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What’s This About
Gen Z turned “old money” from a phrase about inherited wealth into a clothing label, mixing secondhand classics with current clothes and sharing the look through public tutorials.
This guide explains how the look changed and how to wear the modern version, such as:
What the phrase meant before it became a hashtag
Five ways the online version differs from the older wardrobe
Why the hemline index is a weak explanation for the trend
The mid-century icons the moodboards borrow from
Three starter outfits built from classic garments
and many more!
The label may fade, but well-fitting classics bought slowly will stay useful whatever the trend does next.
Key Points
01“Old money” describes families who have been rich for a long time; the clothes sold under the label can be bought by anyone and prove nothing about background.
02The modern version is bought rather than inherited, often secondhand, mixed with current clothes and shared through TikTok tutorials.
03Economic worry is a popular theory for the trend, but research on the hemline index found at most a weak link between fashion and the economy.
04Fit, a narrow colour range and slow buying matter more than labels, props or a head-to-toe copy.
Before it was a hashtag, “old money” was simply a phrase for families who had been rich for a long time.
In the early 2020s, younger people online turned it into a clothing label, and in doing so they changed what the look means and how people put it together.
This guide explains what changed, what the evidence does and does not show about why, and how a man can wear the modern version without treating it as a costume.
What “Old Money” meant before it was a trend
Merriam-Webster defines old money as people whose families have been rich for a long time.
The clothes now sold under the label come from older traditions with their own names: the American Ivy League look, British country clothing and French Riviera summer dressing.
Our Old Money style guide for men covers those traditions and the core wardrobe.
Television helped keep the image in view, with series such as Gossip Girl and Succession showing wealthy characters in costumes chosen for drama.
What younger people did was take that image and treat it as an aesthetic: a recognisable set of clothes, colours and settings anyone can collect and copy.
That is how a phrase about families became a fashion trend.
Five ways Gen Z changed the Old Money look
1. Bought secondhand rather than inherited
The trend’s wardrobe is usually bought, often secondhand, rather than handed down.
Resale has grown in the same period: ThredUp’s 2025 Resale Report, as summarised by Retail Dive in March 2025, said a record 58 per cent of US consumers bought secondhand clothing in 2024.
ThredUp is a resale company, so its survey is a useful signal rather than neutral proof.
Blazers, wool trousers, knitwear and leather shoes are well suited to secondhand buying because they are made to be repaired, altered and worn for years, which fits the wider case for sustainable fashion.
2. Mixed with current clothes rather than worn head to toe
Online outfits rarely copy a full mid-century wardrobe.
More often, one or two classic garments sit with current clothes: a polo shirt with straight jeans, a trench coat over a plain T-shirt, or loafers with relaxed chinos.
Regional versions such as New England classic style show how far that mixing can go while keeping the same core garments.
3. Public tutorials rather than private codes
The trend lives on TikTok, Instagram and Pinterest, where creators post outfit videos, shopping hauls and “get the look” edits.
Business Insider reported in June 2023 that the #OldMoney hashtag had passed 6.5 billion views on TikTok, as its report republished on Yahoo shows.
Views are not people, but the figure shows how widely the look was shared and copied.
4. A cleaner, more neutral palette
The online version leans on cream, beige, navy, grey and white.
As the Stanford law professor Richard Thompson Ford pointed out to GQ in April 2024, older preppy dressing was often more colourful, with bright madras, pink, lime green and Nantucket red trousers, so the trend is a narrower edit rather than a faithful copy.
5. Quality and fit as the message
Many creators present the look as a way to buy fewer, longer-lasting clothes rather than as a sign of wealth.
That message is useful in practice, but buying a large new “old money” haul in one go works against it.
Is the trend really about the economy?
One popular explanation links the look to economic worry.
In April 2025, Fast Company reported a TikTok creator’s theory that the trend is a response to economic uncertainty, drawing on the “hemline index”.
The hemline index is the old idea that skirts get shorter when the economy is strong and longer when it is weak.
Erasmus University Rotterdam notes that economist George Taylor first linked skirt length and the economy in 1926, but a study by Franses and van Baardwijk, using data from 1921 onwards, called the index an urban legend, finding at most a weak effect with fashion trailing the economy by about three years.
So economic worry may be one reason some people prefer classic clothes, but it is a theory, not a proven cause.
The icons the moodboards borrow from
Old Money moodboards repeat a small set of mid-century men, used as outfit references rather than as proof of any class code.
Gianni Agnelli, the head of Fiat, is often photographed with his wristwatch worn over his shirt cuff, a detail moodboards copy widely.
The Duke of Windsor is described by the V&A as an acknowledged leader of men’s fashion who favoured a casual style and bold pattern; The VOU’s Sloane Ranger style manual covers the British country and city wardrobe that later drew on similar clothes.
Ralph Lauren, who started his company with neckwear in 1967, built a business on reinterpreting American and British classics; our guide to Polo Ralph Lauren and Ralph Lauren explains the labels.
These men are useful for ideas about cut, colour and pattern, not as models of a life to copy.
How to wear the modern Old Money look
The modern version works best as a handful of classic garments that fit well and go together.
Start with fit: shoulders that sit at your own shoulder line, trousers that reach your shoes cleanly, and knitwear that skims rather than clings.
Buy slowly, and check secondhand first for blazers, knitwear and leather shoes.
Keep a narrow colour range, such as navy, grey, cream, stone and brown, so most clothes combine.
Keep accessories plain: a leather belt, a simple watch and perhaps a silk pocket square.
Skip large logos, which work against the look, as our comparison of old money and new money style explains.
Three outfits to start with
Everyday: a white Oxford button-down shirt, a navy crew-neck jumper, straight mid-blue jeans and brown suede loafers, with a stone cotton jacket if it is cool.
Smart dinner: a light blue shirt, a navy blazer, mid-grey wool trousers and dark brown penny loafers, with no tie.
Cold weather: a cream cable-knit jumper over a checked shirt, brown corduroy trousers and brown leather boots, under a waxed cotton jacket or a camel overcoat.
For more on the core wardrobe, see our guide to the Old Money aesthetic.
Criticisms and limits of the trend
Critics, including writers in the luxury press such as Robb Report, point out that the trend can glamorise inherited privilege and treat a narrow social world as a style ideal.
In the same GQ report, the podcast host Avery Trufelman described the online version as close to a costume made for social media, and the clothes in it are often chosen for a photograph rather than for daily life.
Both points are fair, and the simplest answer is to wear the clothes for what they are: durable, adaptable garments that do not need a story about money to work.
If the label fades, a navy blazer, an Oxford shirt and a good pair of loafers will still be useful, which is the most practical lesson the trend has to offer.
For the reasons the trend caught on, see our guide to why Gen Z took up Old Money style.
Take our three quizzes
None of these tools is needed to wear the outfits in this guide, but some readers like extra help when choosing clothes.
Check your body shape with the body shape quiz for men, and read our guides to the men’s body shapes and menswear silhouettes.
Find your seasonal colours with the seasonal colour quiz for men, and read more about seasonal colour palettes for men.
Take the fashion style quiz for men to see which styles and outfit ideas match what you like wearing, and see our fashion style guide for personal and historic styles.
Book a consultation for personal help
If you would like personal help after the quizzes, you can book paid consultations with The VOU’s image consultants and stylists through our styling services for men, or contact us with questions.
You can also read how to choose an image consultant, learn what an image consultant does, and see our guide to styling by occasion, location, season and time of day.
For the vocabulary used in this guide, see our explainers on clothing, garments, fashion accessories and outfits.
We also cover heritage luxury brands and how logo-heavy luxury designs come across.