Luxury needs a reality check. According to online designer outlet Boinclo, clothing prices rose by than 50 per cent from 2019 to 2023, while Dior and Chanel upped prices by around 60 per cent during the post-Covid spending spree. Analysts called the trend ‘greedflation’. While there’s investment style, there’s also absurdity, so here’s what the price of six top designer buys could get you instead.

Pretty fridge or plain navy jumper? The fridge wins every time. It might be pure cashmere but, Balenciaga, shame on you.

Hermès Birkin bags are fashion’s yardstick for inflation. The fact that this orange alligator-skin iteration costs as much as the average house deposit in the Southeast of England tells you the stick is broken. And if you’re not in the market for property, you could stow the contents of your handbag in the back of a new VW Multivan with whatever else you want to cart around – and you’d still have change.

The arbiter of stealth wealth, The Row has made a name for itself by flogging a logo-less, quiet-luxury aesthetic. Now, I’m all for a huge, wonderfully soft scarf, but if it is going to cost me the same as a Rangemaster dual-fuel cooker, I’ll stick to my trusty unbranded £59 cashmere stole from John Lewis and take the shiny new burners instead, thanks.

There’s no practical need for four Louis Vuitton monogrammed boxes without handles or wheels at £15,200. Especially when we have all reached peak ‘stuff’. But what Icouldget behind is an insulated 15 sq m ‘garden room’ with sliding aluminium windows and doors, plus a covered terrace, from quick-garden.co.uk. Imagine working from here or curling up with a cup of coffee and a book. Splendid.

One could splurge almost £15,000 on an eye-catching 18-carat rose-gold snake bangle, set with rubellite eyes and demi-pavé diamonds on the head and tail. Or, Hullensians such as myself could bag an annual season train ticket from Yorkshire to London, which allows travel at any time of the day, and you’d still have £100 left to splash on coffees, copies ofThe Mail On Sundayand M&S picky bits.

This tobacco-toned double-breasted lambskin coat is how the one per cent are keeping warm this winter. But you can spare the sheep. For £300 you could heat your whole house or business for the next two decades with a set of 14 7kW solar panels that includes a 10-60 kW battery package. Helpful for your bills and the planet, too.

Share or comment on this article: A Birkin is quite the flex, says fashion editor HANNAH SKELLEY. But here’s what else you can bag for your bucks (including a car)