Peacock

Victorian courtesan who made spectacle and luxury her life's art.

Cora Pearl was one of the most celebrated grandes horizontales of 19th-century Paris, renowned for her outrageous self-promotion, extravagant lifestyle, and theatrical flair — she once famously had herself served on a silver platter at a dinner party. She cultivated her image obsessively, dyeing her hair, wearing shocking colours, and engineering publicity stunts to remain the centre of attention among the wealthiest men in Europe. Her entire identity was a performance of glamour and display, making the peacock — vain, spectacular, and utterly deliberate in its beauty — the natural fit.