how do rich people actually dress?

- This video was brought to you by Squarespace, an all-in-one platform to build your brand and grow your online business. Hello, hello, my name is Mina. Welcome to my channel and if you're a returning viewer, you're probably wondering what this outfit is. Honestly, I try to

dress

a little depending on the topic at hand, but today we're going to talk about quiet luxury and stealth wealth. And I was looking at my closet this morning and I thought, I don't think I can achieve this aesthetic category. So yeah, this is exactly what we're going to work with today.

I did incorporate fitted pants. Obviously, I styled it in a way that no one on "Succession" would ever style their clothes. - I heard you made a huge mistake. - Yeah, also, if you're wondering why I'm wearing a white bra under a black top, it's because I don't have a black bra, because I don't really wear bras and I only have this vintage La. White Perla bra top that I really like. Anyway, I wanted to make a video about personal wealth and quiet luxury, because in a couple of the podcast episodes I've referenced, I've had little conversations about it, but I haven't built a full video.

And so, because a lot of

people

have been talking about this online, because everyone has this hypothesis that minimalism is hot now and maximalism is fading away, I thought it would be a good opportunity to really dig in and also take You all are with me. Thank you Squarespace for sponsoring this video. Something very interesting about Squarespace is the different website templates that are organized according to what you want from your website. You can also customize its appearance and add features to fit your unique needs. You can also use your email campaigns to introduce your brand, your work or yourself to send welcome emails to subscribers or you can even send announcements of upcoming sales or inform your top clients of the discount code.

Whatever the case, Squarespace has built-in analytics, measuring the impact of everything you send. If you're an artist or content creator, you can present your work using Squarespace's professional portfolio layouts, so you can showcase customizable projects and galleries, and even add password-protected pages to share private work with clients only. Visit squarespace.com for a free trial, and when you're ready to launch, go to squarespace.com/minale to get 10% off your first website or domain purchase. So, let's start in the early 2000s. In the early 2000s, the major fashion trends of the time revolved around jewelry, logos, bold colors, and maximum style.

Christina Binkley, who covers fashion for the Wall Street Journal, told Vox: "People were drenched in gold. There was jewelry, clothes, accessories, fashion had been very loud and it was a big party. But then that literally changed from the overnight." ". - Lehman Brothers is going bankrupt. - The signs were everywhere, but now it's official: we are in recession. - Tough times are ahead. - The traditional definition of a recession is two quarters of economic contraction or lack of growth. - The recession hit in 2008 and things took a turn. And although the lifestyles of members of the ultra-

rich

class didn't really change with the recession, they still chose to

dress

in less luxurious ways, because being loud and proud of how much money was particularly clumsy, when literally the rest of the world was suffering.

Ron Frasch, who was president and chief merchandising officer of Saks Fifth Avenue in the late 2000s, noticed that wealthier shoppers were still buying luxury items during the recession, but there was opposition to items that had visible logos. And also in the face of economic uncertainty, simplicity and neutrality became safer bets for designers. For example, Phoebe Philo, Celine's creative director from 2008 to 2018, rose to fame for her understated but still expensive designs. The colors also reflected this new minimalism. In 2008, black, grey, navy blue and white dominated fashion shows more than ever. For those affected by the recession, fast fashion and thrifting became important ways to look stylish while staying on budget.

People wanted to dress cheap, but they also didn't want to look cheap. So that's when the concept of high-low dressing really became fashionable. And I was very young during the recession. He was not very young, he was 10 years old. I think I was 10 during the recession and too young to recognize what was really happening in the economy. But I will say that I really liked reading the fashion magazines that my mother collected. And I remember in those fashion magazines from 2008 there were tons of articles and advice columns about how to mix and match designer pieces with pieces from H&M or Zara.

In her book "Dress Code: Unlocking Fashion from New Look to Millennial Pink," Elle fashion features director Veronique Hyland writes: "High and low first became a personal style directive and then more of an order to the strivers. Millennial women entering the workforce "During the recession were advised to emulate a proper professional look by mixing fast fashion items, often runway knockoffs, with investment pieces in a time when investments of all kinds seemed precarious." Typically, the investment pieces these magazine articles would suggest you buy were handbags or accessories like sunglasses or jewelry, because these items are the most worn and rotated in their day-to-day dressing.

