The TikTok and Pinterest trend called the “old money aesthetic” is just a really fancy or classy lifestyle. It’s basically a preppy, Ivy League, business-casual style, and these clothes are things regular people can also buy. They have a bunch of them at Walmart, and you can get them on Amazon.
Even a middle-class person can get an old Mercedes or a Porsche. As for golfing, chess, and other “old money hobbies,” again, regular people can do that too. Regular people go to galas, plays, and basically live a super fancy lifestyle—it’s not limited to just “rich people.”
Do rich people do these things more? Sure. But again, calling it an “old money aesthetic” is dumb when classy or fancy people in general do this.
There are even YouTubers who teach regular people to be super fancy, like The Gent Z / Gentleman’s Collective and Jamila Musayeva, and neither of them come from “old money.” This is just a very classy and fancy lifestyle that anyone can really have, regardless of whether you are middle class, working class, or upper class.
“Old money” is more of a behavioral classification than a looks/aesthetic one… for example being flashy or bragging that you have money is considered very “new money” behavior, where as if you were raised in the generational wealth sphere, everyone has money so nobody really brags about it, it’s like bragging that you ate lunch today.
As to why influencers are labelling their look as ‘old money,’ it’s because it sells. It got you to click on the video. They found a niche of people who want to look rich and are providing instruction to do that on the very budget level you mention.
Example: Having an LV handbag that you have to remind people you never set on the floor, and you call him Louis when you refer to it. Instead of, you know, just using it like a normal fucking purse. That’s new money.
New Money cares that you have a LV bag.
Old Money only cares if you don’t have it.
Oh, yeah. For sure. They’re both snooty, but it’s diametrically opposed snootiness. Screw them both.