Old Money & New Money

One of my favourite pastimes is people-watching. Yeah. The old-fashioned kind.
I have made some of the most accurate assumptions and conclusions about people just by watching them.
Sometimes I get so carried away that Antonio has to tug at my sleeve to remind me that I was so being obvious.
I can't help it.
I don't like to make a conclusion about people but I have found out that I am usually right.
With more and more Malaysians acquiring new-found wealth, you can see so much affluence around you.
I'm always tickled by "affluent" people whom I see at social hang-outs in and around the city.
Oh. I aint a zillionnaire. But, I certainly aint from the gutter.
Let's say that I am not unfamiliar with wealth and trappings of wealth, and the wealthy -- the rich and famous. Particularly, old money.
So, it always amuses me to see ladies in severely-tinted or highlighted or dyed hair, wearing gaudy skimpy designer (original, excuse me) tees, tight designer jeans, high-heeled designer shoes and LV handbags. Oh, did I say dripping with designer jewwllery? And this is just at the supermarket.OUCH!
It is awful. Designer top-to-toe. Plain awful.
I know, I know. She's loaded. Rather, hubby is a filthy zillionnaire.
I'll bet it's the new crony contract he just laid his hands on.
Oh. I have seen dozens of these ladies. You can tell that they want YOU to know that they are RICH.
Now, therein lies the difference between the cheapo rich look and the old money rich look.
The cheapo new money wants the whole world to know that she has arrived. My point exactly -- just arrived. And loudly too.
Now, old money? My aunt Elsa is really old old money.
She has tons of cars because she has tons of money, having inherited from her rich granddaddy who was a tin miner.
Aunt Elsa is no lazy lady of leisure. She runs a family company. Rather well too, given her accountancy and business background.
But, she goes around in an old Honda Civic. She wears a simple white shirt which you could only guess is expensive because it looks expensive on her, a jade bracelet and she carries a luxurious-looking handbag, the brand of which you can't tell but it sure looks expensive.
She is often in a simple pair of light-coloured trousers and a pair of mules in neutral tones.
Aunt Elsa's hair is in her natural dark-brown. I think she colours her hair to disguise the grey strands. Her healthy, exuberantly glossy hair is styled in a simple shoulder-length cut.
And she looks a million dollars.
I'd want to look like her anytime than a dolled-up tart.
Do I sound bitchy? I apologise but this is just my honest observation.
You see, Aunt Elsa so often tells me that her handbag she is carrying is the one she got from a flea market or somewhere exotic because she likes going to these places to get old stuff and such.
Her blouse was made by her long-time tailor and her trousers were bought at Edmund Ser. Sometimes at a boutique in Paris.
But, sure makes no difference to me.
Aunt Elsa buys things she likes whether they are cheap, moderately-priced or expensive.
But, they have to be of qood quality.
She has been so rich for so long that she cannot fool anyone.
A classy lady that she is -- she is ever so polite to waiters, doormen, car jockeys and just about anyone.
Now, that's class. That's old money.