What Taste Actually Means (And Why We Confuse Taste, Class, Style and Trends)

In this episode of Home and Hosting, we explore what taste
actually means and why people so often confuse taste, class,
style and trends.


Conversations around taste always spark interesting discussions
online, so we unpack how the words taste, class, style, and
trends have started to blur together and why that causes so much
confusion.


Style is talked about constantly, trends move faster than ever,
and taste often gets avoided entirely because it can feel loaded
or exclusive.


We also explore how social media has contributed to the
TikTok-ification of design language, where everything becomes an
“aesthetic”. When trends are packaged as aesthetics, it can make
it seem like participating in the right trend means having taste,
when in reality, those are very different things.


From there, we look at how taste actually develops through
exposure, environment and experience. We touch on ideas from
sociologist Pierre Bourdieu and the cultural landscape he was
writing about in the late 1970s, and how the internet,
globalisation and the pace of modern media have changed how
people encounter culture today.


We also talk about why wealth can broaden exposure but does not
automatically mean better taste, and how broader exposure can
sometimes be treated as authority in the same way education or
expertise can be used to signal status.


Most importantly, we explore how taste is shaped by the
environments we live in and the experiences we have. It is not
something reserved for a particular class or price point.


If you have ever felt unsure about the language around taste,
design or aesthetics, this episode offers a thoughtful
conversation about how to understand these ideas and apply them
to your own home and daily life.