In-your-face consumption is so 2007

To understand how we got here, it helps to understand how the culture of conspicuous consumption took root in the first place. People like to claim that they buy only what they really want. But studies show that we are far more influenced by what other people purchase than we care to admit. If you're trying to figure out how big a house you should buy, what do you do? You look at the houses that people around you are buying.

SHOOT: The new trend is modesty as opposed to conspicuous consumption and it's based on practical necessity along with broad economic consensus patterns.

clipped from money.cnn.com (Money Magazine) -- Kathleen Fuld, wife of the former CEO of now defunct Lehman Brothers, reportedly went shopping at luxury purveyor Hermès not long ago. This in itself is not remarkable. Even though her husband no longer sits atop one of the biggest investment banks in the nation, presumably the couple is not exactly impoverished. What is interesting is how she exited the Manhattan store. According to the website the Daily Beast, instead of toting her purchases in one of Hermès' signature orange shopping bags, she carried a plain white bag instead. Even among those of us with the means to toss Benjamins around like confetti, in-your-face consumption - practically a national sport until just last year - is out.