And 2008 wasn't

actually

the first time high-low dressing was introduced. In a 1974 essay titled Recession Dressing. Fashion writer Kennedy Frazier wrote: "The old interest in the cautious principle of spending more on fewer and better quality clothes. In the years following the recession, startups adopted minimalist logo design. Then Glossier and Warby Parker come to mind. The reason these companies in the 2010s leaned so heavily toward sans serif fonts and white space is because they were markedly different from the clunky logos of large corporations. Leo Wang, CEO of comfort startup Buffy, said: "That first generation of direct-to-consumer successes started in that post-recession moment.

It's about value, honesty, transparency of the economy and getting a good deal. Everything "I felt very present in the clients' minds. They had been ripped off by American companies." So today I definitely feel like the whole minimalist graphic design has faltered, because Gen Z prefers a more curvaceous, fun, bubbly type of graphic design in their products. And part of that definitely It's because graphic design trends come and go. But also what I've noticed is that a lot of big companies like Coca-Cola or Pepsi or these big corporations that have been big for a long time, they used to have very graphic designs and logos. clumsy, they have all simplified their designs to suit these millennial startups and therefore the entire design aesthetic has become washed out and unreliable.

For now, the current economic situation in the United States is a bit dire. As I have That said, we've been in this era of impending recession for a while now, but also companies are downsizing,

people

are being laid off en masse, housing prices are becoming increasingly unaffordable, and writers are on strike, so that things are not looking very good. At the same time, the pendulum seems to be swinging back toward minimalism. For example, during awards season earlier this year, fans noticed a lack of jewelry on the red carpet. More specifically, many celebrities were missing necklaces while wearing low-neck dresses that looked like they were crying out for a necklace.

Trend forecaster Delaney Bryant suggested that this was all intentional and predicted that it was

actually

a sign of economic recession. Hence the term recession core emerges as a trend. Other TikTok trend predictions anticipate a move toward larger bags, fewer accessories, repeat outfits, and androgyny. Plus messy hair and makeup that ooze utilitarian practicality. The tendency to disinfluence, that is, to share overrated products that you don't think are worth it, also speaks to a core recession mentality. - You don't need this product from Amazon. This is very unnecessary. - Trend forecasters expect the resin jewelry and checkerboard prints of recent years to gradually disappear, while versatile, minimalist brands such as The Row and Khaite are expected to attract more and more fans.

And as I said in the last few years, but especially in the last few months, we've seen terms like quiet luxury, stealth wealth, and old money. These are all supposed designations for how the dress, ease, luxury, and stealth wealth of the

rich

are used interchangeably. Although Laura Jackson and Joy Montgomery define quiet luxury as a more aesthetic category. They write for Vogue: "Quiet luxury is a low-key approach to luxury. It's less austere than minimalism, but more polished than Normcore. It's Sienna Miller in Anatomy of a Scandal and the Olsen Twins out of order. It's Hermes battered.

A Kelly bag or a Max Mara coat over a pair of vintage jeans." Eva Wiseman defined stealth wealth for The Guardian by focusing on specific materials and small details in clothing. She writes: "Stealth wealth is the name given to the clothes worn by the extremely rich. Very fine wolves and oversized navy or gray coats, tiny purses, whites so bright they are almost blue. A thousand shades of camel, a whole caravan of them, a palette that whispers flavor with a slight lisp. Logos are replaced by secret codes, a clever little stitch on the hem or a hoodie made of cashmere." So it seems that quiet luxury is a casual, effortless style that is expensive.

It is more of an aesthetic category, while stealth wealth is a more purposeful initiative to portray wealth through secret dress codes. Again, I don't want to get too caught up in those definitions, because they're used pretty much interchangeably again and there's a lot of overlap between the two. On the other hand, old money, which I made an entire video about, is a distilled version of preppy fashion. It's a Pinterest aesthetic that takes influence from country club attire, Riviera vacation wardrobes, and Upper East Side private school uniforms. Ralph Lauren's classic "The Talented Mr. Ripley" ads and old Hollywood icons like Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn seem ever-present on the mood boards.

