Quiet luxury brands are having their moment. While the trend does seem new-ish, it's actually pretty old: rich people (we mean dangerously rich people) have long eschewed big statements for a whispery sort of wealth. But, thanks to the Roys of Succession, The Row, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Sofia Richie's wedding, Google searches for “old-money style” rose by a 568 per cent, while the terms “quiet luxury” and “stealth wealth” both experienced a massive 900 per cent increase. Over on TikTok, “quiet luxury” brought in billions and billions of views.
If you missed Succession (dude?), quiet luxury is a form of minimalism. Instead of logos and prints, emphasises quality design, such as construction, materials, and cut without any of the overt branding that can sometimes come with high-end labels. A good litmus test for a quiet luxury item is to see if you can tell which brand made it within 10 seconds. If you only see a great sweater, and not its branding, it falls into the quiet category.
“Whether you're a start-up label or heritage fashion house, everyone wants a piece of the quiet luxury pie,” says Mark Bage, managing director of luxury sneaker discovery platform Sneak In Peace. “Bold, in-your-face graphics and overbranding have long been the standard, so it makes sense that things would swing the other way. These days, we’re seeing an increased focus on understated, minimal designs and tonal colour palettes. It's all very chic, and very sophisticated.”
These are the best quiet luxury brands that you should know about. And we've also thrown in some budget-friendly options, so you can get that Kendall Roy look without that Kendall Roy bank.
Founded in 2005 by Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, The Row quickly rose to become one of the most fashionable forerunners for quiet luxury. In the beginning, the New York-based brand was challenged to make the perfect T-shirt (which it executed with pure excellence, FYI), and later expanded into seasonal collections for men and women alike. Characterised by enduring silhouettes crafted with supreme quality, it's arguably one of the labels that instigated the quiet luxury hype, and truth be told, we couldn't be more thankful for it. Our favoured category? It's got to be trousers.
The piece to buy: