Sort of. Quality leather costs, And ostrich comes at a premium. But there’s nothing particularly rare about it. Ostrich are farmed, in large part for the leather. Like wise hand stiched/made items come with a cost. But again its not particularly hard to find that. I’ve seen plenty of (nicer) hand stitched ostrich items. Even in expensive boutiques or from small makers. That cost a whole decimal less. As I’m sure many other people have. And I’m sure dad’s boots didn’t cost more than my car.
Rather famously luxury and designer items tend to come off the same production lines. Or out of the same producers and from the same materials as cheaper products. Sometimes they’re even identical.
Those sorts of prices aren’t a factor of materials, production costs or quality. They tend to come out of luxury brand marketing. You don’t spend $15,000 dollars on a jacket because it buys you an improvement over a $1,500 jacket the same way a $1,500 dollar jacket does over a $150 jacket. You spend $15,000 on a jacket because you want to spend ten’s of the thousands of dollars on a jacket.
Eew, doubougie. I feel that way in general about almost all leather jackets but this one is next level awful.
I missed a zero in the first read of the headline and thought, “$1500 seems like a lot for such a shitty looking jacket.” 
Color me shocked that’s tacky as all hell, as well as exorbitantly overpriced.
So he’s the pig. In the metaphor. That works.
Aw, I was hoping it was up for auction…
sometimes people spend thousands of dollars on a piece of clothing because it’s made for the buyer.
That’s true in many cases, but not always. I broadly agree that there are often ludicrous mark-ups for brand-name products that have no discernible quality difference ($400 t-shirts for instance).
I don’t know the fashion world very well, but I know a bit about high-end craft, like woodwork and oil painting. It’s true that you can get a wood table from a store that looks pretty good for $600, and there might be only limited incremental improvements as you move up the market from there… But if you hire a professional wood-worker to make the same table, $15k would not be unreasonable.
Now, you’re probably right that in this case, Manafort did not go to the equivalent of a bespoke wood-worker… He got gouged on an ugly jacket that should’ve cost $500. It’s just not shocking to me. Rich people with no taste are awful.
I imagine the Russians have ways of making people in prison pay for things. Maybe not with money, but with something.
Yeah but you don’t need to spend 10’s of thousands to get that. You can.
But bunch if places these days that will make something for the wearer for hundreds. And more traditional high end bespoke cloths tend to sit in the thousands not ten’s of.
And that doesn’t seem to be the case. He appears to have been buying multiple exhorbinantly priced items at the same handful of boutiques regularly.
Yeah. But assuming the same materials and similar design. And in particular common materials, if pricey ones. There’s going to be very little difference between that $15k table and a $150k table bought from a high end boutique rather than from the craftsman.
Wait, why? I wore that same sports coat last week.
ah.
tends to quote £4000 – £5000 for “entry-level wool two-piece suit (bespoke)”
On the one hand, wool isn’t ostritch. On the other hand , bespoke isn’t fungible.
So… Manafort’s ostrich jacket was revenge for an ostrich murdering a man and skinning him in the 19th century?
that’s one dapper Ostrich.
You cannot stop a dapper Ostrich…you can only hope to contain him.
I don’t know if pointing to a place known for centuries for being the premium priced brand/appelation really does much to cleanly establish what “bespoke” costs.
And this is the opening line of your instant classic novel. I don’t care what it’s about, I will read it.
