that's just....wow.

I saw this article last week, and it made me laugh. Mostly because I know that this stuff represents about 0.00000001% of people who live in L.A., and yet the $1,000-shirt stereotype persists with annoying consistency among non-Angelenos.

You have to admit there's something hilarious about a city built on image, having an image problem.

Hey, I hated and despised L.A. with the best of them.

Then I moved here. And it's my favorite place I've ever lived.

I've always LOVED L.A., with the best of them. Its flaws are one reason I love it.

mykescipark, I didn't post this to make fun of L.A. in particular.

I have no animus against the city and hope that I'll be able to visit some day when I have more money.

It was just a goofy story for me. That's all.

jason, I took no offense. I was responding to BP. :-)

I started to make a bigger metaphysical point about how we all have an image problem (primarily with ourselves, and then fanning out to everyone else in our lives), but I decided to back away from that for fear of getting all Eckhart Tolle on our asses. Maybe in another thread.

Actually, I find it quite reassuring that the Most Expensive T-Shirt is plain black, with no logo, but made from an expensive fabric. As Polonius said:

Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy;
For the apparel oft proclaims the man;

It's not as if you're bludgeoning people with an ostentatious display of wealth by buying it: I doubt most people would even notice it.

Also as Hadley Freeman points out, people tend to spend a lot of money on clothes that they rarely wear, like tuxedos or party dresses. Why not splurge a bit on something that you can wear almost every day?

(Not that I'll be rushing out to buy an $1,800 T-shirt myself anytime soon...)

Why not splurge a bit on something that you can wear almost every day?

This is why I could maybe justify a $200 pair of jeans. (Although I almost never spend more than $60 on them myself.) But a $1,400 T-shirt ... it makes me go a little pale.

Then again, I'll happily drop an entire paycheck on Cubase plugins or paying a radio promoter to work my latest release for three weeks, so it's all about priorities.

My At The Gates tour tee is priceless, because I would not sell it to you, and therefore it is more expensive than whatever piece of junk they turned up.