Luxury Shopping, absurdity of

In which I impersonate a lady-who-lunches and Versace is rude (Chanel is kind)

"'Hmm,' I said, gritting my teeth at a jacket encrusted with sequined and beaded sea motifs and plastic coral. Then I saw the price. £11,000*. I had to breathe in sharply, completely blowing my cool. 'So, what kind of person buys this?' I asked. 'Someone who likes it,' said the assistant. From there, our relationship did not improve. 'We don't really  have anything suitable up here,' she said, when I mentioned my size.**"

* About $30,000 today, disregarding luxury label price bloating

** Which wasn't SO bad. English 14 in 1991 is like today's US 8