Old money as aesthetics is rarely applied to the actual old money establishment. It's a romantic idea of ​​how they dress leaning heavily on vintage style, including elements of old-school tennis suits, stylish headscarves, and white suits. I feel like the old money aesthetic peaked on social media between 2021 and 2022. And in fact, since 2021, I'd say there's been less attention paid to aesthetics in general, but that's another video. Quiet luxury and stealth wealth, on the other hand, supposedly represent the taste of today's rich and have gained popularity as phenomena. Mainly due to the central style of Gwyneth Paltrow's Court and the TV show "Succession." I already made a whole video about Gwyneth Paltrow.

So let's talk about "succession." "Succession" brought the concept of stealth wealth into public discourse through its costume design, each character is meticulously dressed to reveal her economic status. For example, the image- and power-obsessed Roy family wears the most offensively expensive and offensively boring clothes you can imagine. The heir to the family empire, Kendall Roy, is famous for wearing a baseball cap. The cap is plain black, made from a cashmere blend and produced by Italian knitwear brand Loro Piana. It also sells for the low cost of $625. Despite the price, there's nothing that really sets this hat apart, at least aesthetically, and it's a little boring, not going to lie.

Bridget's character is ridiculed by character Tom Wambsgams, who married into the Roy family for carrying a ridiculously spacious purse. Through this fashion faux pas, Bridget immediately marked herself as an outsider in this exclusive world. - What's in there, huh? Flat shoes for the subway, her pale lunch. I mean, Greg, it's monstrous, it's gigantic. You could take it camping, you could slide it across the floor after a job at the bank. -Also, I have no idea if I pronounced that character's name correctly, because I haven't actually seen "Succession." I just keep up with all this cultural discourse about it, because I like to stay up to date with that kind of stuff.

But yeah, I haven't seen it. I'm planningdo it at some point, but probably not before the series ends. The ultra-rich, of course, really need to carry anything, hence the inquiry into the size of this bag. However, that is not the only problem. The bag is covered in a distinctive print that is obviously reminiscent of Burberry. Even without an actual logo, it falls under logomania. Even though this bag is actually very expensive, selling online for over £2,500, the Roy family find it cheap because it is eye-catching and eye-catching. - Everyone laughs out loud at your quote. - This is just the most viral example of the show's costumes, but actually the entire show has received high praise, especially this last season.

In an interview with Refinery29, costume designer Michelle Matlin explained her process. "In the early stages, we spent a lot of time researching not only magazines and online, but also physically visiting restaurants, corporate offices and the like. We spent months finding out who these people are so we could be as authentic and real as possible and tell the story we were trying to tell." - I know you. - So you know what's funny? For most of history, the general consensus was that the ultra-rich were obsessed with displaying their status loudly and proudly. But everything changed when the Industrial Revolution allowed a rising bourgeois class to earn even more exorbitant amounts of money than the old nobility.

Enter economist Thorstein Veblen, who coined the term conspicuous consumption to illustrate what was happening in 1899. Veblen believed that the nouveau riche engaged in extravagant spending to elevate themselves to the same status as the old monetary establishment. A process defined as pecuniary emulation. Therefore, the only way these established wealthy families could differentiate themselves from these newcomers was by displaying better taste in the types of things they would consume. So instead of buying anything, they had to cultivate higher levels of cultural and intellectual capital. It's also worth noting that a mania for logos and flashy clothing have long been hallmarks of black urban street culture.

Even during the antebellum period in the South, there are traveler accounts noting how the black Americans who lived there dressed more colorfully and extravagantly than the white Americans who lived there. And of course, Dapper Dan, the father of locomania, introduced heavily monogrammed designs in the 1980s, which became a mainstay of luxury streetwear. So since there are definitely racist implications as to why risqué clothing and maximalism are coded as being in bad taste. However, the irony behind quiet luxury is that rich people who engage in it apparently do so because they feel secure enough in their own wealth to not feel like they have to prove anything to anyone.

But the people who are on TikTok actively trying to find tips on how to emulate the quiet luxury style are doing so because they want to impress people. On TikTok, you can find hundreds of videos explaining why the 1% dress a certain way and style tutorials for placing a husband above your social standing or manifesting a wealthier lifestyle. In some ways, stealth wealth has become a trend in itself. As Amanda Mull reports for The Atlantic: "Suddenly, more affordable stores like H&M and Zara are selling nondescript, generously cut pants, oversized button-down shirts, double-breasted blazers, and grandpa loafers.

