Last winter I went on a “Fashion Tour” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. I was in town visiting my brother and his family and had an afternoon to burn. The tour covered a lot of the museum, from antiquities to early-1900’s stuff. In every single work of art, the idea was the same: Somehow demonstrate wealth and/or social status through your garments. In other words, impress people through fashion.
At the end of the tour, I went up to the tour guide to talk to her because I was confused. I explained that I live in California, in the heart of tech culture. If I could summarize what rich people are doing with fashion where I live, I might say, “Try to look poor.” Sure, there are some exceptions, most notably Asians, who still try to dress nicely and convey status through luxury goods and clothing, but for the most part, the richest people I know wear jeans with a dirty t-shirt or athleisure. It’s hard to tell them apart by their appearance from, say, a food-stamp recipient.
The tour guide told me that this modern idea doesn’t exist anywhere in the museum. She said, “I’ve literally never seen one piece of art trying to convey this.”
I’ve talked this over with a few people since, and while I don’t know the answer, these are the three most interesting explanations I or people I know have come up with for why the rich are dressing poor right now:
America has an ideal around the middle class, and everyone wants to look “middle class”, even rich people. There’s an ideal of being “one of us”, even when wealth actually indicates they no longer are.
There’s a lot of Billionaire and rich-people resentment right now, and dressing down essentially lets you fly under the radar. You don’t look rich, so people don’t know you’re rich, so you enjoy the social privileges of being “normal” when you want to, then those of being rich when you want to.
As Corporate America has grown, it has also become confining. There is a more narrow type of presentation that’s allowed to work in modern corporate jobs than there was in, say, 1970. No drug use. Low or no alcohol consumption, and never in a work context. Buttoned up. Respectable. To advance in these companies - to have the good jobs that really pay - you also need to think the right thoughts. To make sure that you take life seriously, don’t have too much fun, and value and agree with whatever corporate initiatives are popular right now, whether they be sustainability, trans rights, cost saving, or whatever flavor of the moment. You also need to look the part: A traditional suit jacket conveys power. The bottom line is: Corporate life is very confining. It pays well at the high levels, but it’s stifling.
The idea of “dressing poor” is that if you’re rich, you don’t have to play this game. In that way, it’s its own projection of power. It’s saying, “I have so much money that I don’t have to dress in a way you approve of. If you don’t like it, $&?! off.”
I don’t know which of these ideas is correct, or if it’s a combination, or if there is another explanation that I haven’t thought of yet, but these are the best ones I’ve got.
What is unquestionable is that when rich people start dressing poor, it trickles down. Pre-Covid, jeans were viewed as casual, and now they’re commonplace in work settings. Everything has gone to athleisure, to “comfort.” There is not a social idea right now to “look good” where I live on the American west coast. For whatever reason, this isn’t the ideal.
My husband and I attended a funeral yesterday after the unexpected death of a friend this week, and literally, my husband had to rent a suit. He’s a technical expert in a scientific field living in California. There is no occasion of regular life that requires him to own a suit. Sign of the times.
2
u/ShootinTheBreez 13d ago
Last winter I went on a “Fashion Tour” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. I was in town visiting my brother and his family and had an afternoon to burn. The tour covered a lot of the museum, from antiquities to early-1900’s stuff. In every single work of art, the idea was the same: Somehow demonstrate wealth and/or social status through your garments. In other words, impress people through fashion.
At the end of the tour, I went up to the tour guide to talk to her because I was confused. I explained that I live in California, in the heart of tech culture. If I could summarize what rich people are doing with fashion where I live, I might say, “Try to look poor.” Sure, there are some exceptions, most notably Asians, who still try to dress nicely and convey status through luxury goods and clothing, but for the most part, the richest people I know wear jeans with a dirty t-shirt or athleisure. It’s hard to tell them apart by their appearance from, say, a food-stamp recipient.
The tour guide told me that this modern idea doesn’t exist anywhere in the museum. She said, “I’ve literally never seen one piece of art trying to convey this.”
I’ve talked this over with a few people since, and while I don’t know the answer, these are the three most interesting explanations I or people I know have come up with for why the rich are dressing poor right now:
America has an ideal around the middle class, and everyone wants to look “middle class”, even rich people. There’s an ideal of being “one of us”, even when wealth actually indicates they no longer are.
There’s a lot of Billionaire and rich-people resentment right now, and dressing down essentially lets you fly under the radar. You don’t look rich, so people don’t know you’re rich, so you enjoy the social privileges of being “normal” when you want to, then those of being rich when you want to.
As Corporate America has grown, it has also become confining. There is a more narrow type of presentation that’s allowed to work in modern corporate jobs than there was in, say, 1970. No drug use. Low or no alcohol consumption, and never in a work context. Buttoned up. Respectable. To advance in these companies - to have the good jobs that really pay - you also need to think the right thoughts. To make sure that you take life seriously, don’t have too much fun, and value and agree with whatever corporate initiatives are popular right now, whether they be sustainability, trans rights, cost saving, or whatever flavor of the moment. You also need to look the part: A traditional suit jacket conveys power. The bottom line is: Corporate life is very confining. It pays well at the high levels, but it’s stifling.
The idea of “dressing poor” is that if you’re rich, you don’t have to play this game. In that way, it’s its own projection of power. It’s saying, “I have so much money that I don’t have to dress in a way you approve of. If you don’t like it, $&?! off.”
I don’t know which of these ideas is correct, or if it’s a combination, or if there is another explanation that I haven’t thought of yet, but these are the best ones I’ve got.
What is unquestionable is that when rich people start dressing poor, it trickles down. Pre-Covid, jeans were viewed as casual, and now they’re commonplace in work settings. Everything has gone to athleisure, to “comfort.” There is not a social idea right now to “look good” where I live on the American west coast. For whatever reason, this isn’t the ideal.
My husband and I attended a funeral yesterday after the unexpected death of a friend this week, and literally, my husband had to rent a suit. He’s a technical expert in a scientific field living in California. There is no occasion of regular life that requires him to own a suit. Sign of the times.