In the opening chapter of War And Peace, Tolstoy sets the stage at an 1805 social gathering in St Petersburg.
The top elite of Russian court life: Princes, Princesses, Generals, Diplomats, are all there for drinks, introductions and gossip. Hosted by the great socialite, Anna Pavlona, the maid of honor to the Queen of Naples.
Anna Pavlona is a fictional character, but the type of woman she’s based on is anything but. These Russian socialites may not have commanded armies. They may not have had any direct political power. Hell, they didn’t even have the right to vote, but what they did have was the ear of the people who did.
They may not have had power in the formal sense, but these women were the ultimate influencers.
And what was this power based on? Their ability to get interesting people in the same room together, using their social capital. Facilitating what all primates do: social grooming.
It’s no different today. It’s the same deal with Anna Wintour and the Met Gala. The Academy Awards. Washington cocktail parties. Highland Park charity dinners. Miami book clubs. Church potlucks. Opening houses at art galleries. Garden parties. The party is never really the point. The social object is.
The always-insightful academic and brand ninja, Eugene Healey had a great post on Substack recently about the simultaneous decline of third places for young people e.g. bars, clubs, cafes, and the internet, and how this has created a new kind of elite “post-luxury” influencer type: “the Host.”
The Host is someone who is good at creating memorable and meaningful experiences. Not for the masses, but for a small niche of carefully chosen friends and fellow travelers. Healey describes it well: “Private fashion salons for friends of the house, itinerant chef’s tables, invitation-only screenings. All operate within the same logic: access itself as the currency. These are not events designed for mass participation; rather carefully curated moments where presence signals belonging, we’re being invited matters more than being seen.”
It was no different in the old days. This is how the old European patronage model worked. I slip you a few gold coins to cover your rent, your art, your wardrobe, your research, your political cause, your poetry, whatever. In return, when I hold a salon, you turn up and dazzle my powerful friends with your wit and genius.
It’s the Salon Model. Anna Pavlona did it in fiction. Russia’s Catherine the Great did it for real 250 years ago visiting famous Enlightenment lumieres like Voltaire and Diderot, and many bright people are doing it today, at their own scale, in their own living rooms.
Great. But what has all this got to do with my business?
You and Anna Pavlona are trying to do the same thing. Get an amazing group of people into a single space and get them to do meaningful things together.
Matt Mullenwag, the Founder and CEO of WordPress, once wrote that the vast majority of his working hours go to recruiting great people. Not running the company, finding the people. Because without great people doing great work, there is no company.
So perhaps the Salon model is worth thinking about. Less about numbers and processes, more about the inherent social dynamic that creates it all in the first place. That’s the real secret behind “Culture Design.”
