Anna Delvey – On Faking Cultural Capital

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In Pierre Bourdieu’s 1986 work The Forms of Capital, he outlines how capital may determine an individual or an institution's social position. He defines the three major forms of capital as economic, social, and cultural capital (Bourdieu. 1986). When all of these have been acquired, one may achieve symbolic capital, which is defined in terms of fame and widespread recognition. These forms of capital may be inherited by means of nepotism, for example having wealthy or famous parents. In other cases, one may have to endure many years of hard work to achieve capital and success in the social sphere. However, the phenomenon and fraud of Anna Delvey suggest that these forms of capital can be imitated and artificially acquired. 


Anna Delvey posed as a millionaire German heiress and scammed many of the New York elite, eventually being incarcerated for her crimes. Her crimes include her not paying for private jets, defrauding luxury hotels, as well as convincing her bank to give her a $100,000 line of credit, which she had no intention to repay (Mackelden. 2022). The 2022 Netflix series Inventing Anna, starring Jennifer Garner, delivered Delvey’s unusual story to viewers globally. The socialite scammer’s real surname is Sorokin and her Russian father worked as a truck driver. Delvey’s whole façade was based on her supposedly having a wealthy father who provided her with a multi-million-dollar trust fund. Her most successful scam was securing a $22 million loan for her gallery space called The Anna Delvey Foundation (Plinth. 2022). 

 

Delvey was able to commit such extravagant crimes through her manipulation of the forms of capital. She prioritised networking and gaining recognition amongst the Manhattan elite, dressed only in the most prominent and expensive designer clothes, and stayed in prestigious luxury hotels. Delvey saw the forms of capital as something that could be manipulated and artificially acquired. By manipulating the social values of the elite, Delvey climbed her way to the top of the social ladder and achieved the forms of capital which brought her success prior to her downfall. She faked her embodied and economic capital as a trust fund heiress to acquire her assets. By pertaining to the habitus of the elite, she wore only expensive designer items and associated herself with institutions and brands associated with luxury. By participating in this form of objectified capital, she assimilated into a culture of wealth and could manipulate the agents within this field. The way in which her fraudulent actions went unnoticed for so long suggests the societal acceptance of the forms of capital as an outright form of value and validity. 

 

Viewers of the Netflix show, myself included, were fascinated at the manipulation of elitist spaces by a person of a normal background. Perhaps the exposition of these social spheres as fickle spaces was cathartic for some. Delvey sold her story to Netflix for $320,000 (Mackelden. 2022) whilst increasing her symbolic capital, as her name became infamous amongst viewers. The curious and controversial case of Anna Delvey implies that our forms of cultural capital can often dictate how we are perceived, the opportunities we are given, and our acceptance in certain social spheres. 

 

 

 

 

Bibliography

 

Bourdieu, P. 1986. The Forms of Capital, In J. Richardson (Ed.) Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education. New York, Greenwood. Available at:https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/fr/bourdieu-forms-capital.htm[Accessed 8th January 2023]

 

Inventing Anna. 2022. Directed by Shonda Rhimes [Netflix].

Mackelden. A. 2022. Anna Delvey Is So Much More than a "Fake German Heiress". Available at: https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/film-tv/a38994142/who-is-anna-delvey-sorokin-fake-german-heiress/ [Accessed 8th January 2023]

Plinth. 2022. How Artists are Reinventing Anna. Available at: https://plinth.uk.com/blogs/in-the-studio-with/interview-the-artists-inventing-anna-delvey [Accessed 8th January 2023]





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