Fashion website Hypebeast quotes by Counts 1.4 billion views for stealth wealth meaning on TikTok as evidence that kids are really dying to save up and wrap themselves in cashmere or, more likely, buy cheap knit blends." Many people who are attracted to this style like to defend it in any way they can to justify why they want to dress like this. They will say that quiet luxury is more practical for everyday use. It's more comfortable because the fabrics are nicer, you're investing in basic clothing and therefore you're more eco-cautious and don't play with little social cues like logos.

But none of those things are necessarily true. Many rich people, even like rich old rich people, dress horribly. They have really horrible style, okay? Not everyone is Gwyneth Paltrow. They don't exist as a monolith either, right? Some of them really use a lot of logos and many of them use impractical and wasteful things. When I was doing my interview with Ryan and we were talking about all the quiet luxury, I asked him what he thought quiet luxury really was. And what we realized in that episode is that it is more of a sensitivity than the presentation.

I feel like there are certain social codes that a lot of wealthy people participate in, like the way they talk and certain behaviors that extend far beyond clothing. And it's all kind of a reflection of going to these specific private schools, prep schools, and growing up in these types of communities. These are things that cannot be replicated with a Bruno Cucinelli jersey. Ultimately, the idea of ​​a rich person's uniform is a mythology created by people who aspire to be rich. And I can understand why people do this. It makes the rich seem easier to crack and it makes people who want to be part of this group and this lifestyle feel that if they just crack the secret code, if they can buy a beautifully knit cashmere sweater, then maybe they can sneak in . to the upper levels of society and maybe just maybe they can rise up and belong.

It all goes back to the baby of the American dream. As if the American dream was the reason for all this kind of dysfunction. - This is the American dream. - The essence of the American dream. - I know the answer to this. -If you are not American, the American dream is that idea that has been transmitted to our brains since we were babies: that the United States is a meritocracy. And if you just work hard, if you just, what is that phrase? Raise your boots, raise your boots, something with your boots. If you just take them and put your all into your work, you could be the next Jeff Bezos.

It has nothing to do with generational wealth or the fact that many of these rich people have connections that get them to where they are. As Jake Silbert writes for Highsnobierty: "These deeply wealthy people are worshiped like gods in popular culture." Elon Musk's hilarious memes are adored by his cult fandom and Steve Jobs' Normcore uniform is perpetually imitated by aspiring geniuses looking to become the next tech auteur. But sometimes we need to ask ourselves, we really need to sit down and ask ourselves: do we want to aspire to be these people? Do we want to belong to the people who are doing the most when it comes to environmental destruction?

Do we want to be with people who fly to private islands? While the rest of us remained masked in quarantine, the people who hoarded their money instead of using it to improve society in some measurable way? Wiseman criticizes: "Buying stealth wealth is like buying a band's t-shirt, except the band is the worst people in the world and the t-shirt costs the same as a month's rent. And the music is 'they laugh while they scream' Each one a shit car. With the greatest respect, no, thank you." So we've talked about 2008 and the impending recession. And I feel like if we look at both moments in a vacuum, it's easy to come to the conclusion that recessions lead to minimalism, but that's not always the case.

For example, when we had a bit of a recession during quarantine, people focused on DIY maximalism in 2020 as a form of escapism and as crafting grew in popularity. Also during the Great Depression, middle and lower class women also engaged in cunning, as exemplified by sack dresses. If you don't know what a feed sack dress is, these are dresses that are literally made from cloth sacks that were used to package shipped goods like flour and animal feed. Rural women began making clothing from leftover sacks to save money in the early 20th century, but during the Depression, the practice had spread to the rest of the country, because buying bolts of fabric was very expensive in comparison.

So, as sewing dresses out of fabric sacks became more popular, companies realized that the look of their sacks could be a big selling point for their products. Companies like Gingham Girl Flour packaged their products in quality clothing fabrics and used them in sacks as a point of sale. Trade organizations also sponsored feed sack displays and manufacturers even went so far as to hire designers to ensure that the prints and patterns on these feed sacks were fashionable and desirable to today's women. So if you look at some photos of sack dresses, some of them are quite maximized with elegant prints.

