Before we had "influencers" we had the Demimondaine, who weren't prostitutes, weren't geisha, but were basically Paris Hilton hanging out with Jho Low when wives were too busy being put on pedestals to have any fun.

You earned favor with Demimondes by covering them in jewels. They returned the favor by being cool enough that hanging out with them gave you social status. Which means their entire existence was social status and jewelry.

There was a famous fight between La Castiglione and Lola Montez where they were gonna like have a jewelry showdown at Maxim's or some shit and La Castiglione put on all her shit and tooled up like crazy and Lola Montez walked in 20 minutes late in a white smock... with her handmaid wearing all her shit.

Now you know why Steve Jobs wore only black turtlenecks and jeans - and why Karl Lagerfeld dressed like a goddamn priest most of the time.

The actress Sarah Bernhardt was the illegitimate child of a courtesan; in her day all actresses were generally considered demimondaines. Her many lovers and extravagant lifestyle fit the type, though her genuine successes as an artist and innovator eventually gained her a kind of public esteem most demimondaines never achieved.