As a personal assistant to a well-to-do retiree, Nora Szigeti is tasked with much of the usual fare: managing a calendar, booking travel, running errands. But after her 70-year-old boss recently found an Instagram post shared by the Class of Palm Beach account documenting clothes worn by people in that wealthy city, she took on another role: journalist.
“My boss would be the perfect person for your website,” Ms. Szigeti, 50, recalled writing in a message to the account in November. Soon after, her employer, Oblio Wish, appeared in a video shared by Class of Palm Beach, in which she showed off her wardrobe full of items from Dior, Gucci and Chanel.
She’s one of hundreds of Palm Beach residents and visitors — whose ages ranged from 20 to 80 — who have been featured on Class of Palm Beach’s Instagram, TikTok and Facebook accounts since they started last March. Her accounts on these three platforms now have a combined audience of over one million followers.
On the 14-mile-long island, the Class of Palm Beach serves for some as a kind of Shiny Sheet for the age of social media, a nickname for the Palm Beach Daily News, a newspaper that fills its pages with photos of social galas and luncheons .
For others, like Ms Szigeti, his accounts offer an almost daily glimpse into how the super-rich dress. (ONE report from the US Census Bureau reported the median household income in Palm Beach between 2018 and 2022 as $190,824.) Brunello Cucinelli, Zimmermann, and Hermès are names frequently mentioned by people featured in the Class of Palm Beach accounts, many of whom can be seen they hold Chanel bags.
“For them, it’s so ordinary: ‘Oh, today I’m wearing a Rolex and it’s just a Birkin,'” Ms. Szigeti said of how casually some of the bills’ themes can refer to watches and bags that most people only dream of. of ownership. “I have to save up for two years to buy even half a Birkin.”
Devorah Ezagui, 28, who lived in Palm Beach for part of her childhood, started the Class of Palm Beach accounts after returning to the area last year. She previously lived in New York, where she juggled gigs with personal training and marketing, and where she often asked people on the street about their clothes, she said.
Fashion in Palm Beach includes the same labels worn in other wealthy enclaves, but the way people wear them suggests a certain lifestyle, Ms. Ezagui said. The accounts, she added, were meant to showcase that lifestyle and provide an escape, as well as fashion inspiration.
Alanna Strei, a San Diego real estate agent who discovered Class of Palm Beach on Instagram, said she appreciated its “old-money glam” aesthetic and aspirational tone. Ms. Strei added that she also likes how the account includes many people, not just “Real Housewives of Miami” types, as she put it.
Ms. Ezagui’s videos for Class of Palm Beach are mostly man-on-the-street interviews in which she examines topics about their clothes, accessories and fragrances while filming them on her iPhone. The approach is similar to that of other social media accounts that have begun documenting clothing in convenient locations such as Madison Avenue in New York and Greenwich, Conn.
Ms. Ezagui, whose wardrobe includes Celine flats and Maison Margiela denim shorts, is also a personal stylist to clients in the Palm Beach and New York areas. He said he spent at least four hours a day managing the Class of Palm Beach accounts, which shared sponsored posts paid for by brands.
The accounts also show some of the customers Ms. Ezagui has profiled, she said, but most of the people are strangers she’s met while out and about, whether shopping at a local Publix grocery store or the Shops at Worth Avenue, an upscale retailer. . strip.
Although she has been to Mar-a-Lago, the residence of former President Donald J. Trump, she has yet to record any outfits there. “It was actually something I wanted to look into,” he said. But there are “strict rules” about “going to other people’s tables” at the private club, he added.
The types of people he looks for have bubbly personalities and seem to “really put intention into their attire,” he said. Ms. Ezagui added that about 70 percent of those she asked to appear agreed.
Most of these people are white women, a trend that some followers of the accounts have pointed out in comments. Ms. Ezagui said the demographics of those showing up were less reflective of her choices than they were of Palm Beach’s population. Recent Census Bureau report found that about 94 percent of the city’s residents were white and zero percent were black.
“Not everyone is in this area,” Ms Ezagui said.
Some followers also asked her to focus on a younger crowd. But Ms Ezagui said videos with older themes reliably got more attention. “I know what will do well,” he said.
On a rainy Saturday in January, as she walked along Worth Avenue, Ms. Ezagui stopped to compliment the outfit of a passerby, Carolina Paulino, who was wearing Zimmermann separates, Loro Piana shoes, an Hermès bag and Cartier bracelets. Then came the question: Would she like to be filmed for a video?
Ms. Paulino, 28, who had come to Palm Beach for lunch from Miami, agreed. She later said that the outfit she wore was meant to evoke an “aura of luxury, but beachy”.
Ms. Ezagui said she had been asked by some to feature less designer clothing and more stylish items from affordable retailers like TJ Maxx. But for her, luxury labels are key to Class of Palm Beach’s success.
“People are trying to look for inspiration,” he said.