The fastest way to make something look cheap is to keep adding things that are supposed to make it look expensive.
Gold.
Glow.
Marble.
A supercar.
A Rolex.
Five fonts.
A black card sitting on a table for absolutely no reason.
The word exclusive in all caps.
Eventually you have built the visual equivalent of a nightclub flyer from 2014.
Real expensive-looking stuff is usually irritatingly calm.
One good material. One strong image. Space around things. A logo that is not begging you to notice it. A room with three objects in it instead of 45 objects screaming that somebody spent money here.
This applies online too.
The guy trying hardest to look rich usually posts the most evidence.
Steering wheel badge. Receipt. Watch close-up. Hotel key. Business-class seat. Wallet screenshot. Another wallet screenshot. "Quick lunch" with the restaurant name conveniently visible in frame.
By the sixth proof point, the whole thing starts feeling like a court case.
The accounts that actually feel expensive tend to do less.
A random detail in the background.
A good jacket with no explanation.
A hotel room where the location is never tagged.
A photo that clearly cost money to produce but is posted with a caption like "Tuesday."
No one item is carrying the entire performance.
That is why restraint works. It makes the viewer fill in the missing information.
And people are incredibly generous when you let them do that.
They will see one nice object and imagine the rest of the life around it.
Show them the entire life, carefully arranged to prove a point, and they start inspecting the seams.
This is also why fake wealth tends to collapse when it gets too specific. The person performing it becomes addicted to proof, and proof creates more surfaces to get caught on.
There is a point where the rented Lamborghini was doing more work before you showed the steering wheel, the rental lot, the dealer plate and six angles of the same car.
Luxury brands understand this better than most internet marketers.
They do not put 19 badges on the bag telling you it is luxurious.
They assume the object can survive silence.
Online, silence is underrated.
One of the strongest status signals is looking like you do not desperately need the viewer to believe you.