With the final season of everyone’s favourite dysfunctional family dramedy on HBO, Succession, airing this month, tongues have been wagging in fashion circles. This might surprise you if you’ve ever watched an episode of the series — the Roy family often favours baseball caps, unassuming T-shirts and vests. But if you look closely, there’s something else going on: as an uber-wealthy family, it’s all about quiet luxury.
Also known as “stealth wealth,” the trend refers to luxury fashion that doesn’t immediately appear to be luxury (read: expensive). That means no logos, no overt branding and often neutral, subdued shapes and colours.
Videos about the trend have received over 78 million views on TikTok, but Carolyn Wright, senior vice-president of product and planning for Holt Renfrew in Toronto, says it’s not new.
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“It’s more of an attitude and a way of life versus a trend,” she says. “It’s been around for a long time, because a lot of these brands that we point to as part of the strength in this attitude have been around for a long time as well.”
However, Wright notes that the increasing popularity of quiet luxury also has to do with our current time period. “You’re seeing people react to the economic uncertainty with a greater population moving toward stealth wealth,” she says. Wright also believes the pandemic advanced thinking around sustainability: “This trend speaks to investing in more long-lasting pieces, and the idea of it being better to buy less and buy better.”
Lest you exclude yourself from the trend because you don’t feel like dropping thousands on a pair of sunglasses, Wright says that quiet luxury doesn’t necessarily need to include expensive clothes — it can be achieved at any price point. “It’s really a design esthetic: sort of cleaned up, understated, subtle — a little more classic,” she says.
Wright has noticed that, although not all brands are moving in the direction of quiet luxury, the particularly logo-driven ones are starting to shift their offerings. “Brands are intentionally making moves to evolve their products to advance and evolve their fashion perspectives.”
As for brands that are gaining popularity for their stealth wealth sensibilities, Wright points to Todd’s, Prada, the Row, Brunello Cucinelli and Ferragamo.
Try 119 Corbò in Yorkville for logo-less, neutral apparel that will have you fitting right in with the Roys, or Kotn on Queen Street for well-fitting basics that don’t come with the designer price tags.