A club where you pay thousands to make 'old money' content
+ Hopelesscore, Facebook grandparent adoption, a gamer priest defrocked, cyber-farting, and the shady world of celebrity meme coins
Over the weekend, a video went viral on X showing a bunch of 20 somethings dressed in black tie dining and dancing in what looks to be an old European villa with the caption “Casual parties at Lake Como.” The video amassed over 25.5 million views and sparked a day of discourse about whether the people in the video were actual old money or just cosplaying.
Like most things on the internet, the video was staged. The people in the video are all part of an “Instagram club” where you pay to dress up and make “old money” content with a bunch of aspiring “old money” influencers. The club is called the TuxedoSociety and it bills itself as an exclusive members only club "dedicated to the finest experiences in the most iconic places of all time."
The website for TuxedoSociety, which costs 6,000 euros per year to join, promises that the group is “where legacy is crafted, and every encounter holds the promise of something greater, TuxedoSociety is your gateway to meaningful relationships and once in a lifetime moments.”
There is no physical club, so members are just paying thousands of euros to get invited to “luxury adventures,” which they’ll have to pay extra for, and networking opportunities. They also promise to teach members, “The Gentleman's Way: Learn the art of Everyday Elegance, apporach [sic] life with the charm of a gentleman.”
TuxedoSociety’s website is riddled with spelling errors and features the generic Wordpress logo at the top of the tab. One co-founder, Gabriele Bonini, is an e-commerce hustler, and the other, Riccardo Capotosti, is an “old money” Instagram and TikTok internet personality. All the members listed on the website are men, though attractive women are featured prominently in their content. And though it bills itself as exclusive, the co-founders are promoting membership on Instagram.
Back in 2016, I wrote a feature on Kiel James Patrick, dubbed “The Preppiest Man on Instagram.” He blew up by posting a seemingly endless photo stream of luxury ski weekends, black tie parties, vintage sports cars, and multi-million dollar estates. But though his content appeared to document a life of leisure, it was ultimately all a years-long marketing endeavor for his old money-style clothing line, Kiel James Patrick.
Patrick was one of the first to curate and commodify and “old money” life on social media, but by 2022 old money content was exploding on TikTok. That year, I wrote a big print feature for Town & Country on the rise of old money content and how much of it was produced by Gen Zs with zero generational wealth.
This deluge of old money content spurred the rise of “quiet luxury” fashion, and a resurgence of brands like Loro Piana on the red carpet. Last month, Plann magazine, declared 2024 the year of quiet luxury. “In a world obsessed with immediacy and excess, quiet luxe is a rebellion of sorts,” the magazine declared.
I think clubs like TuxedoSociety are the next evolution of the trend. While the whole thing is clearly a moneymaking endeavor by two Gen Z hustlers, and a hilarious example of how phoney influencer culture can be, I think it also taps into deeper cultural and economic shifts. At a time when economic mobility is increasingly out of reach for young people, cosplaying wealth has become more and more popular.
As I wrote in Town & Country, the rise of "old money" content is a direct response to the instability of our era. Periods of economic downturn have often led to a collective yearning for stability and a romanticization of the past. Most recently, the Great Recession of 2008 resulted in a resurgence of minimalist fashion and a focus on timeless styles.
Dozens of young people told me that they felt that they have little economic future. The cost of homeownership is out of reach for many, student loan debt is crushing, and the job market remains volatile. Participating in an “old money” aesthetic Instagram club offers an escape and a fantasy of stability, sophistication, and belonging.
And though TuxedoSociety itself isn’t a physical club, private members clubs and groups are booming. A decade ago there were 90 high-end members’ clubs in the U.S.; that number has since risen 66%, according to data from Pipeline Agency, a consultancy in the sector. Europe has experienced a similar surge, with the number of private clubs growing from 120 to 200, Robb Report reported.
Members clubs and aspirational luxury tends to surge during times of economic stagnation and dwindling national optimism, The Guardian recently noted. They “tend to do really badly when there’s a boom in the economy overall, while usage goes right up in a recession,” said Seth Alexander Thévoz, author of Behind Closed Doors: The Secret Life of London Private Members’ Clubs.
You can also see this surge in old money content in the context of our political moment. For Rolling Stone, I wrote about the big pro-Trump influencer party the night before the inauguration. Hosted in a venue styled after an 18th century ballroom with red velvet walls and crystal chandeliers, the event looked like something ripped from a TuxedoSociety Instagram post. Hundreds of conservative young people during inauguration weekend cosplayed the aesthetics of old money while talking about how America needs to return to the ideals of the past.
‘“Succession’ and its merciless satirizing of the ultra-rich may have [helped to inspire] quiet luxury, but the style is often marketed as a way to emulate the Roy family’s conservative media moguls, rather than mock them,” Business of Fashion recently wrote. “The old money aesthetic that has bubbled up on TikTok idealizes a more conservative approach to dressing, both literally and figuratively. The look itself is… reminiscent of old-school, Ronald Reagan-era Republicans.”
The old money aesthetic is heavily intertwined with legacies of oppression, systemic racism, and entrenched classism. Old money families accumulated their fortunes in large part thanks to slavery and segregation. I do wonder how many people seeking to replicate old money aesthetics also seek to replicate the conditions under which those styles evolved. It’s a challenge to find a single person of color on the TuxedoSociety Instagram account, for instance.
Either way, as more of life is mediated through digital spaces, the ability to convincingly portray an old money aesthetic, whether on Instagram or the cover of New York magazine, may hold more social capital than actually having old money.
What I’m reading
Cozy comfort
New research backs up what gamers have known for years: video games can be an antidote to stress and anxiety. - Reuters (the design of this article is amazing!)
How My Trip to Quit Sugar Became a Journey Into Hell
For her whole life, Caity Weaver has been a hard-core sweets junkie. Could a spa help her quit in a week? Her final story for NYT is a great read. - NY Times
Are You Lonely? Adopt a New Family on Facebook Today
A Facebook group called Surrogate Grandparents USA, a place where older and younger Americans connect over a mutual need for family. Many of the posts read like tiny, tragic personal ads. - WIRED (h/t )
Algorithmic ranking is unfairly maligned
It’s not algorithmic ranking per se that’s bad—it’s just that the algorithms you’re used to don’t care about your goals. - Dynomight
Inside the shady world of celebrity meme coins
Crypto coins keep ripping off investors. One cyber sleuth set out to find the culprit. - Business Insider
How hopelesscore became even more hopeless
The internet is screaming in pain with a meme genre in which depressive language is presented motivationally to mock the earlier “hopecore” aesthetic - Etymology Nerd
Is This How Reddit Ends?
The site has become a reservoir of humanity on the web. Now it, too, is turning to AI. - The Atlantic
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I can't decide which of your link headlines is the most insane. Those nails are FREAKY but I applaud the way they actually change the look of your hands.
Any creators who want to start up a #SweatsuitSociety hmu.
Thank you for doing the Lord's work with the links. The human carpet feud 🤯 really beats the Tuxedo Club.