This essay analyzes how public figures became accessories and what audiences gained from that accessorization. It argues that the development of three visual technologies—lithography, carte-de-visite photography, and the twinned impact of photojournalism and brand name commercial images—materially contributed to a solipsism of equivalence in the German consumer. Social and political celebrities became glamourous accessories to be appropriated metonymically, playfully, and temporarily, through a highly individualized pursuit of the self in consumerism and in ways that privileged the affect world of the spectators. Focusing on material culture, specifically in the form of lithographs, photographs and their albums, and celebrity-branded consumer goods, the essay examines the mediatization and expansion of consumerism that accompanied the economic upturn of the 1890s, as the ability to eat, wear, and otherwise consume celebrity-branded goods intensified the accessorization of celebrities, including politicians and other public figures.

本文分析公众人物如何成为配饰，以及观众从配饰中获得了什么。它认为，三种视觉技术的发展——光刻、点菜摄影，以及新闻摄影和品牌商业形象的双重影响——在很大程度上促成了德国消费者对等价的唯我论。社会和政治名人成为迷人的配饰，通过在消费主义中高度个性化的自我追求以及让观众的情感世界享有特权的方式，以转喻、嬉戏和暂时的方式被挪用。专注于物质文化，特别是石版画、照片及其相册以及名人品牌的消费品，