The 2008 crash muted conspicuous luxury display without ending middle-class consumption

Evidence

At least temporarily, the crash did close out a period of money-forward tastes. “People were dripping in gold,” recalled Christina Binkley of The Wall Street Journal. “Fashion had been really loud and it was a huge party, and then that shifted literally overnight.” After the crash, the wealthy still shopped but with greater discretion. French luxury brand Hermès was rumored to have replaced its signature orange shopping bags with generic brown ones to avoid attracting attention. The middle classes didn’t lose their new lust for luxury goods, but they hunted for bargains on Gilt Groupe and embraced direct-to-consumer substitutes, like Warby Parker’s ninety-five-dollar glasses. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 210

Categorization

• XREF: Relates to status-signaling and costly-signaling theory of taste — wealthy newly conceal rather than display luxury, matching Veblen/status dynamics literature.