Dog doo and fancy duds

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote: "The very rich ... are different from you and me." He sure got that right. For one thing, they have servants. And sometimes, the relationship between employer and employee sours. Such is the case with NBA superstar Kobe Bryant and his former housekeeper, Maria Jimenez, who claims in a lawsuit that she had to quit her job because of the intolerable and humiliating conditions of her employment. The case centers mainly on Jimenez' allegations that Bryant's wife, Vanessa, is a raging (pick a word that rhymes with ditch). One specific instance of alleged mistreatment cited by Jimenez' lawsuit centered on the ex-housekeeper's handling of one of Mrs. Bryant's blouses. Jimenez said Vanessa Bryant accused her of ruining an expensive blouse by putting it in a clothes washer. Jimenez alleges that Mrs. Kobe then demanded that she put her hand into a bag of doggie doo in order to retrieve the price tag for the blouse and insisted that she work until her next payday to cover the cost of the blouse. Now, the whole doggie doo thing is interesting enough, and I wondered how the tag and the doo came to be in the bag together, but what caught my eye in the AP story on the lawsuit was the cost of this piece of clothing: $690. I'm all for letting people spend their own money as they see fit (though I'm guessing Mrs. Kobe gets her money from Mr. Kobe, and as much of it as she wants in the wake of that messy little sexual assault case that included Mr. Kobe's admission of adultery), but does anybody really need a $700 piece of clothing? Couldn't Mrs. Kobe have found a lovely frock for $100 and maybe used the other $600 to help an adult literacy program or a food kitchen? Perhaps the Bryants already give generously to charities, but my point is that it just seems wrong somehow to fork over that much money for a shirt. I'm far from perfect in this regard. I've spent tens of thousands of dollars on cigarettes and adult beverages over the years, and I could certainly live more frugally. But I've never been one to spend a lot of cash on clothes. Ask anyone who's ever seen my wardrobe. I'm guessing that in the area of everyday clothing, the most I've ever spent for a single item is probably $50 for a pair of shoes. How about you folks? Not counting a dress suit or wedding dress or some such special-occasion clothing, what's the most you've spent on a single item for your wardrobe?