Ah the sartorial splendor of the academic class! How I laughed when I read this. It reminded me of one of my favorite professors. Admittedly he was a scientist, and they're even more eccentric in matters of dress than the humanities faculty, but he refused to wear pants that cost more than $10 and shirts that cost more than $1. And he wore Birkenstocks year around. Still it was apparently an improvement over his grad school apparel.