Not only are leftists who deride nice things as bourgeois silly, they're also generally frauds trying to compensate for their lack of working class roots. JoAnn Wypijewski once told me that you can always tell a working class impersonator when you see someone who is purposefully under dressed. When the occasion calls for it, real working class people will always wear the best they have, she said (I'm paraphrasing). She was right, of course. Just head up to Harlem on a Sunday morning when people are coming to and from church and you'll see.
Actually, the ultimate level of snobbery seems to be when working class people are the brunt of elite condescension for _overdressing_. A few years ago, I was at the symphony and I overheard this disgusting couple making fun of another couple a few seats away who were wearing black tie attire. There was considerable giggling -- the term "peasants" was used, and then some comment along the lines of "I guess they thought they were going to the Oscars!" These are the kind of people who will have to be shot when the Revolution arrives. :-)
And thanks to Andie for the ebay tip. I never thought about buying clothes on ebay but I just found a $150 tie for 16 bucks. Nice. Perhaps if I had been more diligent in my LBO reading, I would have been spared the argument I had with my wife yesterday about whether to buy my brother in law two $40 ties at Macy's or one really nice $80 tie at Jos. Banks. (We decided on the former because she didn't think he'd appreciate the difference. His loss).
-WD