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Notes -
Clothing and fashion lost its value as signifiers.
Dressing a certain way sends certain messages about what you do, who you are, what tax bracket you're in. However, as new money piles in and out, demographics shift, and things shift on the timescale of days instead of years, the symbols lose their meaning. Society becoming lower trust is a side effect of losing the meaning behind the symbols; you used to be able to trust that the well-dressed man in a suit is on his way to a white collar business job. Now you're not sure if he's a crackhead or a psychopath, or some combination of all of the above.
When all the tech CEOs took fashion lessons from Steve Jobs and influencers pulling millions a year drive Lamborghinis in cargo shorts, when scantily-clad women are not 'asking for it' and how dare you imply such a thing, when nouveau-riche Chinese cover themselves in brand names and gold, then why would you bother dressing a certain way if it's fundamentally interchangeable, meaningless? Fuck that, people will wear what's cheap or comfortable in the end.
Might also be worth looking at the "stealth wealth" trend, and the churn in fast fashion.
While it might not be a good signifier of wealth it does really impact your appearance. Well fitting clothes, better materials and wearing something nicer than a t-shirt can easily add two points on a scale from 1-10. Attractive people are more popular, are perceived as smarter and more moral, have better chances at attracting and retaining a mate and are more financially successful.
If you are really wealthy, you do not have to care how you appear to the plebs at all. The middle classes must care about their appearance, bums and billionaires are free.
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