what's classy if you're rich but trashy if you're poor?

cocaine and carolyn bessette kennedy core.

this week, my handbag notes are on ‘old money’ style, taste, and carolyn bessette kennedy.

in the bathroom at the casino in Monaco two years ago, i watched a thin, tanned woman with a Parent Trap-style bob and gleaming teeth emerge from her cubicle in a slinky black dress, sleeves held on by shiny shell clasps in a gold hue that was somehow both gaudy and tasteful.

fulfilling my god-honoured role of drunk british woman in bathroom, I let her know I loved her outfit. in a clipped american accent, she flashed her Harpic-white teeth at me again (seriously Americans how are you doing that to your mouths) and drawled

“thanks, darling, anything Schiaparelli and i have to have it”

and swept out in a cloud of dior riviera and rich white lady laughter, probably to sail off into the sunset on a Bond villain style yacht. i was left stunned, feeling poorer and more unfashionable than i ever thought possible, yet basking in the warmth of her residual glamour.

this deeply unrelatable out of touch anecdote serves a purpose - this interaction has stuck in my head for years, and i return to it whenever i think about taste. who gets to be gauche in a rich divorcée way, and who is merely trashy and tryhard?

meredith blake, parent trap stepmother and all-round style icon

‘old money’ is over?

if you somehow missed the whole of the last two years, a trend centred around neutral colour palettes, good fabric, and preppy (though i’m aware this now means something different to young americans) styling took the internet by storm, based on the idea that really rich people never wear gauche logos, but glide through the world in understated cashmere from lesser-known European fashion houses. GQ gives a good rundown, but pretty much every news outlet ever has covered our increasing fascination with the wardrobes of the ultra-rich, with Pinterest boards replete with stills from Gossip Girl, White Lotus, and The Talented Mr Ripley.

the talented mr ripley, white lotus

“elegance coaches” sprung up out of the woodwork by the dozen, some of whom have been around for years and make a living teaching etiquette and personal style (e.g., Anna Bey), and some of whom are 23 year-old influencers renting private jet film sets to take pictures of themselves in Zara twinsets and fake pearls. i’m not knocking the hustle, but. one wonders how we have got to the point of taking ‘old money styling’ advice from people still ordering from Shein.¹

however, the absolute queen of the old money pinterest board is undoubtedly Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, former Calvin Klein publicist and wife of John F. Kennedy Junior, who tragically died in a plane crash in 1999 off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. many a deep dive has been conducted on Carolyn but, honestly, this reddit post is more sensitive to the circumstances than most news outlets.

carolyn bessette-kennedy

her signature style is all-american, effortless, and quintessentially chic: dark blue jeans, crisp white shirts, signature summery blonde hair, and red lips that are somehow french rather than vulgar. if you’ve not come across her before, prepare to be inundated, as media outlets are swiftly churning out hype around the upcoming documentary American Love Story (teasers already in Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue, natch).