That’s Rich: Hermès Is Selling A $91,500 Crocodile T-shirt

The sales tax alone on the Hermès shirt is enough to buy a car

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Hermes - Mens Spring Summer 2013 Runway - Paris Menswear Fashion Week
Nathalie Lagneau / Catwalking / Getty Images

Sorry, Hanes. Move over, Fruit of the Loom. Cotton may want to be the fabric of our lives, but some prefer to wear crocodile. Revered French fashion house Hermès has debuted a crocodile t-shirt as part of its Spring/Summer 2013 menswear collection made. The price tag? $91,500.

The luxe shirt made its debut last fall on the Spring 2013 runway as part of the label’s chiffon crocodile shirt line, but only hit the company’s Madison Avenue flagship store recently. All of the tops from the collection cost between $60,000 and $100,000, according to Fashionista.

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The Awl, who managed to snap a photo of the t-shirt’s price tag (photos are not allowed inside of Hermès’ stores), noted that just the sales tax on the shirt could amount to $8,000, which alone is almost equal to the per capita GDP of Albania.

While most consumers would laugh at the high price of the shirt, animal rights organization PETA notes that for the crocodile, it’s no laughing matter. “The highest price for this rather cheap-looking and ludicrous Hermès T-shirt is paid by the crocodiles who were bludgeoned to death or even skinned alive to make it,” PETA spokesperson Colleen O’Brien told TODAY.com. “PETA suggests showing creativity, not cruelty to animals, and offering killer looks that no one had to be killed for to create.”

Unfortunately for the crocs, their skins continue to make headlines as part of luxury fashion items. Last year, The Row (the fashion company owned by Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen) featured a backpack made out of black patent leather from Nile crocodiles, which was created in collaboration with British artist Damien Hirst, and cost a whopping $55,000.

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