The Finance of Quiet Luxury
Fashion and money always walk hand in hand. Fashion says a lot about your personality and status. From the preppy look to dark academia, the Victorian era style, oversized everything, and now comes the quiet luxury style. When you dress nice, people respect you and assume you come from money whether that is true or not. So, what does quiet luxury say about money?
What is quiet luxury?
Before we get into it, let’s get into the meaning of quiet luxury. It’s leaning towards simple, elegant, minimalistic clothing. The trend focuses on buying sophisticated, timeless pieces that would fit any time, in a way it’s a type of investment.
Think of Mark Zuckerberg, Gwyneth Paltrow during her recent ski trial or Shiv Roy’s outfits in Succession. It looks approachable, but it actually speaks volumes about finance.
The quiet luxury-finance relationship
The Speedy LV bag, the Birkin bag, Burberry’s trench coat, Versace’s Medusa head belt, and the Chanel flap bag, all of these items can be spotted from a mile away. They say that you’re an elitist, not a commoner, you’re a Serena or a Blair and certainly not a Dan (OG Gossip Girl fans would understand!) They’re also the opposite of quiet luxury.
If there was ever a slogan to sum up what quiet luxury is, it would be ‘If you got it, don’t flaunt it.’ The plain and the plaid items of this trend could be found anywhere at any store. You can get the same outfits Paltrow wore at her trial from any non-brand store, but it would never be the same. The texture, the fabric, and the details make one outfit cost over $10k and the other $100 or less.
Quiet luxury is not a new trend by any means. Its resurgence was inevitable as the world’s economy declined over time. When the 2008 recession hit the market, minimalism hit new levels. And now, it has returned for the same reason. That’s because when the majority is struggling financially, luxury out-of-reach brands know that it’s better to camouflage instead of flashing colours and logos everywhere.
The quiet luxury trend is now synonymous with wealth meanwhile, flashy colours and logos are now synonymous with “new money” and tacky. This has a classist undertone and is considered a reflection of the prejudices of the 1% so that others are deemed unworthy of the fortune even though both of them have one thing in common; wealth.