With the return of the old money aesthetic, quiet luxury is a hot trend that doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere. However, true luxury is all about quality, craftsmanship, and understated elegance, as well as learning what you like and developing your personal style. It transcends trends, focusing on authenticity and thoughtful design rather than flash and pizazz.
Here are a few overdone “luxury” trends to help you develop your style to become effortlessly chic and timeless.
Logo Overload
Timeless fashion is all about subtlety, high quality, quiet luxury that’s sophisticated and stylish. While designer brands may signify their quality, the monogram craze of plastering logos on every piece of clothing, bag, or accessory appears ostentatious, boastful, and overly flashy rather than classy.
Micro Trends
Flipping from one micro-trend to another just screams tacky. Overconsumption and fast fashion is an evil that must be stopped. Jumping on the TikTok fashion trends may seem fun, but fast fashion and unethical designs are not. The key to creating a timeless aesthetic is through finding your own style. Hoarding poorly made cheap fabrics and knockoff designs is certainly not timeless, either in appearance or reality.
Flying First Class
Let’s face it: first class is often an unnecessary extravagance, especially as business class offers a similarly comfortable experience without the excessive cost. Business class strikes the balance between sophistication and value, delivering comfort and style without overspending.
Personalized Monograms Everywhere
Monograms can be classy, but again, it’s all about subtlety. A monogrammed stationery set or luggage can add a touch of class, but plastering your initials on everything can feel over-the-top and, let’s face it, not very demure.
Excessive Bling
When it comes to jewelry, there’s a fine line between tacky and tasteful. Oversized diamond watches, excessive bling, and gemstone-covered everything demonstrate flash over finesse. As a basic rule of thumb, if you weigh down and glimmer like a disco ball, you’ve probably overdone it.
Too Much Gold
Excessive gold jewelry, or shiny gold accents, is a surefire way to appear tacky. Too much gold can come across as gaudy and overwhelming and detracts from its natural elegance. While it may exude warmth and sophistication when used appropriately, excessive use often appears fake and creates a flashy, tacky aesthetic rather than refined luxury.
Designer Pet Accessories
Pets are not accessories, and while pampering your perfect pooch may be a good way to show your love, luxury for pets has gone overboard. With diamond collars, branded pet carriers, and tailored designer outfits, this is neither subtle nor pleasant for your poor pooch. Adoring your pets is great, but this trend often feels more about showing off your wealth or matching your pet to your outfit than genuine care or practicality, which is not chic.
Themed Luxury Parties
A truly elegant event avoids the cliché of a tacky theme that invites multiple guests in identical Amazon-bought outfits. True timeless luxury is not about following a theme; it’s about adopting a lifestyle. Themed parties have devolved into displays of superficial extravagance that prioritize flashy, costume-like appearances over genuine enjoyment.
Fur Everywhere
Granted, fur was once synonymous with great wealth and status. However, it’s no longer the 19th century. Nowadays, excessive fur is not only environmentally and socially insensitive, but whether real or faux, too much fur just seems unnecessary, overindulgent, and invasive. While a touch of fur can be incredibly chic, drowning in a hairy, fluffy mess is not.
All-White Interiors
There’s nothing wrong with monochrome, per se, it’s just that it’s so overdone. While it may feel sleek, too much can just feel sterile and uninviting, not to mention it’s unbelievably impractical. Timeless interiors should feel lived-in, warm, and inviting, not like you’ve just walked into an IKEA showroom.
Flashy Cars Wrapped in Chrome
When it comes to timeless style, flashy cars themselves are a questionable asset. While a sleek, well-designed luxury car certainly speaks for itself, wrapping it in chrome or neon colors turns it into a real spectacle. True luxury cars don’t need excessive embellishments to make an impact.
Exotic Animal Prints
It’s not the 1980s, and animal print is not the peak of fashion. When done tastefully, a touch of leopard, zebra, or tiger prints has the potential to add a bold yet tasteful statement when used sparingly. However, overdoing it or using clashing prints will undoubtedly create an overbearing and kitschy effect rather than exuding a luxurious vibe.
Glittering Everything
An overabundance of sequins, rhinestones, and glitter tends to create the illusion of a Christmas bauble rather than timeless elegance. A general rule of thumb for creating a timeless, elegant look is that when it comes to glitz, less is always more.
Overly Ornate Watches
A classic, beautifully crafted watch can be the epitome of quiet luxury. Timeless classics are a subtle signifier of wealth and status, but overly ornate and oversized designs can easily become tacky, prioritizing flaunting wealth over showcasing genuine craftsmanship.
Fake Luxury Experiences
True luxury is about authenticity and experiencing genuine culture. Curated “authentic” cultural experiences often prioritize a sanitized, Instagrammable version of reality, which makes them feel exploitative and shallow rather than genuine. Paying to pretend to be royalty for the day in a historical castle may be fun, but it certainly does not project class.
What Is Luxury?
Trends come and go, and while everyone is entitled to create their own style and have fun with it, certain classic, timeless trends stick around. True luxury is about quality, craftsmanship, and understated elegance. It is something that transcends trends and remains focused on authenticity and craftsmanship rather than ostentation. So, if you want to become more mindful and upgrade your style, avoid these overdone “luxury” traps.
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