Is knowledge of fashion history a new status symbol?

See Is the Luxury Handbag’s Heyday Ending? An $8 billion slide in sales shows attitudes toward designer bags are changing by Carol Ryan of The WSJ.  

I have several links below on what Thorstein Veblen called Conspicuous Consumption. That is when rich people "purchase goods and services to display one’s economic power and social status." Adam Smith also said something like this. 

But now knowledge of fashion history might be a more powerful status symbol. See the text in red in the excerpts below:

"Status symbols are an odd thing. Some purchases, like a mansion, have never lost their power to flaunt wealth. Pineapples—which were once so rare and expensive that they became the 17th century’s equivalent of the Birkin—fell out of fashion as soon as rising supply meant the middle classes could afford them too."

"Sales of luxury bags are down almost 10% from peaks seen in 2023"

"brands raised prices too aggressively during the pandemic"

"Luxury companies released 80% fewer new bags between 2023 and 2025 than they did between 2016 and 2019"

"Social-media feeds are flooded with images of once-scarce bags like the Hermès Birkin and the Chanel Classic Flap, which has killed some of the magic."

"“You are selling the promise of exclusivity. Anything that creates visibility is not necessarily good,” says Luca Solca, luxury goods analyst at Bernstein."

"shoppers are still obsessed with luxury handbags, but their tastes are evolving in ways that are unhelpful for luxury companies’ profits."

"Social-media content about affordable ways to access luxury handbags through resale and rental platforms like Vivrelle is up sharply"

"carrying a vintage luxury bag is becoming cooler than buying new. In May, searches for vintage bags were up 131% compared with the same month of 2025" 

"Vintage is gaining popularity because of growing disenchantment with modern, mass-produced luxury, according to Silvia Bellezza, an associate professor of marketing at Columbia Business School." 

"buying vintage is a way to look different in an era of algorithm-driven fashion trends. Buying vintage also requires knowledge of fashion history, which is emerging as a new status symbol itself."

Also see Veblen Goods by Andrew Loo of CFI (Corporate Finance Institute) . Excerpts:

"Veblen good is a type of luxury good named after American economist Thorstein Veblen. It shows a positive relationship between price and demand [it should say quantity demanded-CM], and thus an upward-sloping demand curve.

The demand [it should say quantity demanded-CM] for a Veblen good rises (drops) when its price increases (decreases). A Veblen good generally is considered a high-quality exclusive product and a status symbol. When the price goes higher, its status symbol makes the Veblen good more desirable to consumers with high social and economic standing. Some common examples of Veblen goods include luxury cars, wines, handbags, fine jewelry and watches and even sneakers."

"Conspicuous consumption is another relevant concept of Veblen goods. It represents the purchase of goods and services to display one’s economic power and social status, motivated by the desire for prestige.

The concept of conspicuous consumption was also identified by Thorstein Veblen in his book The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899). In the practices of conspicuous consumption, a higher price makes a product more desirable for its status symbol, which explains the features of Veblen goods from a sociological perspective."

Adam Smith may have beaten Veblen to the punch. In The Wealth of Nations, he wrote:

"With the greater part of rich people, the chief enjoyment of riches consists in the parade of riches, which in their eyes is never so complete as when they appear to possess those decisive marks of opulence which nobody can possess but themselves. In their eyes the merit of an object which is in any degree either useful or beautiful, is greatly enhanced by its scarcity, or by the great labour which it requires to collect any considerable quantity of it, a labour which nobody can afford to pay but themselves. Such objects they are willing to purchase at a higher price than things much more beautiful and useful, but more common." (the entire book is online)

In Veblen's chapter on "Conspicuous Consumption," there is no mention of Adam Smith. 

There is statistical or empircal evidence that supports Veblen's theory. A Ph. D. student found that rich families do spend more on "Conspicuous Consumption." 

See also Doctoral Thesis Says Rich People Spend More on Conspicuous Things. Excerpts:

"Ori Heffetz, a doctoral student in economics at Princeton University (back in 2005-now he is a professor at Cornell University), has developed the first broad-gauged index of product visibility. Sure enough, he finds in his thesis that conspicuous items make up a greater share of the consumption budget in wealthier families."

"Mr. Heffetz estimated the relationship between the amount spent on each of 29 products and a household's income, using data on 3,924 households from the 1997 Consumer Expenditure Survey, conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The "income elasticity of demand," defined as the percentage change in consumption for a 1 percent increase in income, summarizes the degree to which a good is a luxury or a necessity. A good is a luxury if a 1 percent increase in income is associated with more than a 1 percent increase in consumption of that good.

Mr. Heffetz's analysis indicates that the higher the visibility of a good, the more likely it is to be a luxury item. For example, spending on cars and jewelry, two highly visible items, rises as a share of a household's budget as its income rises, while spending on home utilities, an inconspicuous category, falls as a share of the budget as income rises."

Related posts:

Is there InConspicuous Consumption? (2025) (what if rich people spend their money and they don't want to be seen doing it)

Is there InConspicuous Consumption? (Part 2) (2025) (links to some research on this concept)

What if you had to spend alot of money just to be offered the chance buy a luxury item? (2025) 

Has Luxury Lost Its Shine? Customers are complaining that they are getting less bang for their buck at the luxury store (a case of Veblen goods) (2024)  

Is Starbucks coffee no longer a Veblen good? (2024)

China's Government Cracks Down On Displays Of Wealth On Social Media (2022)  

(See In China, Bragging About Your Wealth Can Get You Censored: Online posts by users showing off their receipts, over-ordering food or scattering money have been deemed vulgar. Regulators say such content leads young people astray by Vivian Wang and Joy Dong of The New York Times.)

Payless sold its discount shoes for $600 a pair at mock luxury influencer event (2018)

Federal Reserve Economists May Have Discovered Another Cause Of Bankruptcy (if a neighbor wins the lottery people start spending more on consumption to keep up) (2016)

Conspicuous Consumption, Conspicuous Virtue, Thorstein Veblen (and Adam Smith, too!) (2007)