Middle class identifiers 2022

[Pullandpush]

I read a similar thread a few years ago & the main middle class markers were hummus, organic food, private education, boden, ski trips etc, farrow & ball..
Are these unchanged for 2022 or have the identifiers shifted?
Since the pandemic I've seen a rise in the "hipster" style MC especially the men, maybe the working from home has allowed them to relax into the unshaven, casual look which wasn't there a few years ago...
Private education seems to be on the wane but that may be due to the cost of living..
Any other main MC identifiers I missed?

Boden
Allotment
Lucy and yak dungarees
Clothes in wardrobe that I've had for years and still wear
Advocado fetish
Working class and proud

*A criterion is a principle against which something is judged, assessed, or identified. Criteria can be descriptive as well as prescriptive. This thread is full of criteria - OP asked for 'identifiers'.

I'm just pointing out that this thread is very WBRI-centric. The politics of class in some British immigrant communities make MNers and their quaint lists seem like total amateurs!*

It would be very interesting to hear them.

Being able to afford petrol in 2022 😢

I'll never forget the time Xenia had a name change fail. She was pretending to be poor.
I can't be the only one who remembers that thread..

dying. If only.

Most people would meet Murray - introduce themselves - do their business and move on giving no thought to Murray's background - unless he stood out in some way? Why would his background give them pause for thought?

Decidedly MC here:

Not thin but not obese
Well made clothes (bored with Boden but liked it for the kids)
Often in jeans
scruffy terriers
Discovery (for the dogs)
Gravel drive
Barista Coconut milk
increasingly vegan although kids still carnivores
Bakes but tries not to eat
Grows fruit. Has gardener
Luxury hotels and business travel (never discussed outside family)
Love discounts/ money aware. Invests.
Unbothered by kids childhood fads (hairstyles or hobbies) and unbothered by what ‘ the Jones’ kids are doing.
Walk my own walk.
Bored by new money types. Never impressed although still like some.
Friends of all walks of life.

Well, that's me firmly put in my place then. Used to imagine I was MC but looks like I'm quite definitely plain old WC.

Thanks Mumsnet.

I think us middle class are soon to be the poorest class!!

• Second hand shops


• reuse, recycle and revive


• Buy everything is sale


• only luxury is kids getting violin classes

Sadly after mortgage and student loans- private school, electric car and Hello fresh are not affordable

It used to be good quality, with nice details, years ago. I wonder how, and why, that changed.

I still buy their plain wellies, but the clothes aren't great.

Can you elaborate on the Irish middle class? Thought private education wasn't a thing in Ireland?

The men's stuff still seems decent quality to me?

DH is wearing fairly new cotton shorts and polo shirt from Joules right now and I'd say they feel to be pretty good quality.

Has everything gone downhill or just some of it?

Actually when I see them I just think someone was bored in lockdown

I think a lot of it can be summed up by "survivors guilt".

The charities, the eco-friendly habits, the lack of visible delight in consumerism.

Also if you live in relative luxury, camping and cycling are delightful rustic adventures. If you're skint, they're just a bit too Withnail and I.

My definition in the old days, would have been reading a broadsheet newspaper. In these internet/Netflix days it's a lot harder.

Around here it's rescued rough coated lurchers/deerhound type dogs now, usually a pair filling the Range Rover. Labs are so last year. Staycations are all the rage, particularly camping, off grid, usually Cornwall or remotest Scotland.

They are proud to shop at Aldi (revel in a good bargain on the vino and freezer aisles) revel in the Jo Malone copy scents and face creams at a fraction they would normally pick up fron the airport lounge. Lurpak is out the window for something similar and more spreadable.
Take pride in dressing down even to visit the local coop. Mostly still working from home, in Jack Wills t shirts and shorts.

Open house BBQ's instead of posh tucker at favourite eateries.

Around here it's rescued rough coated lurchers/deerhound type dogs now, usually a pair filling the Range Rover. Labs are so last year.

Except that the solid middle class doesn’t really care about fashion. And which is why the poodle cross-breeds are not middle class. Fashionable - yes. Middle class - no. They just happened to be owned by some middle class people.

Agree with you frozzie1

@SofiaSoFar
I'm probably thinking of children's and the clothing for women. I still have an old Joules skirt and possibly something else.

