Quiet Luxury vs Stealth Wealth vs Old Money Aesthetic
BY SOPHIA TRIMBLE
Quiet luxury? Stealth wealth? Old money aesthetic? What’s the deal?
8 JAN - 2024
Delving into the online buzzwords that have caught on like wildfire.
Quiet luxury, stealth wealth, the ‘old money aesthetic’… These terms have been flung around quite liberally online over the past few months, but what do they actually mean?
These ‘aesthetics’ have been around for yonks but probably weren’t labelled like they are now, and surprise surprise, they’re having another popular surge at the moment. This increase in popularity is for a number of reasons of course, which we’ll dive into later but in the era where everything gets wrapped up nicely, with ribbon to tie it together and a giant label stuck on it, what sets them all apart?
Quiet Luxury
Quiet luxury is focussed on basic, neutral, minimalist pieces that are timeless but extremely high quality. Something I read on the internet a few weeks ago describes quiet luxury as the celebration of the beauty in restraint. I’m talking no logomania-monogram-Billie-Eilish style outfits. Quiet luxury is quite the opposite, more like the worth for wear, have-forever type of clothing. Which is incredible, don't get me wrong, but in this economy it’s not that realistic unless you’re making as much money as the celebrities and influencers who are partaking in this aesthetic.
Nothing screams quiet luxury quite like the perfect pair of white linen pants. it’s giving… just docked the yacht in Greece after a long day charting around the islands.
Stealth Wealth
A great example of someone who does stealth wealth really well is Bill Gates (or Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, or any billionaire white man for that matter). If you couldn't recognise Bill Gates' face whilst walking down the street, you’d probably have no idea that he was one of the richest people in the world - and that’s stealth wealth to a T - All these billionaire types wear pretty normal, inexpensive looking clothing when they could afford to wear a different Gucci tracksuit every single day of the year for the rest of their lives, but they want you to think they’re relatable and ordinary so they opt for a button up long sleeve and trousers, or a t-shirt and jeans.
This is what megastar Taylor Swift has been doing super well lately in her street style. It’s all very inoffensive yet still chic. Take this subtly striped button-up for example - casual but still sleek.
Of course, anything Taylor Swift wears goes out of stock instantly, so try the green colourway, it might be the only one you can get your hands on.
All these billionaire types wear pretty normal, inexpensive looking clothing when they could afford to wear a different Gucci tracksuit every single day of the year for the rest of their lives.
Old Money
The ‘old money’ aesthetic is centred around subtlety. Nobody who’s earnt their millions from get rich quick schemes can be counted, it’s more like people who have generational wealth - they were born into it and their whole bloodline won’t have to worry about money either sort of vibe. Think Sofia Richie’s wedding… I'm sure there's a cheeky Van Cleef somewhere in there, but she's certainly not flashing it around. The only thing she is flashing around is that monstrous venue, the marvellous view, and the ‘perfection’ of all of it.
When I think of ‘old money’ I think of gold, which might be why these popular gold Bottega drop earrings are circulating around the trend cosmos currently.
Now that we’ve got that covered, we can delve into why this is all coming up now. As previously mentioned, Sofia Richie’s wedding was a huge one, as well as the closing of major TV hit Succession (which is about who of four siblings will take over daddy’s very successful media company). Although there are many things influencing this ‘rich people downplaying their wealth’ era, the biggest thing we can put it all down to is the current economic state of the world - the recession.
We’ve also been seeing heaps of quiet luxury on runways this year. No huge monograms are printed on clothing very often anymore - it’s gone out of fashion - mainly because who the hell is gonna flaunt their riches whilst everyone else is living paycheck to paycheck and struggling to put food on the table.
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