These shoes are both by Cole Haan.  They are not all that different. Yet one pair gets a lot more compliments than the other.  No idea why really. 

Let's assume something crazy happens - this Rolls Royce was on the streets of New York. But by crazy, what we really mean is let's assume you did something really off the wall - not made a ton of money, because there are a lot of rich fools in New York. Let's say you're not an investment banker at Goldmans, or a plaintiff's lawyer. Let's - take a deep breath here - say you actually earned the money by doing something worthwhile. Maybe even created some value, as we say here at Attitude Media. Given all that, you don't want your standard limo. You don't want to be confused with Donald Trump or all the other parvenus.  You want something with a little old school class, a little real style. Here ya go, big spender. 

This dress, featured in an exhibit at the Met's Costume Wing, is so sexy it doesn't require a human body inside it. 

Going to museums, or any place for that matter, would be so much more pleasant if all the guests had the good taste of this lady, who happened to be visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.  Great summer dress, great hat, great combo.

AIRism is a quick drying polyester spandex blend that makes for a great workout tee shirt. It looks good- kinda shiny, and it drys very quickly when you're working out. Overall, our favorite work out tee, and we've tried a lot. And it's cheap, like everything from Uniqlo. Just make sure you're ordering the right one - you have to really go out of your way on their web site to figure out what you want among their vast array of products.

We live in a golden age of cheap clothing. This is a silk blend polo shirt from H&M, which has some remarkably cheap, and sometimes quite nice, clothing for men. This shirt is a very comfortable silk blend, and looks very nice. We own it in a couple colors.

But whether you shop at H&M, Zara, Uniglo - there is a lot of good cheap stuff out there. And as a general rule it doesn't fall apart. Yes, we have heard all the criticisms - the clothes are made with slave labor, they are not high quality, they are part of the disposable culture, blah, blah. Of these issues the only one we really care about is the labor issue. But we'd much rather provide some jobs in Bangladesh than pay for some Italian's two hour lunch break. This shirt is about $30, plus $5 for shipping and $5 for taxes, so $40 all in. Make your own value judgments.

As a general working rule, if something seems too good to be true, then it's not true. But there are exceptions. We found these belts on Amazon, advertised for $10 each. We ordered them, expecting to be disappointed. I mean, what can you get for $10 these days? But they came, looking just like they did in the photos. And they haven't fallen apart yet. How do they do it? Are they made by oppressed elves in the Republic of Low Wages? Don't know. Don't really care.

The classy way for a gal to keep her dress up.

Can you pull off this look? Probably not. Is it timeless? No. Still, in 1632 it was the height of fashion, and black, white and gold never completely go out of style.