The Neelman family uploads videos of their rural and simple life on Tik Tok. Hannah Neelman wakes up, milks the cows and makes bread. They have an old house and a beautiful farm next to it. You might see this family and want to live like that, but what you don’t know is that they are actually billionaires! Daniel’s father owns JetBlue, and the Neelmans can live as they please.
This is not a new phenomenon. For centuries, the rich have been searching for the simplicity of rural life in art, without knowing anything about its difficulty, and the result has always been a caricature of the life of the working class. But what is the historical course and the reason for this romantic view of poverty?



Pastoral literature and idealism
It can be said that this desire for the life of the working class showed itself for the first time in the pastoral literature. For example, in the works and days of Hesiod in the ancient Greek era, a romantic image of rural life is presented. In our own literature, shepherds often played a positive role, and many times their outlook on life was a solution to court corruption; Even the Sassanid family tried to make themselves shepherds.
Why didn’t this phenomenon happen first in fashion?
Because in the old days, dressing like a middle-class and poor person might make you look really poor; But over time, due to industrial production, more expensive designs have become available to more people, and now if a rich person dresses like the lower class of society, he has a stylish style and it is his distinguishing point from others.
Theater opened the way for fashion!
It was the theater that opened the way for fashion; For example, in Shakespeare’s “As You Like It”, the story of a noble girl is told who goes to the woods around the city and experiences a poor life for a while. He even dresses like a country boy and falls in love; But this time, a pure love and away from aristocratic politics.
Also, in England, there were shows called masks, which were performed for the court and mostly by the courtiers themselves. Some of them can be placed in the pastoral theater category.


Let them eat bread!
Marie Antoinette was one of the first so-called celebrities who played a role in the trend of these clothes. She even had a house outside the city where she cooked with her friends, milked cows and did all the activities of a typical housewife, returning to her magnificent palace when she got tired. By wearing a paper shirt, which was considered underwear at that time and was actually reserved for women of the lower class of society, he made this dress fashionable among the nobility.


Expensive fabrics, poor design
London’s Liberty store was famous for selling luxury home accessories in the 18th century and gradually added a clothing department to its store. Liberty sold dresses called the Smock Frock. These dresses were inspired by traditional workers’ clothing in the south of England, but were produced with expensive fabrics.


boho style
Living in a van, lawlessness and away from city life; The hippie revolution of the 1970s imitated not only the style but also the lifestyle of Romanian bohemians. The boho style of the 70s was its own and also made its way to Hollywood, which was a great contrast with the luxurious lifestyle of Hollywood.
The new type of hippie fashion has shown itself as boho chic. This trend takes elements of hippie fashion and combines it with modern elements. Chloé is a well-known brand in this style and recently presented a collection with some dresses reaching up to $26,000.




homeless chic
Some time ago, Balenciaga released a dirt and dirty shoe, which he sold at a high price. This shoe caused a lot of controversy and can be introduced as an example of Homeless Chic. Among other components of this style, which are probably found in most of our closets, we can also mention torn pants. Many believe that this style is cruel; Because it makes a painful phenomenon look beautiful without expressing anything about its difficulty or helping to solve this problem.




Cottage-Core and gentle luxury
Cottage-Core took social media by storm a few years ago and is said to be a style that draws inspiration from country living and style.
Recently, a new form of this trend has also been formed, which pays more attention to the aspect of the slow pace of rural life rather than being directly inspired by its clothing. This trend sees luxury in the simplicity of a dinner party or picnic in nature. This style is called soft luxury. You can get more complete information about it in the soft luxury trend reminiscent of the romantic periods of fashion history. Recently, a trend has become famous in Tik Tok, which considers even buying food as a luxury activity.




Reasons for the performance phenomenon of poverty
As we read, this trend has a long history; But why are the rich so interested in imitating the style of clothing of the working class?
Wealth and sin
You may have noticed by now that not only in our culture but in many parts of the world for various reasons such as religion, having a prosperous and luxurious life is a sign of being a sinner, and simplicity and contentment are linked with purity; So the rich person likes to show himself to be free from sin.
Fun and escape from city life
Maybe it’s not like that in real rural life, but in pastoral literature, the season is always spring; All loves are pure and there is no disease. This is what attracts the rich person; The slow pace of life and the absence of modern problems for which we still do not have a solution. But modern life has possibilities for us that we don’t want to miss. So fashion is a good way to experience the peace of this life for a while and then return to our real life; Like Marie Antoinette and her country house!
Disobeying the rules and being different from others
The boho-chic style is usually associated with the wealthy intellectual; Someone who may even claim that he does not accept the lifestyle of his class, but uses its facilities. This person may dream of a simple village life, but probably cannot cope with its reality.
Aesthetics
The beauty of traditional clothes has been formed over centuries and carries a deep history. So, one of the attractive aspects of rural or even old clothes can be related to their aesthetics. Originality and meaning are things that are not easily created, and any brand, no matter how creative, cannot compete with the original creativity and aesthetics of clothes that time has not given them meaning.


last word
The desire for a calm and simpler life is a need that exists in all of us and is not wrong in itself; But having a romantic view of poverty can have destructive effects; For example, if most of what we see of the homeless and rural life is associated with an aesthetic view, we no longer see the need to deal with their problems and painful aspects. When the rich person chooses the lifestyle or problems of a group of people as his style, he turns it into just a cover; Not the complex life of a real person. With any lifestyle, it is better to pay attention to its effect on the world around us when following a trend.
Sources:
www.whowhatwear.com
www.strikemagazines.com
www.amusingplanet.com
carriageboutique.com
carillonregina.com
www.cpreview.org
lithiummagazine.com
title-mag.com
asre-nou.net
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