What makes someone look rich / wealthy?

[cococovido]

Piggy backing onto the LV bag thread - so many responses saying you can tell if the bag is fake / real depending on the persons hair and general look.

I've really noticed this where I live during lockdown - even though we're all predominantly in scruffy clothes / gym gear (just me?!) you can just tell some people look 'rich' - for lack of a better word.

What is it? It's like an unspoken code or something.

My neighbour (from the big house) came round the other day to help with an escaped sheep. She was wearing a ripped Barbour and ancient wellies but she gave off an air of refinement and affluence. It transcended her clothes but I couldn’t put my finger on how she did it .

@cococovido

I ran through the following definitions with my children:

Rich = based purely on money but very much a relative term. For example if you have £10 and I have £2 then you are rich but if you have £1 million and everyone around you has £10 million then you are poor.

Snob = a feeling of self superiority and looking down on others based for example on intellect or money (rich or poor) - actually quite similar to racism.

Posh = manners, speech and dress - basically external features. Again a relative term whereas some may think owning a certain brand of clothing or trainers or a certain accent is posh, others may think the very opposite.

Class - having respect for yourself, others and the environment around you. So the guy emptying rubbish of of his Ferrari onto the floor in a Tesco car park is definitely not classy but a young lad holding open the shop door to and old lady certainly is classy.

Hope this helps

I agree it’s sometimes the small things that give away wealth- you can be wearing scruffy leggings, but if you’ve got manicured nails and a large diamond ring, you probably ain’t broke! Here in the US some people really flash their money about in a way that makes me cringe, but I also know some very comfortably off people who look perfectly normal. You gradually realize there’s substantial money, because their children go to v. expensive schools, they have holiday homes and take other holidays that must cost a lot, and they have extensive wine cellars!

I think the opposite could be said also. Those that are truly rich often don’t want to show it and don’t want people to know. (Certainly some do of course)

I used to be friends with a millionaire but I didn’t realise how rich he was until one day we went for lunch and I seen he lived in a Manor House and one of his 17 cars was a Bentley (in which he drive us to lunch in)

To look at him he looked like he needed to wash and brush his hair and get some more age appropriate clothes!!

I think it depends whether they are old money or new money. There's a distinctive look between the 2.

It depends whether you mean wealthy, or upper class. Not the same thing at all. The wealthy split into many different groups -celebrities, self-made successful business owners, e.g. A designer who may have started off working class but has built a business and career . Lottery winners , successful authors.
Huge variety in how all those people look.

avoiding detergent-based, supermarket shampoos and never using supermarket dyes

I hate to break this to you but posh shampoo is also detergent-based and the boxes of hair colour you buy in Asda/Superdrug/whatever are made from exactly the same chemicals used in salons in Mayfair.

A very wealthy friend of mine was dating this city type who had s Porsche. Anyway they were due to go down to Devon to visit her family and the chap was desperate to make an impression by taking the Porsche. My friend said her mother would be horrified at such an ostentatious display of wealth in a poor area - quote "why don't you just wind down the window and say hello poor people". But he completely couldn't get or understand the point.

Anyway they went down in her VW Golf but split up a few weeks later on account of him being a knob.

Funny I thought exactly about Philip Green too when I read that.

Yes, he comes to mind when you juxtapose ‘rich’ and ‘curmudgeonly’, doesn’t he?

Superyachts very vulgar. Russian oligarchs and Turkish property/drug tycoons buy them

Ha! Philip Green has got one too.

So have plenty of US tech billionaires. And a Malaysian billionaire has got one with a gold plated anchor.

I wouldn’t be condemning superyachts as vulgar if somebody invited me aboard for a spin with free champagne. I’d be straight in there, vulga4 or not.

Where I live (rural) it’s tweed, and Dubarry boots. For the men, chino type trousers in a bold colour, checked shirt and fleece gilet, I forget the usual brand. Cars would be large Volvos - pricey but not as “showy” as a Chelsea tractor. Very little in the way of new money around here.

IME, the more money someone has, the scruffier they look, the older their Barbour and Volvo estate car (both of which are covered in hairs) and they often smoke, probably Dunhill or B&H (perhaps the more elegant lady may have Sobraines for a night out). The women always seem to know a lot about Scotch

It's nothing to do with tidiness or how new their clothes are. It's about generations of better nutrition which is why in terms of bone structure old money always looks well. Rarely an obese/short person amongst them.

Watch and shoes.

A bit of a splurge in the posh section at TK Maxx is what you need OP.

I hate to break this to you but posh shampoo is also detergent-based and the boxes of hair colour you buy in Asda/Superdrug/whatever are made from exactly the same chemicals used in salons in Mayfair.

Nope, I buy only oil-based l'occitane shampoo. I never use salon shampoos either, as they wreck my hair in exactly the same way as the supermarket ones (as you've rightly pointed out).

It's about generations of better nutrition which is why in terms of bone structure old money always looks well. Rarely an obese/short person amongst them.

You haven’t heard of the Habsburgs then?!

The people I see who look rich are not it is for aperarannces, the people I know who are actually rich you would have no idea just by looking at them.

My parents had friends who I have known since childhood. They are very wealthy. They had a house in central London and an inherited country house and large estate in Scotland. They now live wholly on the Scottish estate.
They are the most decent, unfussy people you could meet. She has always worn clothes she has had for years (Barbour, Aquascutum, Liberty). He is the same. The last time we stayed with them she was wearing an outfit she wore to their third daughter's christening in 1985.

