Clothing Prices Hold Steady No Longer

More polyester. Thinner shirts. Smaller buttons. The fallout from the cotton crisis looks like 1970s disco with way higher prices.

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36 Hours in Palm Beach, Fla.

PALM BEACHERS may have tightened their Gucci belts in the wake of the Bernard Madoff scandal. The Ponzi scheme cleaned out some local bank accounts, and the recession curtailed the lust for Limoges and other such items. Still, judging by the perfectly clipped hedges that envelop the manicured mansions, residents may be doing with less, but not much less. The tiny island, north of Fort Lauderdale on Florida’s east coast, still boasts some of the country’s dreamiest estates, where the staff lives better than many Americans, cashmere sweaters in trademark pastel greens and pinks go for $800, and Rolls-Royces show up at Publix with regularity in a town where more is never quite enough.

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