Only for the richest

The fragrance chamber at the Tom Ford flagship is housed in an octagonal room.

In the world of fashion news, Tom Ford's flagship store in NYC is a few weeks old. I've read many descriptions of its unbelievably luxurious and expensive goods and services, the butler, the maid, the champagne, the $5,000 suits, and the whole "gated-community" feel. I finally saw a picture in the NY Times' article No Store Is a Hero to Its Valet. Wow just wow. The fragrance chamber looks like a diamond chamber or the most secretive vault in a museum where the world's most treasured art pieces are stored.

The reporter went there on two days, and was treatedly entirely differently. "MY visit the following day was markedly different. The service offered me, especially by the store manager, Edward Carbonell, who possesses a charming bedside manner and the best skin in high-end men’s retail, was exemplary. It was Champagne and smiles all around, but then the entire staff appeared to know I was a Times reporter since I had made the appointment in my name. The security guards were noticeably more low-key — Mr. Carbonell informed me that he had told them to back off as I was apparently not the only one who had been rubbed the wrong way — and the whole tenor of the place was friendlier, more inviting. " Isn't it just the quintessential nouveau riche snobbery?