Bezos' Venice Wedding Illustrates Rise of Tackiness

"Stealth wealth" is out. "Swaggy and braggy" is in, or so it seems as we approach the nuptials of Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez. The occasion has Amy Odell taking a look at how wealth is manifesting itself these days: Being understated and quiet about it is no longer the popular MO, she writes for the New York Times. Flaunting it is. Women (Sanchez among them) with ample means are favoring "sequins, diamonds, tight silhouettes, and big hair ... even the bandage dress is trending again." Men are embracing the "hypermasculine," and yes, that includes the muscle-bound Bezos and his tight polos.

Vogue is reportedly talking to the couple about appearing together in its pages, and as Odell recalls, it wouldn't be the first time the magazine took a leap by putting a personality on its cover whom some found tacky (see: Ivana Trump in 1990, Kim Kardashian in 2014). Writes Odell, "As much as those with more understated taste might turn up their noses at the crassness of the Bezos-Sanchez wedding's display, tacky is very clearly carrying the day. Maybe hating on tacky oligarchs is itself just elitist. It's doubtful anyone attending the wedding cares very much what those of us who weren't invited think, anyway." (Read the full piece here.)