You Think This Has Nothing to Do With You”: Fashion, Power, and the New Status Symbol

Miranda Priestley: “You think this has nothing to do with you…”

When Miranda Priestly says, “You think this has nothing to do with you,” in The Devil Wears Prada, she was referring to fashion, but this same sentiment applies to our society.

Fashion operates on a hierarchy. Couture houses create the vision. Smaller designers reinterpret it, then high street brands replicate it. Eventually, it trickles down to outlets, fast fashion, and thrift stores. By the time the general public touches it, the original meaning has already shifted.

The illusion is choice. People think they’re given a choice on what they choose to wear, but the reality is structure. What we wear often feels personal, but it is deeply shaped by systems far above us. The top decides what is desirable, and the rest of the world follows, whether consciously or not.

I say all this to say that this system is not just evident in the fashion industry. It mirrors how status works in society.

Throughout history, there has always been something the upper class possessed that became harder to access the lower you went. In medieval times, that symbol was food. The wealthy hosted extravagant feasts while the rest survived on bread and water. Abundance and excess was the flex.

In modern history, designer goods became a shorthand for wealth and legitimacy. A logo meant access. It meant you were somebody. But the moment the general public gained wider access to designer through outlets, resale platforms, and dupes, the goalpost moved again.

Now, it is not enough for something to be designer. It has to be rare. Archival. Hard to source. One of one. That is why you see celebrities and influencers obsessively wearing vintage runway pieces and obscure archive pulls. It is about the taste, but also exclusivity. Status depends on distance. If everyone can have it, it no longer signals power.

And what is the one thing almost everyone consumes endlessly now?

Screen time. When everyone’s on their screens, there’s nothing to distinguish between the classes. In that environment, attention alone stops being special.

The people at the top no longer need constant visibility to prove relevance. In fact, constant visibility cheapens power. That is why so many celebrities, creatives, and high status figures have pulled back their online presence. Fewer posts, less access, and life lived offline. In a world where everyone is available, being unavailable becomes elite, and scarcity = higher value.

So, Miranda was right. This has everything to do with you. Not just how you dress, but how you show up, how much of yourself you give away, and what you choose to withhold.