Bernard O'Shea: Five things I learned about the 'quiet luxury' craze

'Quiet luxury' is the new way to show you’re rich without looking like you’re rich

Bernard O'Shea: "Like mindfulness, minimalism, or eating off grey plates, 'quiet luxury' is another way of saying 'I’ve got my life together' — quietly, but publicly."

I saw someone describe Kendall Roy’s cardigan from Succession as a “statement piece”. It cost €2,000, and the statement was: “I’m rich but also very sad.”

‘Quiet luxury’ is basically rich-people cosplay for monks

I recently fell down an internet rabbit hole, reading about ‘quiet luxury’. The articles all said the same thing: the rich have gone quiet. They’re dressing in beige, they’re wearing no logos, and their jumpers look so soft you could use them to wipe Sudocreme onto a baby’s bum.

The idea is that true wealth doesn’t shout. It whispers. Apparently, if you’re truly rich, you no longer need to announce it with a gold chain or a handbag that costs more than a car. You simply glide into a room in neutral tones, smelling faintly of Scandinavian timber and inherited property.

In Ireland, ‘quiet luxury’ is not new. It’s called having notions while denying it. It’s the woman who buys an expensive coat but says ‘Ah, I just got it in the sale’. It’s the man who drives a new car but insists it’s ‘only the demo model’. It’s rich-people cosplay for monks. The fashion equivalent of saying ‘I’m not bothered’... while secretly having a sock drawer spreadsheet.

2. We’ve been doing quiet luxury since the Celtic Tiger collapsed

If you wanted to see real masters of ‘quiet luxury’, then you should have come to Ireland circa 2009. After the Celtic Tiger burst, the loud luxury — the chrome kitchen taps, the holiday homes in Bulgaria, the gleaming new BMWs — became shameful relics. We suddenly decided that anything too shiny was vulgar. So we all went beige. Literally.

Bernard O'Shea: "We learned that showing off in Ireland doesn’t make people admire you. Historically, this runs deep. Our relationship with wealth has always been complicated. Centuries of colonialism, famine, and forced emigration left us wary of anyone who seems too comfortable."

We swapped gold watches for brown belts. We replaced the Gucci handbags with ‘a lovely one from Pennys’. We took the property developer look — tan, teeth, tight suit — and replaced it with the ‘civil servant on flexitime’ aesthetic.

It was national rebranding by stealth. We learned that showing off in Ireland doesn’t make people admire you. Historically, this runs deep. Our relationship with wealth has always been complicated. Centuries of colonialism, famine, and forced emigration left us wary of anyone seeming too comfortable. The old Irish suspicion kicks in: — “He’s doing very well for himself…” (translation: he’s probably in trouble with Revenue). — “She’s fierce, well turned-out.” (translation: she’s after someone).

We’ve been quietly luxurious for generations.

3. We spot wealth by texture, not logos

Psychologists have studied how people perceive luxury. Our brains recognise ‘quality’ not by logos but by texture and fit. We subconsciously notice how fabric moves, how shoes are stitched, and how colours blend. Essentially, rich people’s clothes look heavier. They hang differently. There’s a quiet weight to wealth.

So, I tried an experiment. I compared my €12 Penneys hoodie to a photo of a Loro Piana jumper online — the kind of brand beloved by billionaires and people called Rupert. 

The Loro Piana jumper was made of baby cashmere brushed by monks in the Alps. I wore mine while changing a wheel in the rain. Both did their job, but only one came with a free existential crisis.

4. How to do ‘quiet luxury’ Irish-style

If you really want to embrace quiet luxury in Ireland, forget Hermès or Loro Piana. True Irish quiet luxury isn’t about cashmere. It’s about longevity, craft, and a very specific kind of pride disguised as practicality.

Here’s how to do it properly:

— The Coat for Weddings Only. You bought it in 2011. You still tell people: “It’s a good one. It has never let me down.”

— The Scissors No One Touches. Every Irish house has one pair of scissors that belongs to the mother, and if you use it for anything other than fabric, you’ll be written out of the will.

— The Good Room. Nothing says quiet luxury like a space so sacred even the Hoover isn’t allowed in.

— The Sunday Carvery. Where the real stealth wealth is in knowing which hotel does the good gravy.

— The Valeted Car. Quiet luxury is when your car is clean enough to pass as someone else’s.

5. In the end, quiet luxury is just another noisy trend

Like mindfulness, minimalism, or eating off grey plates, ‘quiet luxury’ is another way of saying ‘I’ve got my life together’ — quietly, but publicly. It’s an aesthetic of calm that requires a lot of money and even more self-awareness.

What the trend really reveals is how tired people are of shouting. We’ve gone from ‘look at my success’ to ‘guess how subtle my success is’. But it’s still the same game — trying to prove we’re doing better than the person next to us, just in a softer font.

We keep inventing new ways to dress up the same old truth — that everyone, rich or poor, wants to feel like they’ve made it. But ‘making it’ isn’t about beige coats or minimalist living. It’s about not needing to prove anything.

If ‘quiet luxury’ really is about peace, ease, and comfort — well, most Irish kitchens have been doing it since the 1950s. We just called it ‘putting the kettle on and minding your own business’.