Newsweek’s July double issue has an interesting article about the current trend in upscale circles towards secrecy and discretion. Although it’s not too difficult to realize that true class is not the showing off of one’s money, the message is finally hitting home as more and more people are opting for tasteful elegance over yacht-sized extravagance. Could the reason it’s happening so late in the game be because cosmopolitan city-dwellers are realizing that they frequently appear rather excessive and ridiculous (e.g. Hilton and co.)?
This is good news, however, because the hotspots are no longer the celebrity clubs endlessly hyped up on E!, but smaller, nameless spaces with amazing cocktails and secretive, sexy atmospheres.
In a similar move, logos have become so ubiquitous in fashion that many of the wealthy are employing designers who have completely dropped such a seemingly self-congratulatory display, such as the pristinely unheard of Bottega Veneta, the world’s “most luxurious brand”. All this and more gets discussed in Newsweek’s excellent article. Definitely a real trend worth keeping your eyes on.
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but how does this fit into a world view?
June 28th, 2007 at 7:09 pm
Not to be desparaging but this is seriously old news. There is no finally about it. Venetta isn’t all that obscure either. This is an old and much studied factor of human society. New money has always had something to prove. Old money has more often had something to hide. Especially from those outside their peer groups. Its an interesting article but it isn’t a trend.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bourgeois
August 28th, 2007 at 3:40 pm