Copyright © 2002 The International
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Mogul Style is less about conspicuous consumption than contemptuous consumption. It's the giddy spending of money - sometimes shareholders' money - and it results not in the pleasure of ownership, or connoisseurship, but in the succulent gratification of making other moguls quake in their Gucci loafers. Imagine a birthday party on the Costa Smeralda in Sardinia, at a hillside loggia nestled between sea views and a golf course. The waiters wear togas. Fig trees rented for one night wave their fruited limbs over the tables. When guests ask a waiter for a drink, he pours vodka into a giant ice sculpture of Michelangelo's "David" that sluices the liquid magically around the icy torso, eventually spouting into a crystal glass. Then an Elvis impersonator sings "Happy Birthday," and fireworks boom over the golf course. It's no fantasy. The birthday party, as outlined in a planning memo sent by a Tyco International staff member in April 2001, is just another item to add to the growing list of L. Dennis Kozlowski's apparent excesses while chief executive of the company. The total cost for the party, on June 14, 2001, which celebrated the 40th birthday of his wife, Karen: $2.1 million. Tyco picked up half the tab. America has been peeping into the wrong windows. Who cares where Charlize Theron buys scented candles when Kozlowski, at the tail end of the economic boom, spent $6,000 of his company's money on a shower curtain for his Fifth Avenue apartment, according to a 242-page report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by Tyco last week. The report also said he spent $17,100 on an antique toilet kit, $15,000 on a poodle-shaped umbrella stand and $5,960 on two sets of sheets. Kozlowski was indicted on Sept. 12 on charges that he and the company's former chief financial officer reaped $600 million through a racketeering scheme involving stock fraud, unauthorized bonuses and falsified expense accounts. Mogul Style is more flamboyant and expensive than Hollywood Style, than anyone on "MTV Cribs" or in the pages of In Style magazine, no matter how many bottles of Cristal Champagne a rapper's posse can drink in one night. Whereas celebs are trying to impress their fans, moguls are trying to impress each other. From the interior decoration to the extravagant dining and parties, it is about the sheer amusement of just throwing money away, said Joseph Epstein, a former editor of The American Scholar and the author of "Snobbery: The American Version." "How many people are going to see the $6,000 shower curtain?" Epstein asked. "Not many. And how many people are going to know the umbrella stand cost that much, unless you leave the price tag on? Nobody. It's more of a secret thrill, of knowing you can say, 'I spent six grand on that shower curtain.' How much more contempt for money can you show than that?" The question of having the company foot the bill notwithstanding, the party was a celebration like many given by rich people ambitious to impress, said Polly Onet, an events planner in New York whose clients over the last 20 years have included many established and aspiring corporate moguls. When the economy is good, weddings and birthdays run $150,000 to $3 million, she said, with most around $1 million. "You spend $200,000 on fireworks, $200,000 on renting a castle in Ireland, and then you take the guys out for a three-day golf trip," she said. "It adds up. Just the floor in a tent can run you anywhere from $30,000 to $150,000. If the floor is one foot off the ground at one end and six at the other end, well, it's like building a house." Onet planned a millennium party on New Year's Eve 2000 for a corporate couple who wanted a water theme. She hired actresses to lounge in the pool in mermaid costumes, with shells and string as tops. Each table had a waterfall. "The worst part was that it was outside, so it was tented, and you had to make sure everyone was warm enough and comfortable enough so that no one really knew they were outside," Onet said. Now, nearly two years later, the more somber national mood and economic climate dictate that interior decoration is the preferred medium for displaying wealth. "People don't want to be seen out of their homes throwing huge parties, so they take them inside," Onet said. "They will still spend a lot of money, but they're at home and not out there showing it all off." Showing it off at home is crucial in the pursuit of Mogul Style. Scott Sullivan, WorldCom's former chief financial officer who has been indicted on securities-fraud charges, began building a house and guest cottages in Boca Raton, Florida, at a projected cost of $15 million. He is not expected to take up residence anytime soon. Visitors to Kozlowski's duplex apartment at 950 Fifth Avenue, which cost $16.8 million, says the Tyco report, would enter a veritable petting zoo of costly objets, such as the umbrella stand that cost as much as some colleges charge for a year's tuition. "Frankly, if you're rich, it's actually quite feasible to spend that kind of money in your apartment," Onet said. A $6,000 shower curtain isn't much of a stretch. Scott Salvator, a New York interior decorator, said that shower curtains for his clients typically cost $1,000 to $3,000, and an enclosure could run to $20,000 if etched or frosted glass was requested. Todd Klein, another New York decorator, said a wealthy client once authorized him to spend 10 hours looking for the perfect trash can. "It didn't matter if I eventually found one at Gracious Home for $13 - the client would still pay me for 10 hours," he said. Contemptuous consumption is rampant in New York, Klein said. He said he has many decorator friends whose clients "don't enjoy the purchase unless they know they have spent a lot of money for it." Rose Tarlow, a Los Angeles decorator who has worked for the entrepreneur and DreamWorks co-founder David Geffen, said she would never spend $6,000 on a shower curtain for a client. "But I would not hesitate to buy a $60,000 Greek or Roman urn for $60,000 if it was worth it," she said. Celebrities look for comfort and want to be pampered, said Dolly Lenz of Insignia Douglas Elliman. Chief executives want something different. "They tend to want a power building," she said. "They can't be embarrassed by the building." Mogul Style is atavistic, a way of showing off the peacock feathers to inspire awe in other moguls, said Richard Conniff, a nature writer and the author of the forthcoming book "The Natural History of the Rich: A Field Guide." "It's display behavior," he said. "You're supposed to walk in and be impressed and think: 'Good grief! What a way to spend your money.' But in the end it is supposed to make you feel a little cowed." Mogul Style also requires that personal taste not be a consideration heavy on the minds of all corporate chieftains. To help him choose his art, Kozlowski hired Fine Collections Management, a 10-employee company with offices in Palm Beach, Florida, and New York and counsels wealthy people on purchases of art and wine. His collection included a Monet and a Renoir. But for $1.98 million (not including tax), he also bought works by artists long considered irrelevant by scholars, like Adolphe-William Bouguereau, John Atkinson Grimshaw and Alfred Munnings, who painted hunting scenes and was best known for his presidency of the Royal Academy of Arts. In that position, in 1949, Munnings proclaimed Picasso and Matisse worthless. In light of recent embarrassing disclosures about the lifestyles enjoyed by some chief executives at corporate expense, Mogul Style seems likely to become more understated, for fear of drawing attention. Jeffrey Immelt, chief executive of General Electric, bought an apartment at 1 Central Park West, the building where John Welch, GE's former chief executive, has a GE-owned apartment. But now Immelt's apartment is on the market, Lenz said. "We've got a bunch of CEOs putting apartments on the market right now," she said. She said moguls "want to be a bit more low key, given the climate." Even Mrs. Kozlowski tried to show restraint. On the invitation planned for her birthday party, she asked guests to respect one wish: "The best present for my birthday is your company, so please, no gifts." Copyright © 2002 The International Herald Tribune |