Lux Disgust

One of the best things to emanate from the economic collapse is the colossal transformation in American values. Penny pinching consumers, fearful of joining the unemployment ranks, are dining out less frequently and shunning price-slashed flat screen TVs. Many may be heeding frugality’s convention, but Jill Zarin, one of Bravo’s Real Housewives of New York, is proof that the trend hasn’t trickled down.

Tongues, laced with disgust or twisted with envy, are in a non-stop wag about major-moolahed Jill’s latest accessory. Despite the vulgarity of indulgence at recession’s height, the “keep it real lux” queen unzipped her pocketbook of $16,000 for a custom Bea Amblard handbag – New York magazine says it rivals red cardboard.

Unlike Louis Vuitton, Amblard’s name doesn’t exactly register bag world-big so here’s her design skinny: After a Hermes apprenticeship where she stamped the Kelly Bag with her signature, Amblard launched her own line. In fact, according to the April in Paris Web site, the major fashion player of French descent “is the only Hermes artisan designing under her own label, as well as owning her own boutique, in the United States.” See http://www.aprilinparis.us/beatrice.

If that’s not lux-disgust enough for you, this one will definitely leave you in stitches. Alexander Amosu, hailed as one of Britain’s most influential black men, recently unveiled the world’s most expensive suit at $103.000 a pop. A million-dollar man at 25, the entrepreneur was also the first to launch urban ringtones in Europe.

Undaunted by a raveled economy, Amosu’s design direction dictates nine eighteen carat-gold and pave-diamond button bling into the vicuna, qiviuk and pashmina fabric-blended ensemble. Considering its armored Range Rover transport to the London unveiling last week, this suit probably won’t find favor with Wall Street financiers.