And when it comes to rich people, we have to understand that movies were a huge industry in the 1930s, and many people went to the movies as a way to escape difficult economic times. And so a lot of these movies at the time had to do with rags and riches or were just pure fun and escapism like the Ginger Roger and Fred Astaire collaborations. And of course, the dresses that appeared in these films tended to be very elaborate, very luxurious, and fed into the romantic fantasy that many working-class women had. And because fashion trends have always had this kind of close relationship with movies, but especially in the early 20th century, some of the fashion trends of the 1930s were quite maximalist.

However, I must add that in real life, the rich still threw lavish parties and balls as a way to lighten the mood, sporting expensive fur coats and all. And the working class was stunned to see these ultimate displays of wealth in real life, leading to many class conflicts, especially in the form of violent worker strikes and a push for unionization. But anyway, the thing is, an economic downturn doesn't necessarily mean people are going to mix up their wardrobes. One thing that is consistent, however, is that the rich will always dress in a way that is coded as rich, even if we can't necessarily know it immediately from the start.

So, for example, although we like to think that the rich throughout history have always dressed flashily in long, colorful velvet robes and flashy jewelry, this has not always been the case. During the Dutch Golden Age in the 17th century, a period of economic prosperity in the Netherlands, hence the term Golden Age. The new wealthy merchant class followed a Protestant sensibility of wearing simple, muted colors, but in reality their clothing It was still very expensive. We can take a look at the portrait of Cornelius Munter made by Nicholas Maes in 1679. Charlotte Higgins wrote for The Guardian that despite his simplistic cut, the jacket Cornelius wears is actually very luxurious.

She writes: "It is a wonderful garment, a true fashion statement, a Japanese quilted jacket that, according to curator Betsey Wieseman, is shantung silk. These jackets were incredibly difficult to obtain. In fact, you could only get one." "If you had connections to the powerful Dutch East India Company. It was the IT jacket and getting one is not just about being rich, it's also about connecting with the right people." Wieseman also notes that it was a deeply utilitarian item, as all that comfortable padding was ideal for frosty Dutch mornings. Very comfortable, like many of these high-end cashmere fabrics today, very modest in the sense that it is not a flashy item, but still very expensive for those in the know.

So, as I said, the reason why these Dutch merchants dressed more simply compared to, say, their French counterparts is because of their Protestant beliefs. And although now I would say that many rich people are not necessarily religious in that sense, the way they dress still reflects the kind of values ​​they have. Then we can look at tech bros actually. - And so how do you monetize these hobbies? What did you call them hobbies? - No no no no no NO NO. - And I know that tech bros are more like a new wealthy class. There are definitely some techs who come from wealth, but the industry as a whole is all about new money.

They are still rich people and their way of dressing conveys their beliefs. The tech bros' uniform is usually a common type of clothing of jeans and hoodies, but with subtle nods to their wealth with expensive watches and company insignia on their t-shirts. This newly confused class is strategically displaying their growing wealth while making sure to project the values ​​they wish to be associated with: nerdy intelligence, privileged to not care about fashion, and all-consuming hard work. - Oh,shit. - Oh, Ricardo. - I mean, Steve Jobs supposedly wore a black turtleneck every day to reduce decision fatigue.

And decision fatigue is the paralysis you experience when you're inundated with too many options. AKA me every time I see a menu that is more than two pages long. So quiet luxury, although it has a reputation for not showing off its wealth, actually does. He just does it in a different way. It does it through codes and meanings, but it still does it. And I think the reason it's popular now is for a number of reasons, not just because of the economic recession, but also because the pendulum always likes to swing between maximalism and minimalism and we just had this period of maximalism, so people are is getting tired and is now leaning towards minimalism.

But nothing has really changed. In the 2010s, people were still trying to emulate the rich. They were trying to emulate the Kardashians with the logo mania and ostentatious display of wealth. It wasn't seen as flashy at the time, because the whole idea of ​​influencing and that whole industry was new. But I think generally when something has been in the mainstream for too long, people get tired of it and want something different. Well, with that being said, thank you all so much for listening to me ramble on about this topic. Please let me know your thoughts on quiet luxury and stealth wealth and even the aesthetics of old money.

I feel like she died, she's no longer with us, but I always have a soft spot for her, because I love the skimpy tennis outfits and private school dress codes. But yes, I would love to know your opinions and if you want the longer version of this video, I will publish an episode accompanied by a podcast on Wednesday. And yes, see you next time and I hope you have a happy rest of the day, bye.