Designers are very clever with their pricing. They know us intimately, and they know our weaknesses. Example: this is the world's cutest jacket. I can envision it with jeans, with dress pants, with cords. It is $448 at Neiman Marcus. Sigh.

I have a dream that some day gorgeous classic clothes will be everywhere and they will not cost $500 a piece. Is it just me? Still, I can't be entirely upset about the jacket. I clicked through to Nanette Lepore's other items and found this dress. Suddenly $288 seems like a steal.

Now in comes the designer. Nanette Lepore knows that if we buy that jacket, we will wear it for the next five years. It will show up at a spring wedding, on a first date, at work (more than once). It will lose a button, have one lovingly sewn back on, and it will see cursing when finally it dies, under a shower of spilled coffee - at least for me, that's how all the white things in my closet meet their untimely demise.

The dress, on the other hand, will be worn exactly four times. Twice during the first season, and once a year for the subsequent two years. During that time, it will see four dry-cleaner trips and many compliments. It will, of course, require at least one pair of new shoes to match it, and possibly a new handbag.

After its fourth wearing (three years from now), I will realize that I am too old to continue wearing skirts this short and that the dress is sadly out of fashion, and it will take its final walk: to The Salvation Army.

So which to buy? Well isn't the answer obvious? Nanette knows us so very well, and that is why she made it out of Youngstown, Ohio and now has ten boutiques scattered across the globe. We must purchase both.