my post wasn't really about the attraction to luxury goods. It was more about the differences between someone who is actually wealthy compared to a wannabe. The wannabe will spout all sorts of BS and constantly brag about cars, watches, holiday homes and will love to name drop. In my experience with this sort of individual they are typically far from rich, they may actually be heavily in debt. The homes are rented or maxed out on a mortgage, the cars are leased and it's all a front. Typically they leave a trail of destruction in their wake.
Upbringing and circumstance can be a factor and this behaviour manifests itself in many ways. Right from the wannabe with a $1000pm Porsche 911 finance plan down to the guy in a developing country who flashes his iphone 6 around all day in the mall before going back to his pit in some backwater.
It's more complicated than that, and to begin with if you live in London but the wealthy people you deal with are worth less than 5mlnusd, you basically don't know wealthy people.
Can you even buy a nice apartment there for this price ?
Where I live you can get a decent apartment or a small house, I don't think anyone in the residence is worth less than that, and mostly they weight much more.
Anyway in the 5mln + and wayyyy plus, you will find modest but also luxury cars, some drive the kids to school with those luxury cars some keep them for more discreete outings (it also depends on the city/country, in France they tend to be more discreete, in UAE less)
It makes no sense to endure economy class or shitty hotel rooms if you can afford better. When I see the crowd spending 1000+ a night in high end hotels, it's pretty obvious for most of those they are not saving the whole year for 1 week luxury Holiday.
And some of those also own a whole bunch of real estate, it's actually a sector where the better off seem to feel secure investing. They might not brag about it but the more money one has the more freely they can spend.
As of not wearing obvious labels, yes, that's pretty basic, actually the same fashion houses usually have several brands, and the more expensive ones show less of a label on the clothes.
Besides one's spending is also dictated by how secure they feel about their future income (I'm not secure for instance and spend much less than I earn but some on a less rough career need to worry less about the future )