Actress Gwyneth Paltrow enters a courtroom for her trial in Park City, Utah, March 24, 2023.
Rick Bowmer | Getty Images
What is quiet luxury?
Marked by expensive materials in muted tones, quiet luxury, also known as secret wealthis “a total lack of logos and anything too flashy,” said Thomaï Serdari, professor of marketing and director of the fashion and luxury program at NYU’s Stern School of Business.
“Luxury brands rely on the quality of the materials and have techniques that are very specific to them,” she said, such as cut, stitching, or other small details that only someone very familiar with the item would recognize. “This is becoming a distinguishing mark for those in the know,” Serdari said.
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For her daily courtroom appearances, Paltrow wore high-end brands like Celine and The Row along with $1,450 black Prada shoes and carried a $325 Smythson laptop in company blue.
“We have access to these semi-private moments and want to replicate their style,” Serdari said.
Actress Gwyneth Paltrow leaves the courtroom in which she is accused in a lawsuit that she bumped into Terry Sanderson during a family ski vacation in 2016, Park City, Utah, March 21, 2023.
Rick Bowmer | Afp | Getty Images
Of course, understated luxury is nothing new.
On my heels financial crisis“People who had money wanted to be a little more subdued,” Serdari said. In the decade and a half since then, fashion has become bigger and bolder, she added.
Now the style of stealth-wealth has been reborn, because the economic situation of Americans has changed after the so-called in a K shape the recovery left the wealthiest Americans even better off than before.
This time, however, there is an even more understated undertone, despite the higher price.
One of the central characters of “Succession” even mocks him a tartan Burberry bag that retails for $2,890he called the luxury bag “ridiculously roomy.”
How to get the stealth-rich look for less money
Can the typical American afford a $600 cashmere Loro Piana baseball cap like the one worn on “Succession”? “I really doubt it,” Serdari said.
Fortunately, the quiet luxury trend is less about buying the exact item and more about replicating the look with clothes that fit well, in neutral tones or monochrome, she said.
Carolyn McClanahancertified financial planner and founder of Life Planning Partners in Jacksonville, Fla., suggests buying a few staples, like a coat or purse, on sale or at your local consignment store and pairing them with less expensive jeans and T-shirts from target or Walmart — as well as Roman Roy in the last season of “Succession”.
This type of quiet luxury, without brands and logos, is “overdue,” added McClanahan, who is also a member CNBC Advisory Board.
As economy slows down and steadily inflation With many Americans feeling overstretched, it’s time to move away from the “keeping up with the Joneses” mentality.
“Find quality things that last a lot longer — that’s better than disposable pieces,” McClanahan said.