Free Republic

As the silver-lined elevator at Bergdorf Goodman lifted the woman with the carefully manicured hair to the couture level on Thursday afternoon, she spoke into her cellphone: "I've finished shopping - almost," she said, looking down at her bags. "No, not a van. I think a Town Car will be quite big enough, thank you." On East 57th Street, two young Englishwomen were bustling along the crowded sidewalk, carrying Burberry bags. Debbie Drake, 20, a personal assistant at a British Ford plant, said she had never defined herself as a luxury shopper - until she came to New York. With...