It is a truth universally acknowledged (Veblen, Bourdieu) that during periods of instability, subtle codes tend to replace overt symbols as the dominant form of signaling status.
We saw this with the rise of “quiet luxury,” in what I’ll chalk up to everyone’s post pandemy + geopolitical CRISES galore + layoffs + inflation/are we entering a recession mania of 2022-2024…. Here, culture (deludedly) repackaged 90s minimalism + waspy functionalism (ask someone’s titled granddad why he wears those elbow patches) into something commodifiable as a “trend”.
Hilariously, a bifurcated class war also occurred. While the algo-driven masses fought over cream sweaters at Zara that gave “old money”, UES moms signaled their belonging via multiple Row Ophelia sweaters… a $1.5K unbranded knit that is as discernible in its target circles as Louis Vuitton’s monogram is to the rest of the world. In that, a layered meaning of the commodification of “quiet luxury” was born (yet never discussed.. how gauche!).