What are markers that identify stangers or acquaintances as posh? Lighthearted!

[Coffeeandacupcake]

For me, it's a combination of accent, subtle, expensive haircut & highlights or that perfect shade of blonde..

Accent, pronounce words properly, weird laugh and horses with stables

Older generation can whiff a bit and their dog honks.

The mums are all fey vagueness and swishy hair, too thin.

All women ruthless behind closed doors and often very bright. Surprisingly into their own thing.

Kate Middleton is way too awf’ly perfect and neat to pass as posh - she married up and every single eyebrow hair gelled bolt upright tells you that. No upper class girl would have taken on that lot of demanding buggers - party with them, of course, but the true toff is too frisky. Kate’s royal, which is much more middlebrow and bourgeois-looking to us, and that’s why we love her.

Both sexes have good manners and courteous children - entitled kids scream new money.

Really posh people don’t like cats, which is appalling.

Old money or new?

Proper posh is never new money. It's old money, possibly no longer in possession of same.

I’m always baffled by this MN obsession with posh-ness. It seems to crop up about once a month with a thread full of people waffling on about what they think ‘posh’ people are like, but there’s quite often a wide ranging pool of people who could fall under the description ‘posh’ - from old monied families to aristocrats (who might be wealthy, might be poor as church mice) to any person who speaks well, is polite and has a horse.

Posh was used as an insult at the school I went to. I did not swear routinely, rode a pony (which we kept on a tether on rough ground) and did not need free school meals. I was bullied for being posh, which is strange because I came from a family where the previous generation were manual labourers living in factory housing who did not all have indoor toilets growing up. To some people asking ‘what is posh’ is lighthearted, but to me it is as touchy as if I asked ‘lighthearted question here - how do you spot the working class?’ It’s not really very nice. No matter how much fun some people think it might be.

I was bullied at school for being posh too. My background was half working class and half middle, we weren’t well off and didn’t have a horse or anything close. I was “posh” because I had picked up my mum’s southern accent and was academic.

so you’re right that it can have many meanings and I think it’s also true that the posh are seen as fair game to discuss. But I don’t mean anything harsh or negative by it. My ex MIL is super posh and the thread reminded me of her and how closely she fits all these cliches.

Good watch
Tidy nails
Good wedding jewellery
Clothing in natural fabrics
Good hair, not too messed with
Good but natural teeth
Good shoes
Good legs and necks
Into sailing/lacrosse/riding/motorsport
Has some sort of signature meal that they can knock together
Lovely manners
Steely protection of family
Knows about wine
Very closed about where the money comes from
Can be a social chameleon

Someone posted the definitive guide to class on one of these threads the other day-

Two (heterosexual) couples are travelling in one car:

Working class- men in the front, women in the back
Middle class- one couple in the front, one couple in the back
Upper class- one man in the front with the woman from the other couple, and the same in the back

Honestly, sociologists can just retire now. This nails it.

Thin
frugal / mean
sensible shoes
well-educated but not naturally bright
discreet
fascist leanings

Posture

Calling it supper.

If none of your ancestors "worked" for a living eg: farmers/landowners/property, employed people to do the work for them.

Silly question to ask on here 🤣🙄🤯

A 'posh' accent is open to interpretation though. Some people tell me that I have a posh accent, but I don't think that I do. It's bog standard RP. To me, a posh accent is someone who sounds like the Queen.

Posh means having old sofas from the 1950 that are family heirlooms

No, they are the new ones. The old ones are from the 1750's.

An expensive stinky dog

Pudding fork!!

This

I get it's light-hearted but real posh people you cant tell it is people with appearance issues that for some warped reason want to appear posh that all it achieves is them looking like they are trying too hard

Amongst school parents, their children are later and scruffier than the not posh families (they have no anxiety about being referred to SW).

Tbh, I think that some people have naturally 'posh' looking facial features, but it doesn't necessarily mean that they are posh.

Other people have faces like scrubbers. Not necessarily unattractive, but they will never look 'posh' no matter what they do

Anne Marie Duff - looks like a chamber maid.

Home counties accent
Public school
Red brick uni like Exeter, Bristol or Durham.
Possibly did a ski season in Verbier
Lived in Fulham/Chelsea in their 20s
Married someone from their peer group who is of equally good stock.
Works in the city.
Now live in Richmond or St Margarets
Drives a Range Rover and has an Austin Healey classic in the garage for Sundays.
Has a black or chocolate lab.
Their inner social circle date back to prep school.
They are not ostentatious in dress sense, just effortlessly casual while simultaneously oozing class.
Could not name a single Eastenders character.

I think posh people never point their pinky at people and say,”Pull my finger” before lifting their leg up and breaking wind.

Men in red trousers and soft checked shirts. Women in soft cashmere with holes.

They have beastly animals
Wanderful children
Wear ancient clothes
Holiday in Cornwall
Fish, hunt and shoot
Have staff