Last week, I took on the coveted role of fly-on-the-wall and professional eavesdropper. Out for lunch with my mum, we sat next to a group of young women draped in ‘quiet-luxury’ beige, getting absolutely shit-faced and giggling about how they don’t want to work anymore.
“No, I’m actually going to just quit and be a stay-at-home wife,” one whined, flipping her perfectly coiffed golden blowout over her shoulder.
“Literallyyyy, that’s where it’s at, girls. We’ve got to bag a rich husband,” another cackled in response.
There’s nothing new about what they were saying, women have had this exact conversation for decades. In fact, even I’ve thought the same thing. Can you blame us? In this economic climate? The ‘grind’ is relentless, wages are stagnating, and inflation keeps climbing. The eight-hour workday suddenly doesn’t seem worth it anymore. And we’re not alone—social media is flooded with women openly rejecting the hustle, dismissing girlboss culture in favour of something softer, more ‘traditionally feminine’.
The rise of the ‘clean girl’ aesthetic, the tradwife movement, and the glorification of ‘soft living’ all point to a longing for escape. But whether this shift is a reaction to burnout, a symptom of economic instability, or something more sinister; a quiet, creeping return to conservative gender roles, one thing is clear: brands have been quick to capitalise.
With a sleek new logo and a promise to cater to the ‘It Girl,’ fast-fashion giant PrettyLittleThing (PLT) has rebranded, pivoting from barely-there clubwear to beige co-ords and unbranded jumpers—basically old-money cosplay, but polyester. And with it, the aesthetic’s regressive undertones are being consolidated into something marketable. “Our icon is a unicorn because we cater to the individual. No two people – or wardrobes should ever be the same” reads the post announcing their rebrand, while simultaneously selling an aesthetic defined by uniformity.
My first gripe with this rebrand, and I have many, is that PLT claims to offer something for everyone, yet ‘everyone’ clearly doesn’t include bigger bodies or women of colour. The sheer amount of beige alone makes that obvious, but if that’s not enough, there are already plenty of videos of plus-size women and women of colour trying on the clothes and immediately realising they were not made with them in mind. And before the PLT stans come at me, yes I know they have a plus-size section but I believe the image below will fight my corner for me.
I think the reason it feels so much less inclusive is because the entire rebrand seems to be modelled after the ‘old money aesthetic’. At its core, the old-money aesthetic is about class—specifically, white, generational wealth. The irony is, the very people who gatekeep this look (the trust-fund babies and dynastic elites) are often the ones who profit off the working class. The same families that built their fortunes on exploitation are now the aspirational blueprint for an aesthetic being marketed back to us by fast fashion, which feels almost…grotesque.
TikToks showcasing ‘old-money looks’ rarely include Black or brown women because systemic inequality has historically meant that Black wealth is new wealth, and new wealth is viewed as ‘tacky.’ The data backs this up: a study on accumulated wealth found that Black households with a college degree had 70 per cent of the median wealth of white households without one. What this trend is doing is reinforcing who gets to be seen as elite.
In 2024, The New York Post suggested fashion can predict political shifts, linking the resurgence of Americana (Ralph Lauren, equestrian aesthetics) to the Trump presidency. And with Trump on his current rampage getting rid of DEI initiatives, and PrettyLittleThing’s rebrand not even pretending to design for diverse body types or skin tones, the timing of it all feels wrong. Fashion has always reflected what’s going on in the world, and this lean towards elitism, nostalgia, and conservative values feels like a symptom of that. When looking rich and ‘timeless’ becomes the goal at the same time institutions are making it harder for marginalised people to get ahead, it’s not about the clothes anymore, it’s a big fucking neon warning sign.
Old money aesthetic’ has been searched over 2M times on Pinterest. Scrolling through the results you see a plethora of old images of rich white women and their husbands, very much giving ‘kept-woman’. The aesthetic’s rise coincides with the resurgence of the tradwife movement, where women romanticise traditional domestic roles.
Some women online are also picking up on this correlation. TikTok creator @itssophiemilner said in a video: “There’s something really sinister happening right now… PLT’s rebrand to a fake old-money aesthetic is saying a lot about fashion right now and the shift towards conservatism in the way women are starting to act and move in society.” She describes seeing younger women ditching party dresses for full tweed suits, attending bottomless brunches in beige two-pieces and discussing ditching work to be a stay-at-home wife (much like I did). To be clear I don’t think it’s because they truly want to return to traditional gender roles, but because they are exhausted by a system that gives them no viable alternatives.
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with wanting an easier life. There’s nothing wrong with choosing to be a stay-at-home wife if it’s truly your choice. But the idea that stepping away from the workforce is the solution ignores the reality that being a stay-at-home wife is still work—unpaid, undervalued, and financially precarious. For many women, leaving the workforce means losing financial independence, making it harder to leave a relationship if they need to. The romanticisation of this role erases the struggles of women who find themselves economically trapped, unable to return to work due to CV gaps and financial instability.
I grew up with my mum telling me to never financially rely on a man because she had seen friends and family perpetually stuck in toxic relationships, unable to leave because they simply couldn’t afford to. As Sophie states in her TikTok: “If you’re just being provided for by your man, he’s your employer whether you like it or not. Your husband being your employer means that he can fuck you over whenever he wants.”
And ironically, just as traditional gender roles have historically kept women in positions of financial precarity, fast fashion thrives on maintaining that exploitative system—both by targeting a female customer base with lower incomes and through the relentless churn of unattainable trend cycles. Ones that keep consumers trapped in a loop of constantly needing to buy more. Yet behind the glossy marketing, the real price is being paid by the garment workers producing these clothes under exploitative conditions.
In 2020, an undercover investigation by The Times found that workers in Leicester factories producing Boohoo Group garments (including PLT) were being paid as little as £3.50 an hour, far below the UK minimum wage of £8.72. The company’s response was a generic press release promising change, yet PLT’s CEO, Umar Kamani, recently threw a £20 million wedding featuring a star-studded guest list and an extravagant Mariah Carey performance. The gap between those producing these garments and those profiting off them couldn’t be wider.
One viral Threads post summed it up: “Pretty Little Thing’s latest rebrand to an ‘old money’ aesthetic actually adds to my point that the proliferation of ‘old money’ as a popular aesthetic is cosmetic and performative. The aesthetic itself lacks depth and has always been vulnerable to cheap brands cosplaying it. It’s simply a ‘let’s wear all cream even if it’s polyester’ kind of energy.”
Tired, disillusioned, and desperate for an easier life, women are gravitating towards aesthetics that promise security, even if that security is a façade. And as always, fast fashion is there to capitalise, packaging up the illusion and selling it back to us at a markup. But if history has taught us anything, it’s that these trends don’t exist in a vacuum. We should be paying attention to what this one is really selling.