What I would like is a MaxMara coat. Have I ever seen, examined or tried on one? No. So I guess I've been sucked in by publicity and editorial. And I do own 3 camel colored coats, two of which are camel hair. Plus I own a unique black camel hair quilted trapeze coat with black leather trimming, that is extremely light weight and ultra warm, vintage designed for I. Magnin. Saw someone had something reminiscent of this last one on ebay and they wanted $1200 for it. I got it for five dollars at my favorite thrift store.
The other expensive thing I have that I always wanted is a near maxi length shearling coat from French Creek. They're over $1500 and I got mine from the same thrift store for ten dollars So, these items are/were objectively expensive but *I* didn't scrimp for them.
The first expensive item I had was a Norman Norell wool tweed suit. This was so long ago. I was still a young girl and it might have come from Loehmann's in NYC. I read he stayed in the business until his death in the early 70's. I could sew and was really impressed by the quality. It was perhaps a sample or a rejected custom garment. It had a name written on an inside label in ink. My mother was visiting New York - we had relatives there - and I remember going up to her hotel room and telling her about this and asking if she would buy it for me. She didn't have the money. She didn't have nor use credit cards. The family business was very illiquid. My parents were very minimal in their lifestyle and habits. But my "uncle" (actually her cousin) was there and he bought it for me.
It was a midi length pencil skirt with a high cummerbund waistband, a form-fitting buttoned jacket, all in forest green and white flecked wool tweed. Wide black stiff leather belt. Burgundy wool jersey form fitting top with a mock neck. The suit was as heavy as the average winter coat. I had never seen anything like it.
I kept it for years after I could no longer fit into it. It was $200 then and I see by an inflation calculator that it is over $1250 now. I certainly did not own anything at that time that had a $200 price tag and wouldn't have dreamed of it.
