Back in the day, societies, formal or not, made it a point of principle, that only those of a certain stature, or of a certain position, or of certain familial connections, were allow to wear particular clothing, of which, that clothing would be typically more ostentatious than anyone else, or in absence of that, be of a very high quality and/or a specific color, and limited to those of that privileged position, exclusively. The reason that this was so was that image and perception, matter; so that, if the general population wore the same general clothing as those that were in authority, they might just get in their druthers that they were on the same level, and therefore equal to them. Additionally, those of privileged status wanted those that were not of their status, to properly recognize their elite status vis-à-vis to them.
In today's modern world, with imitation this and imitation that, it isn't even clear who is wearing the "real deal", so to speak, as compared to those that are wearing the imitation, and there isn't any longer any laws restricting what people can or cannot wear; so that the upside of this is that those that are the elite are not able to necessarily successfully differentiate themselves from others. So that means, that those that are privileged must make it their point to have all the accouterments that are not so easily transferrable to the masses, so that they therefore live in exclusive gated communities with private country clubs that are only available to have memberships purchased by those that have not just the right money but also the right connections. So too, they go to the right private schools, and go to the right exclusive restaurants, and the right this and the right that, so that they clearly are separated from all those that do not have what they so have.
After all, despite all the advantages that being rich and fabulous brings to the table to begin with, these elites find it annoying when those of the general public try to look like them, act like them, and do things like drive cars in intimation of them, but clearly aren't them. The problem when this stuff happens, is that all of this seems to suggest that these elite personages aren't as special and aren't as exclusive as they make themselves out to be. It should be fully recognized, that the elite want to be respected, and especially want to be respected by those that demonstrate that they know their place, by giving those privileged people, their respect, and by doing so without equivocation and without hesitation.
In short, the bottom line is that when one removes all the bells and whistles, of which some of those bells and whistles are actually pretty impressive, is that a house in an exclusive neighborhood isn't all that much greater than one in a nice neighborhood, and the same can be said about clubs, cars, clothes, parks, and so on. So then, the only real and meaningful difference that plays to the ego of any privileged person when it comes to all those that don't have as much, is that those elites want to be recognized as clearly being better than regular folks as well as being perceived as being above them, all in recognition by those other regular people, that they are far superior to them.