Would you believe $550 Khakis?

We're talking cotton gabardine Khakis, and you can buy a pair at Bergdorf Goodman. They're designed by Scott Sternberg and tailored much like dress pants, with buttonholes and split waistbands (the fabric costs $24 a yard, plus $3 a yard to import). Actually, the Sternberg khakis are a relative bargain compared with the ones made by Giorgio Armani ($595) and Bottega Veneta ($780). It's just a reminder that even in tough economic times, there's always room for excess. From the NYT:

At Martin Greenfield, a union shop where employees earn about $13 an hour, before benefits, it takes an average of four hours of labor to make a pair of pants. The pants pass through the hands of at least 20 people in the process of cutting fabric, adding pockets and building out a fly. So with labor and fabric, the cost to make Mr. Sternberg's pants was about $110 -- a fifth of what they cost in a store. The final price reflects the markups of the designer and the retailer, what they charge to cover expenses, pay their employees and, with luck, make a profit on what sells to cover the losses on what does not. Mr. Sternberg doubles the cost to arrive at a wholesale price of $220. The retailer adds another markup, typically a factor of 2.5, which brings us to $550.