They help the local community in many ways, muck in, are cash poor but asset rich and if you saw them you would know they have money. Could be their voices - very posh- I suppose but you would know. The Barbour jackets are bashed and patched and repaired by Barbour, the Land Rovers are old and they have a newer large Volvo for going into town, she always has a string of pearls on whatever else she is wearing. They have Springer spaniels that are trained gun-dogs. House is full of old Persian rugs, good old paintings, good furniture. It's a Georgian house and beautiful but shabby on the surface.

I think with mousey brown hair colour (natural) and lovely tanned skin. Also not too much make up but glowing with great skin lovely manicured nails. Dress style- smart casual but with one item such as a Chanel bag to complete the outfit. The outfit itself will look rich with even simple items such as a good quality holter neck jumper (cashmere). Also someone who speaks eloquently and also sits in a cafe in West London with similar looking/dressed friends.

@Guineapigbridge

I hate to break this to you but posh shampoo is also detergent-based and the boxes of hair colour you buy in Asda/Superdrug/whatever are made from exactly the same chemicals used in salons in Mayfair.

Nope, I buy only oil-based l'occitane shampoo. I never use salon shampoos either, as they wreck my hair in exactly the same way as the supermarket ones (as you've rightly pointed out).

L'Occitane shampoo eh? Like the Luxury Intense Repairing Shampoo perhaps? Yes, it's very expensive at £26.50 but look at what you get: AQUA/WATER – SODIUM LAURETH SULFATE – DECYL GLUCOSIDE – PEG-7 GLYCERYL COCOATE – COCAMIDOPROPYL BETAINE – CITRUS AURANTIUM DULCIS (ORANGE) OIL – LAVANDULA ANGUSTIFOLIA (LAVENDER) OIL – PELARGONIUM GRAVEOLENS FLOWER OIL – CANANGA ODORATA FLOWER OIL – ANGELICA ARCHANGELICA ROOT OIL – ANGELICA ARCHANGELICA SEED OIL – AVENA STRIGOSA SEED EXTRACT – LAVANDULA HYBRIDA OIL – HELIANTHUS ANNUUS (SUNFLOWER) SEED OIL – PANTHENOL – SODIUM CHLORIDE – POLYQUATERNIUM-7 – GLYCERIN – COCO-GLUCOSIDE – GLYCERYL OLEATE – SODIUM BENZOATE – HYDROXYPROPYL GUAR HYDROXYPROPYLTRIMONIUM CHLORIDE – CITRIC ACID – LECITHIN – POTASSIUM SORBATE – HYDROGENATED PALM GLYCERIDES CITRATE – ASCORBYL PALMITATE – TOCOPHEROL – PARFUM/FRAGRANCE – LIMONENE – LINALOOL

Or perhaps the Almond shampoo, a snip at £16 and you get all this for your money: INGREDIENTS
AOUA/WATER - SODIUM LAURETH SULFATE - COCO-GLUCOSIDE - GLYCERIN - DECYL GLUCOSIDE - COCO-BETAINE - PRUNUS AMYGDALUS DULCIS (SWEET ALMOND) OIL - CITRUS AURANTIUM BERGAMIA (BERGAMOT) FRUIT OIL - SODIUM CHLORIDE – SODIUM BENZOATE – CITRIC ACID - POLYQUATERNIUM-10 SODIUM ACETATE - ISOPROPYL ALCOHOL - PARFUM/FRAGRANCE – COUMARIN - LIMONENE- CI 19140/YELLOW 5 - CI 14700/ RED 4 - CI 17200/RED 33 - CI 42090/BLUE 1.

No, absolutely nothing like those oh-so-downmarket supermarket shampoos....

@BrummyMum1

It's about generations of better nutrition which is why in terms of bone structure old money always looks well. Rarely an obese/short person amongst them.

You haven’t heard of the Habsburgs then?!

That de Pfeffel bloke too, he's a bit of a porker...

I remember going out to lunch with DH’s elderly relatives. I was slightly taken aback when the wife put the bread rolls we hadn’t eaten into her bag to have later, I wondered whether they were hard up.

We were walking down a major city street later that day (in a posh area) and DH’s Dad pointed out a building that these relatives own..I now know that they’re very wealthy, but thrifty with it, which is probably why they’ve got money. 🤣

Simon Cowell is very rich, but he looks like a thin plastic mannequin in a shop window, and he is very vain, His clothes don't indicate that he is rich though.

I don't think this is an exact science, but there are certain things that can make you look well off without being just ostentatious.

Probably the main one is that they have some very good quality expensive items in certain areas. Haircuts, for women, also shoes, watches, coats, things like that. If you are a man or woman who wears an item like a suit that could potentially last, it would be good quality. Not trendy necessarily, or new, but very good of it's kind.

Of course wealthy people don't all do that, but then you probably wouldn't guess that those ones are wealthy just by seeing them.

I tend to agree that hair colour from a salon makes a difference. It's not that the dye itself is different so much as the application. High end salon dye jobs are expensive and you can tell the difference from an at home job. I used to colour my hair when it was starting to grey, and it was fine but never looked high end. I went and paid for it to be done after it got very grey and started to be more difficult for me to do an ok job. It looked totally amazing, but it cost so much I decided to just let it go natural.

Can't believe accent hasn't been mentioned yet. Total giveaway.

But yet again, there's a huge difference between wealth and class. Class is inherited and can't be learnt.