As a follow-up to their $47,000 suit, Brioni is now selling T-shirts for $250.  The venerable firm has prided itself on still making everything in Italy. ( Zegna, for example, makes some of their suits in Spain.)  My quess is that the $47,000 dollar suit is “firing for effect”.  It makes their $5,000 and $6,000 rack suits appear to be a bargin. When “sport shoe” companies started selling sweat shirts and polo shirts with the company name on the chest I didn’t think people would buy them. That shows what an astute marketer I am.  But I won’t make the same mistake twice.  I can see the conspicuous consumer handwriting on the wall.  I have decided to sell some of my old socks. I wore them when we would fit President John F Kennedy at the Carlyle Hotel.  The price- $18,000.

At Winston Tailors and in our previous incarnation as Chipp of NY, Inc., I always took and still do take pride  in the clothing we make and the price at which we sell the fruit of our labor.  Not to say our clothing is inexpensive.  One can certainly buy clothing for less than what we charge.  But you would be hard pressed to spend less and get what we produce- a blending of superior cloth and individually cut garments cut over a pattern we create for each individual. To put our prices into perspective I suggest you read the article that appeared in the weekend edition of “The Wall Street Journal”- January 24-25, 2009.  The article leads with the most recent range of suits being produced by Brioni. The suits are priced at $43,000. ( They do  not say if alterations are included.)  Another shop, Qiviuk ( “Q” not followed by “U”- it is spelled that way twice in the article) carries suits at $20,000. Brioni says they have sold 30 of the $43,000 suits. I doubt that any of the purchasers were my customers.  I am envious- especially in these hard economic times !