what price glory? Fashion buyers help Robert Sullivan get to the bottom of why prices are so high these days-and what pieces will fly off the racks, regardless.

At cocktail parties and in the foyers at museum-based balls this fall, history-minded fashion lovers will no doubt be equating the current period of fashion prices with what history-minded economists refer to as price revolutions, economic events that can be traced as far back as the medieval era, in which the price of a good tunic and tights or a gown that you could actually wear around court increased sixfold. The good news in looking back to past fashion times is that we see prices eventually settled down (after the Spanish wrapped up their initial New World gold plundering), so that shopping returned to normal, though normal is a relative term, as this was a primitive ...