They were well known for their proper' polo shirts at one time, (would be interested to know if that's how they started out), so the fact they're still of similar quality is no surprise.

You have my deepest sympathy, and that is certainly not meant to be patronising. I DO believe in the idea of the deserving versus the undeserving poor , but you are clearly ‘ deserving ‘. I suppose I’d be considered middle class, but my MIL thought I was ‘ working class ‘ cos I ‘ only ‘ went to grammar school and ended up with a First class honours degree , whereas she, all her family and her son ( my soon to be ‘ ex ‘ ) husband went to public school !
Plus she had lots of inherited wealth whereas my family had none. Yet , despite all her money my MIL was the greatest ‘ scruff bag ‘ out !!
You actually often find that the richest people are the most scruffily dressed yet you can actually dress really well even from charity shops !
I think this concept of class is a dreadful UK thing and in places like Germany it is relatively unknown.
We used to live next door to a couple who drove expensive cars, wore designer clothes, were members of the local tennis club and always playing and socialising there, wore breitling watches, but confessed to NEVER reading a newspaper and had not a single book in their house !! Were they ‘ middle class ‘ - I don’t understand the concept cos they were just ignorant and thick !!!

@Choopi, I don’t get the Lurpak thing either. For a start, Denmark is absolutely notorious for factory farming (I never buy Danish bacon either) but the main reason it’s big in the U.K. is IMO because of marketing - loads of TV and other advertising for years - and it’s often displayed more prominently in supermarkets.

I never buy it, and I don’t understand why more people don’t want to support our own farmers. It’s not even as if it tastes any better. I used to have to buy it when we lived in the Middle East and there was no alternative, but to me it’s nothing remotely special - bog standard, anaemic looking stuff.

Anyone who shops at Daylesford isn’t ‘ middle class ‘ they’re just over rich posers, and I speak from experience when my DH and I happened to turn up there during a long country walk with backpacks on and they refused to serve us !
My DD has a friend from Uni who works there and she’s a poser too. Ironically in her youth my MIL ‘ went out ‘ with old man Bamford, when he was just a young man selling bits of agricultural machinery, but he died a tax exile and the entire family are now totally ‘ up themselves ‘ ! 😡😡😡🥊

Can you elaborate on the Irish middle class? Thought private education wasn't a thing in Ireland?

@Pullandpush
LOL, it's typically English to assume private education is a marker of middle class status everywhere else.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fee-charging_schools_in_Ireland
About 8-9% of Irish students attend fee paying schools.

There are approximately 3,300 primary schools in Ireland and approximately 700 secondary schools. There are about 51 fee paying schools, between primary and secondary, in Ireland.

www.schooldays.ie/articles/primary-schools-in-ireland-by-county
www.schooldays.ie/articles/secondary-schools-in-ireland-by-county

Regardless of where they go to school, Irish students all study the same curriculum and do the same exams, and entry to university is by an automated system where your Leaving Cert results go in one end of a computer along with your top ten choices of university course, and your offer comes out the other.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Applications_Office

This for sure. The rest are fads. This abides!

So true in DC's superselective grammar school there are the children of professionals (doctors, lawyers, accountants mainly) and immigrants. Virtually no other social group. Many of the DCs fit both categories.

We live in a very smart market town. Me board director, husband uniformed worker. Both children went to prep schools and then one to boarding school and one to the local 'outstanding' academy by dint of housing.
Husband life long Labour supporter, me granddaughter of titled lady. Liberal.
Husband would say he is WC but he has a degree? I am not sure what I am. Mother was UMC, father accent and farmers son.
We are also a mixed heritage family so that throws the norms out.
However for fun this would be our choices :

Books
Instruments, vinyl
Wool carpet /wood floors
Designer brands but only from fleebay
Brand /convenience food if yellow label
4x4 that needs a wash, bought until it dies on us (last one 13 years))
Mini for town/teenagers
Little green/crown paint
Silk/wool curtains (no mixed fibres)
Brown furniture
Inherited paintings/ silver (both families)

However we are both fat and have a cockapoo!

You sound like perfect candidates for Come dine with me! 😆

Are the paintings of ancestors or the view of the lake from the drawing room? 🤔