"The images of this aesthetic cropping up on social media are lusting after the Ivy League-slash-Oxbridge country club vibe".
‘Old Money’ is an aesthetic based around a wealthy, classic style. And as far as we can see, the images of this aesthetic cropping up on social media are lusting after the Ivy League-slash-Oxbridge country club vibe.
I think of this trend often, not because it looks particularly good but because the biggest fashion trend of the moment is Y2K, or maybe a modern take on the bright bubblegum styles of the early 2000s. It stands right in opposition to the aesthetic that played na even more defining role during the actual 2000s: prep.
Even though no one really uses that word anymore, over the past several years, I’ve started to see its descendants on TikTok, Pinterest and Instagram. People – specially teenagers and young adults - in oxford shirts lounging on a sailboat; Chanel tweed blazers inside an Ivy League library; tennis skirts and croquet in front of someone’s summer home.
It goes by different names online, sometimes called as ‘dark academy’ (or ‘light academy’ if it’s a picture of a sunny setting) but the most popular description is “old money aesthetic.”
It seems to have really caught the eye of Gen Z, and that group dictating Fashion trends on the internet one more time. Maybe it’s because the generation is obsessed with Gilmore Girls again or bacause of the Gossip Girl reboot – and even the first edition of the show – but here’s what we do know: tennis skirts, knitwear and khaki pants are all around.