Customs: The New Elegants

Once they were called the beautiful people and were presumed to have titles. Others knew them better as the idle rich. But today there are few titles among them, they are not that rich, nor are they idle. Less grand than the grandest of an older generation, but also less ostentatious, they might be called the New Elegants. And they are not a numbered set revolving around a few Manhattan town houses and Newport mansions but a relaxed confraternity that extends the length and breadth of the land.

They are dedicated wives (generally...

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