Dividends: Singapore Chic and Shock

With millions of people around the world strutting their status in designer denim, label watchers are growing a bit jaded with the usual insignias. So to put a new gleam in their eyes, a Singapore firm has introduced blue jeans with a solid-gold label and a similarly lustrous price tag: $850. Yane jeans bear a Y-shaped trademark, which is made with 1.12 oz. of 22-karat gold, on the pants just above the right hip pocket.

Boutique browsers have snapped up more than 100 pairs since the jeans went on display in May. At one shop a businessman bought two pairs each for himself and his wife. Such conspicuous consumption, though, has caused a stir. A Singapore newspaper called the blue-jeans binge "nothing less than barbaric," and the government broadcasting company banned further TV ads, telling Yane that the jeans are "exploitation of the rich."

Yane is now planning a pair of diamond-solitaire jeans that will cost as much as $3,500. But wearers of the gilded britches might want to be discreet, or they could find themselves confronted by a mugger who growls, "Keep the wallet, pal. Just hand over the pants."