What Is ‘Quiet Luxury’ And Why Is It A Great Selling Point For Corporate Apparel? (2024)

The terms “stealth wealth” and “quiet luxury” have been percolating for the past year, thanks in part to TV shows featuring ultra-rich characters, like Succession. In general, the terms are interchangeable and refer to an understated aesthetic of high-quality garments and accessories in classic cuts and neutral colors.

Quiet luxury “leans into classic, tailored silhouettes typically in neutral shades like black, white, beige, gray and navy,” writes Fiona Ward for Glamour. Bottom line, she adds, it’s “just a classic, minimal way of dressing using well-made pieces that never bow to the trend cycle or go out of style.” It’s about investment pieces meant for the long haul, rather than chasing the latest trends in color, materials and silhouettes.

In many ways, promo’s corporate apparel niche – with its emphasis on providing versatile and durable garments that blend in with a variety of styles and situations – is perfectly positioned to take advantage of the quiet luxury trend.

For starters, corporate colorways tend to be a more muted, neutral palette, says Michelle Chen, president of California-based supplier FOSSA Apparel.

“We tend to stay more conservative year after year, and when you’re talking about your navies, grays, black, natural neutral tones, earthy tones, these are colors that are evergreen,” she says. “They’re never going to go away, especially in the corporate market. A lot of these colorways are what I have in my wardrobe as my daily staple, basic items.”

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A related trend is monochrome dressing. Head-to-toe black is nothing new, and it’s a standard uniform for plenty of industries from salons to film sets, but earthy neutrals like brown and cream have become popular as well – and these are colors that play well with others, too, whether you’re going for a pop of color or a minimalist monochrome look.

“You do see a lot more head-to-toe color now,” says Vicki Ostrom, trend analyst/futurist with supplier SanMar(No. 1 of the PPAI 100) and founder of Trendependent, adding that hashtags like #neutralaesthetic, #neutraloutfit and #monochromeoutfit have garnered hundreds of millions of views on TikTok. She’s also happy to see that the palette of colors considered “neutral” has expanded in recent years.

“Earth tones have absolutely become so important, especially that terracotta kind of color, browns like nutshells, and those really beautiful, warm, orangey browns,” Ostrom says. “But then you also have a lot in the world of clay and sand, desert colors like that. And then greens – the olives, the leaf tones, pretty much any color or shade of green. There’s something for everybody.”

Subtle decoration and branding is also a must for the stealth wealth vibe, with tone-on-tone embroidery, custom inner labels and other clever but low-key touches that let the wearer know whose brand they bear without feeling like a walking billboard.

As Thomaï Serdari, professor of marketing and director of the fashion and luxury program at NYU’s Stern School of Business, told CNBC, “the complete lack of logos and anything too conspicuous,” is a hallmark of the quiet luxury trend, adding that subtle detailing recognizable to the end user “becomes a differentiator for those in the know.”