NY Times: “Can You Fake Being Rich?” (Amusing)

A short but amusing – to me – article but evidently a hot topic. Note the age of the so-called Influencers. Hit the link.

Daily, hourly, seemingly by the second, content creators with handles including Fresh & Classy, Carving Pierre and Kiki Astor offer tips on how their followers can project wealth, even if they don’t have much money.

“As we get poorer, we are more obsessed with the aesthetics of wealth,” Mr. Hakimi, 35, said.

Alex Gavin Rambet has built a following of nearly 400,000 for his Instagram account, Old Money, which has the motto: “Join the Old Money Lifestyle and Dress With Class.” Mr. Rambet, 21, regularly drills down into the finer points of which shoes, ties, suits and even manners are required to convey an aura of high net worth.

“Fashion has always been aspirational,” he said.

Another influencer, Mads Mura, schools an audience of more than 100,000 in the attainment of old-money folkways through a series of how-to reels on his stately Instagram account, Carter Beau.

Speaking by phone from London, Mr. Mura, 25, offered a theory on why this kind of thing is gaining traction: “What’s happening is that we are in a moment of cultural exhaustion, a decade dominated by street culture, outgoing and loud, and we have hit a wall with it.”