Wake up and grind, it’s 5am, get ready, go on a run with the FT playing in the back, yogurt bowl and protein shake for breakfast. Log in by 8am and work till whenever you get off, at 7 if you’re lucky. After work drinks, party till 1am, next morning repeat. This is the life that Gen Zs are craving and celebrating; we are in a Yuppie renaissance.
Yuppies in the 80s stand for Young Upwardly-mobile Professionals are the poster children of this lifestyle: work hard, buy designer goods, let your money do the talking for you, party and have nights out. It’s now culturally cool to hustle and grind; long are the days of the “soft life”. In a dire economic market, we all want to work. What’s fascinating to me is how the pro-capitalist, conservative ideology is now the new hipster. Of course, Oxbridge, Exeter and Durham are easily the breeding grounds in making this wave happen in fashion and in politics, but we’ve taken it from across the Atlantic. Earlier this year, New York Magazine’s cover titled The Cruel Kids’ Table, exploded online, depicting young MAGA supporters celebrating Trump’s win. The magazine shared how the new Republicans are nothing like the old, pale, male and stale, but rather they are those who are young and high achieving, highly networked, high-salaried and casually cruel and cool. YMCA playing in the back, Patrick Bateman lookalikes and debaucherous behaviours the Bourgeois YUPPIEs are back rebranded with a new suit and tie.
[T]he new Republicans are nothing like the old, pale, male and stale, but rather they are those who are young and high achieving, highly networked, high-salaried and casually cruel and cool.
Fashionably, Britain has always had a conservative approach to style and culture from the famous The Official Preppy Handbook and Princess Diana’s feature in The Official Sloane Ranger Handbook. The yuppies are just our gilet-wearing, finance bros on Wallstreet and our Sloane Rangers are our Longchamp-wearing, women in finance or big law. To say that this is nothing but fashion is utter nonsense! Fashion is a language, you are telling the world who you are, how you see yourself and how you want others to see you. So when you are donned in your best suit or corporate wear, you’re telling the world who you are and who you want to be, your values and your place in this world. The recent Yuppie-Core, corpcore and office siren all glamour this neoliberal ‘grindset’, making fashion a lifestyle, in addition to the faux tennis, golf, sailing and members club merchandise. From last night’s tomfoolery to reflecting both in the polls and also on the runaways. Designers Ralph Lauren, Barbour and Burberry have all been trending across social media platforms, with Ralph Lauren’s google searches gradually increasing and even hitting 100 in November of 2024 in the UK. Further seen with the trends of #oldmoney, #sleathwealth, #lockingin, all reflecting neoliberal principles that are fundamental in conservative values.
I’m not saying that dressing conservatively means that you start to think it but rather that this cultural shift is from a desire to feel like they are part of something, a community, a society, a private members club. Gen Zs are longing for the good old days, security in their politics, their economy, their lives and futures. Hence all of the suiting and corporate core on the shows and on your feeds and on the streets. Shows like BBC’s Industry, HBO’s Succession and Suits have entered and re-entered the social zeitgeist of working at these institutions and the glamorous life that comes with it. To brag about working at the Big Four, the Big Five major banks and any top institutions. Being a company man is what people long for. It’s intriguing to see where this philosophy will take our generation, whether the glitz of this old-school doctrine of the good old capitalist values will fade away or enjoying the quiet life even if the world’s falling apart.
