Cocaine.
I think Vodka (at least in the West) probably indicated a bit more class than it does now.
Coach too. With outlet malls now anybody can get a Coach purse.
What about fur outerwear, such as a mink stole…? These seemed very popular among the well off several decades ago. My impression is that they are not as popular now. Anyone know?
I would say stretch limos are one of the defining examples.
Came here to say Coach.
Names that become trendy among the well-to-do that eventually become popular by lower classes. Because of classicsm, these names then become “tacky” among the well-to-do and avoided at all costs.
I think the OP should probably acknowlege that “tacky” is in the eye of the beholder. I mean, I agree there is something about eating at Golden Corral that makes it an event you may want to keep to yourself. And yet plenty of folks eat at the place. Every time I drive by my local establishment, the parking lot is packed. So if it is tacky, a lot of people didn’t get the memo.
Most definitely. Years past you would think “VIP is in town” when you saw one. Now, you think “Is it prom season again?”
True… different groups have different ideas of what’s tacky and what’s upscale. Just go look at the crowds at your average Wal-Mart vs. your average Target to see what I’m talking about.
Similarly, wall-to-wall carpeting was once the height of luxury.
Cadillac.
The last generation to aspire to owning one is now being told they need to quit driving.
I recall a chapter in Freakonomics in which the authors studied popular names for babies and found that names which were popular in upper socioeconomic groups eventually became popular in lower socioeconomic groups - and then became unpopular in the upper socioeconomic groups.
The Walmart shopper probably thinks shopping at thrift stores is “tacky”.
The Target shopper probably thinks shopping at Walmart is “tacky”.
The Macy’s shopper probably thinks shopping at Target is “tacky”.
The Neiman-Marcus shopper probably thinks shopping at Macy’s is “tacky”.
I don’t know what would next in the hiearchy. But it is probably tacky.
Probably a Brooks Brothers shopper. Though they are probably in the same league when it comes to pricing, Nieman-Marcus is extremely nouveau riche.
Ostentation seems to come and go. Certainly, in the Gilded Age, there was plenty of ostentation. But then, at least after WWII and into the 80s, it wasn’t done, at least not by what you’d call old-money people.
Back then you could take a drive through Greenwich, Connecticut, up through all the towns on the Gold Coast, up as far as Southport and Fairfield, and you just wouldn’t see a lot of flashy cars or houses. Well, maybe in Westport.
Anything “Trump”.
A thrift store shopper probably thinks shopping at Neiman-Marcus is “tacky”.
The freegan thinks they’re all tacky.
Chicken salad. Chicken used to be expensive and (for young tender birds) seasonal, and mayonnaise used to be both expensive (eggs and olive oil) and labor-intensive (so don’t ask the cook to make it too often, or she might revolt). Chicken salad, served on lettuce for the ladies who lunched (or the more abstemious gentleman), had an upper-class aura up through the 1930s; then battery chickens and bottled mayo took off the glow and it started its slide into a generic sandwich filling.
Coty perfumes and cosmetics. They started off as one of the most de luxe of the mass-market brands and produced many famous scents; surviving bottles of their perfumes from the 1900s through the 1960s go for significant prices. Although Coty the company is now a giant conglomerate that owns some upscale lines, the current Coty brand is the cheapest, tackiest drugstore-brand junk available; they occasionally release perfumes under the names of some of their historic greats, and they are the cheapest possible synthetic crap, vile beyond belief; nothing like the originals, if you’ve had the opportunity to sample them.
How about Florida in general? You can still class it up in Miami, but now it’s generally the joke state, and there’s a 90% chance that any abhorrent or trashy news story occurred in Florida.
I think the mafia in general still has the Godfather-based public image of expensive suits and cars, but in reality it’s equally a bunch of track suits and wifebeaters, and that meme exists in parallel. Just look at the Gotti family.
Witness names like Bentley. Once fancy cars, now the trashiest of white trash.
This is more England-specific, but to American eyes much of the terminology used by rich English people seems more low class these days. Granted, it’s more of the same - middle class people got all bourgeois and tried to ape “fancy talk.”