Issue #320 | Forget Stealth Wealth. Big Money Style Is Back

Forget Stealth Wealth. Big Money Style Is Back

“When times get tough, when income dwindles and interest rates spike, fashion often shakes off its blinkers and realizes that people who spend money tend to want to look like they do,” says Alexander Fury, menswear critic at the Financial Times. As some of us tighten our belts, the ultra-rich are taking the opportunity to set themselves apart from the taupe-clad packs of upper-class imposters by wearing expensive goods that the rest of us simply can’t afford. Loud luxury is back—if you’ve got it, here’s why it’s time to flaunt it.

Financial Times

Land Your Grail Watch for a Fraction of the Price

[Partner] Luxury timepieces aren’t just for the ultra-rich. And The Premium Time Company in part is to thank. The watch purveyor holds weekly contests where, for far less than a week’s groceries, you can win Rolexes, Tudors, Omegas, and more of the most coveted brands in the world. The next grail that’s up for grabs, however, is a big one. After a year of putting high-end watches on the wrists of winners, the company is celebrating its 50th contest with a discontinued steel Rolex Cosmograph Daytona 116500LN. Unworn. With box and papers. Only 700 tickets are being sold, putting the odds in your favor.

Win a legendary Rolex.

A Full-Circle History of the “It” Watch

Watches are more than timekeepers—they’re obsessions. But hype around new releases is a relatively new phenomenon, blossoming when Swatch did collaborations with Keith Haring in the ’80s and Vivienne Westwood in the ’90s. “They made the kind of people who didn’t buy watches want to buy a watch,” says photographer and cultural commentator Mark C O’Flaherty. Owning a Swatch came with clout, but not the kind Yves Piaget created with the Polo in 1979, what Mr Porter argues is the “it” watch of its time—and, with a recent rerelease, the one we’re currently living in.

Mr Porter

Secondhand Clothing Is On Track to Take 10% of Global Fashion Sales

“Secondhand clothing sales are on track to make up a tenth of the global fashion market next year, as the cost of living crisis and concerns over sustainability drives consumers toward ‘pre-loved’ garments,” says the Guardian. (And here we are choosing to buy used threads for the simple fact that they’re broken in, have a little history, and often just look better.) If you’ve visited a Goodwill or Salvation Army lately, you’ve noticed the racks are picked over. Thrifting is in. And everyone from zoomers to boomers are buying.

The Guardian

This Knife Is Too Fun to Put Away

Pocket knives are just… cool. They’re a little dangerous. They’re useful. Some are heirlooms. But most end up lost in a junk drawer between dead batteries and packing tape. They don’t even see action for mundane tasks, like breaking down a box, which is usually done joylessly with a pair of dull scissors. This knife, designed by Chen Chen and Kai Williams for Craighill, is too exciting to lose track of. Its handle is kind of a puzzle, its two sides sliding apart and together again at the flick of the wrist. You won’t want to put it away. $178

“I’m better off not socializing. I make a better impression if I’m not around.”
–Christopher Walken

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