Quiet Nobility

Some time in 2023-24, the concept of “quiet luxury” gained traction in fashion circles online and offline. It’s always been there, in close circles, but it’s now out in the mainstream.

My built-in web AI defines quiet luxury as “an understated fashion movement that prioritizes high-quality materials, timeless design, and discreet elegance.” It tells me that it’s also called the “old money aesthetic” and that it’s the opposite of loud, ostentatious, in your face, brand and logo-heavy fashion. (It’s also how I have always dressed without knowing, but that’s not my point here).

This evening it hit me that I had been advocating for a similar movement as applied to Arabian horses for close to two decades now. I am going to name it “Quiet Nobility”, and trademark it.

It’s also about high quality “materials” (i.e., bloodlines, genotype), timeless “design” (i.e., conformation, phenotype), and discreet “elegance” (i.e., style), but in the breeding of Arabian horses.

No extreme, flashy looks and movements. Nothing “too much”. Rather, a quiet, soothing, pleasing look in mares, and a confident, virile, debonnaire, slightly disdainful look in stallions.

I think this is where the breed will be going in the future. It also happens to be the breed’s ancient past (think “old money” equine esthetics here). Some people, very few, always knew about it and remained true to it in spite of fleeting fashion trends. But with organizations like al-العتاق Al-Itaq and others, I believe it’s going to be become mainstream. So, goodbye freaks and seahorses. Goodbye “extreme” stallions and “flashy” colts.

You can tell me below about the horses you feel embody that notion of “quiet nobility”. Like they say in the fashion world of quiet luxury, IYKYK (“if you know, you know”). And the trademark was a joke.