The kind of people that they're targeting wouldn't buy them if they weren't expensive.
A friend at work was showing me some nice dresses from a catalog that was clearly shooting for the hip wannabe environmentalist with money crowd. They were selling simple dresses for $300+. I did a little investigation and found out that they make their clothing in the same Asian sweatshops that the cheap discount retailers do, but they sell to the people who wouldn't be seen dead in a Wal*Mart, even though they're wearing basically the same stuff.
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Work: the 8 hours that separates bike rides.