Does wearing of expensive cloths, shoes and other expensive things a sign of being poor? Or does it mean the rich doesn't wear expensive things or doesn't leave a luxurious lifestyle?
Poor people dress like how they think rich people dress. Poor people do not have a lot of expensive clothing and luxury items so once they have at least once they will bring it with them everywhere and show it off as much as they can.
My thoughts on this resonate more with you regarding how poor people are quick to impress others due to their lack of opportunity to wearing expensive things or living in luxury. It is a case of someone who got the opportunity to book the most expensive apartment in a 5 star hotel for the first time in their lifetime and someone who's already used to doing that, for instance, someone who was born and brought up in such apartment.
It will mean a lot to the early person who's not used to the luxury lifestyle and there are more chances of such person flaunting the luxury he was opportuned to witness, whereas, the latter will see is as a way of life and won't even notice the luxury in them because they're already familiar with the environment and their possibility of flaunting it is minimal.
While rich people, and I mean the richest ones, are more quiet and classy about their clothes. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still very expensive but it doesn’t look cheap and tacky. Most likely the brands they wear are so expensive that most people have not even heard of it which is why probably people think the rich are not wearing something expensive. Rich people are not buying cheap clothes. They are just not showing off their wealth because they don’t need to be validated.
To add to the true fact that rich people don't buy cheap clothes is also to mention that within the rich class, everyone has a preference. Some rich people prefer to patronize designer brands that are showty it terms of their fashion design wears while some rich people prefer to wear expensive but simple and easy wears. Regardless, both are still patronizing expensive brands.
The reason why the rich people seem to be more quite and classy is because they're already used to the lifestyle for long and do not get freaked out by such luxuries but for the poor, it's like a lifetime achievement because they have never witnessed it before.