Since 2021, a critical part of the rushing process for sorority hopefuls at the University of Alabama has involved posting their outfit-of-the-day (or OOTD, for short) to TikTok. As the stakes grow for the SEC sorority hopefuls, they’re adding some expensive jewelry (think: $ 3,000 bracelets) to their rush portfolios.

David Yurman and Van Cleef & Arpels are Bama Rush favorites

The new Bama Rush class is hoping to impress the sororities with some high-class luxury wristwear. Many of the TikTok favorites boast bracelets from Louis Vuitton, Van Cleef & Arpels, David Yurman, and Hermès. For a more affordable option, rushers stack their wrists with Enewton bangles. One freshman even sported a Tag Heuer watch. 

There’s a curious synergy to these bracelets and the rest of the Bama Rush outfits, which remain low on the price scale. Many sport outfits from fast-fashion and easy-shop retailers like SHEIN and Nasty Gal. For some days of rush, the bracelets are matched with graphic tees from University of Alabama Panhellenic. 

Price-gawking

Out of the Bama Rush comes a whole new category of creators, being the armchair commentators who aggregate and predict upon the sorority hopefuls’ videos. TikToker Destinee Wilson parses through these Bama Rush OOTDs, tracing back the items to their seller pages and calculating the total price-per-outfit. In one clip sourced by Wilson, a sorority hopeful matched her simple Zara skirt with $ 7,820 worth of bracelets from Tiffany & Co., Van Cleef & Arpels, and Louis Vuitton. That’s not including rings, which total to $ 3,650. Wilson’s breakdowns of these Bama Rush outfits frequently rack up over two million views.

The price-gawking may also have cut down this year’s crop of Bama Rush TikTokers. While TikToker Bre Morris has already reached almost 30,000 followers after just five days of rush, compared to previous years, the quantity of Bama Rush posters seems remarkably small. Many of the OOTDs that Wilson runs through have since been deleted.

Is old money in for the new generation?

Notably, many of these bracelet brands are not Gen Z favorites or recently viral businesses. Van Cleef & Arpels blew up in the U.S. after Grace Kelly continually wore their jewelry, eventually seeping down to the affluent Gen Xers. Hermès is still most known for their infamous Birkin. It may be surprising, then, to see these brands touted by a class of Alabama freshmen. 

Still, shirking the ephemerality of new-school trends, many young people (with the money to swing it) are opting for older luxury brands. The recent “mob wife” aesthetic touted all-black getups with statement jewelry and furs. According to a Bain & Company study, Gen Z and millennials led the growth of luxury retailers in 2022. Gen Z specifically is buying luxury goods three to five years earlier than their millennial predecessors.

Fast Company

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