In theory I could be surrounded by people who are faking it, using the criteria set out by pps on this thread.
I live in an area where the cars are ridiculous. Wall to wall (or road to road) Porsche, Mercedes, BMW, with a lot of Aston Martins, Ferraris, and similar too.
I know a lot of these cars are part of salary packaging, but many aren't.
The point at which I reached peak bafflement was seeing a Bentley outside the butchers with L plates.
All the 18 year olds at my son's school have their own cars to drive to school, and one has a lotus. It's extraordinary.
I still haven't worked out where all this money comes from.
We are very well off, but still no where near this stuff, women wear new season clothes all the time, I have good stuff, but years old, I truly don't understand all the disposable income. DH has an old banger because it spends a lot of time getting muddy, and also he really loves it (and doesn't care about cars). I drive a very middle of the road 7 year old SUV that could do with a good wash.
There are a couple of people who I know have this whole facade, but they're one bad deal away from everything going back in a truck to the shop. TBH, it would be difficult to tell the difference if I didn't know their circumstances myself.
The whole dog hair/ faded gentry thing really was a passing stage.
When people in big houses stopped being able to afford the grandeur of their stately pile, they would rather keep going in the clothes they already had, and pretend it didn't matter that they no longer had staff.
They didn't see the dog hair and dust because they'd never had to deal with it and with no one else to clean it up, it just sort of stayed.
It was a passing generation or three. Now there is either old money that kept going, and always maintained standards, or there's money that didn't ever come with a title and land.
There no reason they should be discreet or quiet about it all.