Cintra Wilson visited the Alexander McQueen store to find something "bangingsome" to wear to an upcoming literary festival in San Francisco. She found the perfect $1,230 dress: "Never in my life had I crossed the $1,000 barrier for a dress I didn’t get married in. I consider it fiscal suicide... But this wasn’t a dress: It was the fulfillment of my deepest desires, in wool. For a literary performance, it was the perfect fusion of tweedy respectability and autobahn curves. Elves had tailored it on me while I slept... After much weeping and rending of sensibility, I bought the dress. There is no investment more worthwhile, I reasoned, than an investment in your own transformation into a better future-self." [NYT]