When England play Spain on Sunday night, Berlin’s Olympiastadion will be heaving with Chanel cardigans, Miu Miu mini skirts and mini Hermès Kelly bags, tote of choice among England’s WAGs despite – or rather because of – their £28,000 price tag.
The England squad each make between £50,000-£400,000 a week: a five figure handbag is small change.
But if millionaire footballers like to splash the cash, billionaire tech giants are engaged in an equally concerted effort to look as unassuming as possible. Earlier this week, America’s tech and media titans arrived in Sun Valley, Idaho for ‘billionaires summer camp’, an annual conference where deals are made and friendships are cemented in stone, provided each friend has a net worth in excess of $2bn.
While these global elites might have fortunes that put the fictional Roys to shame, any chic, Succession-style manifestations of stealth wealth are strictly off-menu. A quick glance at the corduroy, denim and padded nylon carapaces of these happy campers reveals that this isn’t about looking wealthy in a low-key, ‘quiet luxury’ way. It’s about looking like you’ve just got off the 24 bus after a modest shop at Lidl.
The message is clear: if you want to look rich, you’ve got to look poor. How? By indulging in some competitive dressing down.
Here are the new signifiers of wealth among the 0.01%.