Money doesn't equal taste. Or style. Or graciousness. (Britney Spears has more money than I'll ever see - but hardly has taste, style or graciousness. Sanity would be a good place for her to start . . .)
My maternal great-grandfather made his fortune in the 30s in Florida and had an (ugly) home in Palm Beach. I remember him, but just barely, so must rely on family accounts of him - he was by all accounts a real bastard, who treated his family poorly. And all that money? A maid faked a marriage when he was 93 and ran off to Canada with it. Years and years later, my grandmother won her case - and the money largely went to attorneys.
My paternal grandmother was the daughter of turpentiners. My grandfather was superintendent of schools in a city in Texas, so hardly wealthy. But my Mimi is absolutely the epitome of a gracious woman, who has a classic, conservative style to this very day - a pillar of her church and community, she is every inch a lady, beloved by all.
When you are talking about dress codes, you have to beware of making gross generalizations. What may be de rigeur in one group (let us say, yours) would make you a fashion pariah in another. That doesn't mean one standard is "wrong" - just different. And making general statements about an entire region is dangerous, because there is so much variety. For example - in Texas, standards in Austin will be different than those in College Station, and I'll hazard a guess that UT dress codes will be different than St. Edward's, even though those two campuses are both in the same city. So may I ask that everyone just tell us what is currently "in" in your neck of the woods without commenting on everyone else's?
eta - and as for predicting it - people = predictable, on GC and elsewhere.
eta- 2 -