states that “‘consumer syndrome’ is all about speed, excess and waste” (Bauman 86). The shoppers fulfill “speed” by spending all afternoon trying to be up-to-date with the current trends at Bergdorf. In Gilles Lipovetsky’s The Empire of Fashion, the author highlight’s Gabrielle Tard’s claim that the we are more “susceptible to passing fads” and our interest in “novelty… is a matter of social persistence” (Lipovetsky 228). Furthermore, we have the mentality of “everything new is beautiful” (Lipovetsky 227) embedded in our heads and this is further reinforced by Bauman as he claims we have “the concern ‘to be and to stay head’ (ahead of the ‘style pack’… the ‘others who count’ and whose approval or rejection [matters])” (Bauman 82). Furthermore, Bauman states that “shop dependence” sets in early on in our childhood and “everyone needs to be, ought to be, must be a consumer-by-vocation” (Bauman 55). Similarly, Lipovetsky reinforces that “the love of novelty has become general, regular, limitless” (Lipovetsky 229). The limitless novelty in fashion is echoed in high tea. The meal is not necessary but the large variety of mini sandwiches, pastries, and scones fulfill the limitless need for novelty. Veblen states that “principle of novelty is another corollary under the law of conspicuous waste” (Veblen 127). While an expensive handbag signifies a woman’s economic and social status, being seen at high tea shows that she does not have to work, do domestic chores, or watch her children as she is enjoying high tea with her friends on a Friday afternoon. For the women in their 20’s, these girls represented their parents’ wealth as they do not have to be at school, work, or internship and have the luxury of spending their afternoon at Bergdorf instead. Just like how the handbag or an engagement ring shows how financially established the husband is, having high tea reinforces the economic and social status implied by the handbag and jewelry and shows not only does she have money, she also has the leisure time to spend it without other responsibilities.  

I was pleasantly surprised at how nice the waiters were to me as I only ordered one thing and they kept asking if I wanted a free refill. While I did feel isolated because I was the only person who was alone at the table, I felt that my conspicuous under-consumption dress was not dramatic enough to make a strong impression. In class, we discussed whether an expensive handbag overshadows the outfit and immediately implies wealth or whether one’s wealth is judged based on the entire outfit. In Erving Goffman’s The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, he claims that each individual expresses two kinds of sign activity: “the expression he gives, and the expression that he gives off” (Goffman 2). Based on the service and few stares I observed, I think my black outfit gives off an independent and isolated impression and that I want to be left alone. The waiters only approached me when my cup was empty and quickly gave me my bill after I said I no longer wanted anymore refills. As I left the restaurant, I stopped on 5^th floor to browse the contemporary designers’ floor and although I walked by several sales associates, none of them asked if I needed help. Compared to the other shoppers, I was definitely underdressed and I didn’t look like I was going to buy anything. Although my field experiment didn’t include testing the sales associates’ service, I found the contrast between the service in the restaurant to the service in the store quite drastic and I felt that my dress was more harshly judged in the store.

For my field experiment, I expected the restaurant to be full of women in their 40’s and 50’s enjoying tea time with their friends and I was surprised to see the wide range of age in the people I observed and there were a few men in the restaurant but they were there strictly for a business meeting. I was disappointed that the restaurant was only half full but I strategically chose Friday afternoon to conduct my experiment because there is a limited pool of carefree people who would be shopping and enjoying their high tea. I’ve always thought of high tea as a treat for special occasions but through my observations and analysis for this field experiment, I’ve realized that it is another form of conspicuous consumption and reinforces Veblen’s concept of conspicuous leisure and conspicuous waste.

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Bibliography

Bauman, Zygmunt. Consuming Life. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2007.

Goffman, Erving. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Double Day, 1959.

Hollander, Anne. Seeing Through Clothes.  New York: The Viking Press, 1978.

Lipovetsky, Giles.  The Empire of Fashion: Dressing Modern Democracy.  Princeton:

Princeton University Press, 1994.

Yaeger, Lynn. “Carried Away.” The Atlantic Monthly (April 2007), http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/print/200704/yaeger-handbags.