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[VelvetVoice]

£139.00 (was £199.00)

What adjectives would you use to describe it?
Boring?
Classic?
Nice?
Tacky?

Meh?

I don’t think they don’t express individual taste. They do, but they also express more than just individual taste in bags/fashion/whatever. They can also express values, class, tribal identification, perception of self (in what you believe you are and/or want to be seen as), background, wealth etc.

the pro/anti aspect I mentioned earlier is an interesting one. As there are those that put stock in being seen as someone that would (loudly) buy Louis, again the example, there are those that put the same stock in being seen as someone who (loudly) wouldn’t. As if there is some reward to be had beyond a sense of self satisfaction by either. Both are expressions of personal identity, and both signify a belonging to a particular ‘tribe’.

Everything. Daytime for work I wear smart casual, so it works really well for me with jeans and flats.

I did read an interesting thing about the quiet luxury trend, where the super rich wear very very expensive clothes with no visible logos that are only really identifiable to other very rich people. So a plain white t shirt that to normal people looks like it could have come from any high street shop, but costs $600, for example. But the logo is so discreet that only another person in the same club would know. It's showing off to the 'exclusive' people - the plebs aren't important enough to want to impress!
This tells me that person is shallow and imo tacky (assuming I could recognise their clothing), despite being expensively and classically dressed. But I guess it works for their aims because it does identify them to other super rich---- people of a similar disposition.

I honestly don't feel I'm being tribal when I buy a bag. I feel like I'm drawn to a colour or shape and think about whether the pockets will be helpful in stopping me from accidentally dropping my credit card on the floor when I reach in to get my phone.
I suppose it does say something about how much money I'm willing to spend. And that comfort is an important consideration. I don't think I've ever bought a bag with the aim of identifying with a tribe. Maybe it's subconscious because why do people buy things that other people scorn?

A lot of it is subconscious. The ‘tribal’ element is along the lines of buying brands familiar to you. For example, I like Prada. My mother liked/likes Prada, and Prada being a good quality brand is something I grew up with. I have also had exposure to other brands through my friends, so I am more likely to trust those brands to produce quality product and thus buy from them. That’s all influenced by environment and what is ‘normal’ in the circles a person inhabits, rather than a conscious choice of ‘rich people buy this, so I am going to buy this’.

“This tells me that person is shallow and imo tacky”

Or that person is influenced by their environment, and reflecting this by their sartorial choices. I personally don’t make value judgements like that (‘this person is tacky, this person is not’), because I find they tell me more about myself than they do the person I’m judging. After all, my own sense of shallow/not shallow are just that: mine. Besides, if someone in the ‘quiet wealth’ category is shallow, does that mean someone that buys a Louis Vuitton bag isn’t? Because ‘shallow’ is absolutely something the latter are routinely considered being.

I don't think the shallowness is a result of buying X brand. As you say, people like certain things for a variety of reasons, including having faith in the quality of a familiar brand. I think shallowness is in caring so much about impressing other people that you will buy X brand purely in order to achieve that aim. Or to deliberately signify to other people how much money you have.
I wouldn't say that buying X brand itself is tacky or not, it's about the attitude behind it.

Very dull.

Very rude