bergdorf goodman

so today after church i grabbed mikey and we walked over to madison and fifth avenues to do some manhattan-style window shopping. we were really curious about the high-end stuff. on a friend's recommendation, we walked into Bergdorf Goodman, which he said was the best department store in the world. Mikey, who was wearing a $250 men's wearhouse suit, tried on a $4200 kiton sportcoat - $4200 - not for a suit - just a sportcoat.

And the difference was amazing.

i am reminded of the time i strolled into la maison du chocolat, which has a nyc store on madison in the 80s, and picked up their basic chocolate bar (which cost $18, by the way.) then, on the way home, i bought a 65 cent hershey bar. i laid out the two bars and tried each of them. my wife joined me in the experiment. her response was pretty telling; "for the first time in my life, hershey sucks." and she was right.

it was useful to have mikey there with his men's wearhouse suit. it was effectively the same experiment, only this time with clothing. he took off his jacket and put on the kiton sportcoat. alexandria and i were simply amazed. he looked incredible - like a million bucks. the suit made him look slender, confident - indeed, important. and afterwards, when he put his men's wearhouse suit back on, our comment was "men's wearhouse sucks." everything that was wrong and cheap about that suit was immediately apparent. it hung on him like a loose towel when the kiton conformed to his shape. there were wrinkles. there were imbalances. it was amazing..

now my friend who recommended bergdorf is not particularly wealthy, but he also said that he can't remember the last time he wore a shirt that cost less than $100. when i asked, "for pete's sake, why??" his response was almost arrogant - "because it hangs correctly!" totally confused, i continued buying $30 shirts - because they always seemed all right to me. now that i've had this suit experience, my opinion might have changed.

i should learn to listen to him more often.