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Culture is nothing if not an ongoing conversation. But changes to the cultural landscape aren’t always easy to trace—out of necessity, they often germinate in the private sphere, taking root behind closed doors. From this necessity springs the birth of the salon: a formalized gathering conducted by a host, or salonnière, to discuss matters of art, intellect, and society at large.
The first recorded salon took place in 15th-century Italy, a rare opportunity for artists, intellectuals, musicians, and Renaissance thinkers to coalesce and ideate across class strata away from the prying eyes of the Roman Catholic Church (one of the earliest progenitors of the nepo baby—we can only imagine what must’ve been said once the wine was flowing). Though salons properly took off in France, Italian sisters Isabella d’Este and Elisabetta Gonzaga are some of history’s most notable salonièrres. Noblemen hoping to make social and/or political strides by asserting their supreme aesthetic sensibilities and education had to earn the sisters’ respect in order to be admitted to their well-attended gatherings. Think of them as the era’s cultural bouncers.
Once introduced to France, salons became a far-reaching phenomenon. As in Italy, they were traditionally hosted by well-educated women in the privacy of their own homes, where attendees could safely express themselves without fear of facing the guillotine. Prior to the end of the 17th century, these gatherings were often held in the salonnière’s bedroom. Guests would sit on chairs placed around the bed, on which the host was customarily reclining; Serviette can hardly think of a more enticing way to entertain.
While today’s conversations rarely unfold from a canopy bed (pity), the spirit of the salon persists—in artist residencies, Substack comment sections, dinner parties disguised as think tanks. The setting has changed, but the impulse remains the same: to test ideas and to perform taste in real time. Salonnières wielded immense power. Though social standing was unimportant, good taste was not; wishful onlookers had to come with a convincing letter of recommendation before being admitted, and any sort of transgressive or unwanted behavior meant that the host was sure to never invite the offender back again. Contemporary salonnières include, but are not limited to: We Are Ona (transforming the dinner party into a global act of performance), Mikaela Dery and her Fashion Fiction gatherings, and university classes that now no longer guarantee a job outcome (see Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt).
And perhaps that’s what the modern “closed door” looks like: not the gilt room of a Parisian hôtel particulier, but an unlisted dinner, a password-only group chat, or a dinner series announced by coordinates. Shopping in an apartment store. The thrill of access, of being in the room where taste is quietly being written, remains as intoxicating as ever. After all, every fragrance is its own kind of salon—an invisible gathering of notes, references, and memories, convened not in a drawing room but on the skin.