Old Money Is The Stupidest Trend…Or Is It?

Old money, stealth wealth, quiet luxury. Dressing rich is making people roll their eyes right now, but is there anything we can learn about people's refreshed desire for trend-immune, high-quality clothing with minimal branding or logos?

Ft. brands like Loro Piana, Brunello Cucuinelli and Celine to create luxury looks repopularised by Succession and TikTok content.

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Persona 5 OST

[penguinnoscatto]

I want my bank account to do the billionaire cosplay

[lophiiformed]

Buying high quality timeless pieces so you can wear them for years and be all sustainable n shit: Yes
Buying high quality timeless pieces for the aesthetic and throwing them in a landfill when the trend dies: No
Buying cheap imitations of high quality pieces so future generations can eat more microplastics: NO

[shefk]

I'm a middle class woman in my 20s who just prefers neutral colours and the timeless looks ( easy to style, looks neat and professional). So seeing my personal style become this "trend" and associated with " looking rich " has been bizarre.

One can do the rich cosplay all they want, in the end they're spending precious money on designer bags or wardrobe for a trend they might ditch very soon.

[jessicabrewer]

The ultimate old money shoes, belts, and handbags are craftsmen made leather goods that you bought on your trip to Italy. It's not about the brand. It's about quality.

[alex_hunter]

I see nothing wrong with this "trend". It brings people in to Classic Men's wear. In addition to this young people finally start to invest in high quality garments an accessories that will last them a long time. And since you re dressing timeless you can wear them for years to come.

[npc]

For me the "Old Money" Aesthetic just doesn't do it for me. I am an apprentice watchmaker in switzerland and work with crazy rich people. They most often don't care about aesthetics, fashion etc... Yes they wear expensive, well-made clothing. But no one rich, actually looks like the "old money" Tiktok fashion.

[jessicabrewer]

The old money aesthetic is good (if you do it properly) in the way it rejects fast fashion and promotes an active lifestyle. It's more sustainable as long as you're actually buying quality items and dont just move on to the next microtrends.

[WinderTP]

I am still waiting for the day when fashion enthusiats would finally make the "nerdy IT wagie" aesthetic into its own core so I can unapolegetically wear my crumply uniqlo shirts and chinos outside and be seen as a fashion icon

[TheGreatDefective]

"Old Money" fashion is a bit bizarre to me. Quite a lot of it is just wearing Polo, Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, etc. - which to me is just standard middle class office worker clothing. But going beyond that into Loro Piana, Goyard, etc., is just trying too hard, because the real billionaires are mainly just dressed like the middle class office workers anyway.

[tekufu]

Personally, I think "Old Money" and Workwear are two side of the same Preppy coin. Especially, when it comes to buying less and and getting the most bang for you buck. They both can be smashed together to make a cohesive look and it would just look like something from the 1950's, but somewhere down they line they just went down two paths.

[unproductiveworkshop]

Antwon, you've been delivering some serious heavy hitters lately. I subscribed a year ago for your techwear content when I bought my pair of Acronym Blazers. Now in my second year of being into fashion, I get to learn from your takes on style philosophy and contemporary fashion culture!! You're one of the few I know doing deep dives into these kinds of questions, so keep it coming!!

[hugoeekhout]

Being from an old money family myself, my experience is that a lot of old money folks arent that rich anymore and are just working normal jobs. They're still middle/upper class but its miles away from how it was 100 years ago or so. Only thing left is traditions like dresscode, family paintings and parties with people from similar background.

[Jays-Dream]

What I find interesting about fashion Tiktok trends is to see how they evolve.
The Old Money tag now has a lot more trendy looks in it than in the beginning. And the more people try to replicate and join the "trend", the more distorted it becomes from the original.
I think its similar with techwear actually. The original niche got more and more popular, people added their own ideas and now the techwear tag online is pretty far removed from what the original niche used to look like. So its a lot harder to find actual techwear without stumbling across dropshippers. But I actually dont mind the diverging directions the style has taken. Darkwear and warcore are valid styles to have. I just wish they were labeled as they are, without using the term techwear for false advertisement.
Similar to the old money thing tho, they are not what the original techwear aesthetic is and its blurring the lines.

[DarkMuj]

Brother I’m really enjoying the more “social analysis” type content of late. Feels like this channel is really growing beyond techwear, while retaining its roots. Great job. Maybe a future topic could be about how techwear was actually the first truly “internet powered” subculture because it wasn’t tied to a location / profession / geographical area at all. Just a random thought I had, haven’t actually looked into it.

[lucakoselj]

Imagine paying 430 bucks for a 100% cotton baseball cap. Holy heck, where did it all go wrong….

[connorwebb]

I feel like the old money trend is much more appealing to Americans than Europeans. For Americans it's like 'wow they look so classy and European' whereas as a Brit it makes me think 'wow they look like a Tory c**t'

[mariek.]

Beau Brummell's "“the maximum of luxury in the service of minimal ostentation” summarized the old money aesthetic two centuries in advance, it's so interesting how that wish for craftmanship over flashiness is not always popular, but never really leaves the social consciousness !

[cole_etch]

I find the old money trend particularly funny because there were two very distinct groups of kids in my high school where one was trying hard as hell to pull off the old money look while the other was trying to drip in Supreme.
I think it's weird that this trend has basically distorted in the exact same way that it kind of started tastefully but then people started flexing the price tag of their shirts and belts.
It's just another trend and I feel like I'm aging backwards witnessing this trend live again not even a decade after it was a thing in my local area. Even funnier is seeing my former classmates switch camps just for the trends online as if they weren't gatekeeping the exact same things not that long ago.

[do]

I switched all my tshirts to shirts this year. People treat me differently, they are a bit nicer to me. Also, more people ask me for money on the street

[Alithia]

Funny, I switched from streetwear to shirts, chinos, ties, blazers and sport jackets