My wedding dress was about $200 and my usual dresses/outfits are in the $200 and under category. I did buy a dress to wear to a friends wedding that was closer to $350, but I made the mistake of falling in love with it before I checked the price. Lesson learned 
Holy. Shit.
For that price I’d make my wife wear it every time we re-enacted our wedding night.
My wedding dress was $580. As for standard dresses I think the most I’ve ever paid was $80 or $90. I’m having my wedding dress turned into a quilt to get as much use out of it as possible because at that price I can’t justify leaving it in the closet for 40 years!
I’ve paid about $400 for a ballgown. It fits beautifully and I still have it some 10 years later!
The most I ever paid was about $120 for a really beautiful dress that I still wear. It was my birthday present. My wedding dress didn’t cost that much, but my mom sewed it so the yardage was the only cost.
I also haven’t included my wedding dress, (around £1200, IIRC), so went for the $100-$499 option, though after voting realise converting to sterling I should have gone for the next bracket up.
Twice a year I treat myself to a shopping ship in the Selfridges sale, and thanks to that have got myself a little collection of Diane Von Furstenburg dresses, and also a beautiful Pucci dress. All cost between £300-£400, but are classic designs in beautiful fabrics that I’ll wear for years.
I have to admit though, my favourite one is the DVF dress I found in an Oxfam shop for the bargain price of £3.99!
It was much, much closer to $100 than $499.99.
This websitecalculates the inflation and lets you compare money amounts from different years. It’s handy for old movies and TV shows. And Mad Men.
I’m not sure when that episode of I Love Lucy would have been, so I put in 1955, and it calculates that $500 in 1955 would have the buying power of $4,072.99 in 2010.
My wedding dress was in the neighborhood of $1300 plus fabric, custom-made by a local seamstress. And the fabric wasn’t exactly cheap, either (it was a rather ornate silk sari with silver embroidery). I was in shock that I actually ended up spending that much, but I was so exasperated after trying on piles of off-the-rack dresses, none of which I liked and all of which would have required hundreds of dollars in alterations to fit properly, and nearly all of which were strapless (I need infrastructure, dammit!) that I finally gave in and just had something made that I actually liked. I figured what the hell, most of my clothes are from various discount outlets, and for once, I want what I want.
Other than that, I’ve spent maybe $150 on a dress a couple of times, but it’s almost always under $100, even for a formal dress. Oh, except for a couple of hideous bridesmaid dresses I was forced to buy. Those may have been in the $200 range.
My reaction, as well. I’m in the first category. Even my wedding dress, circa 2001, was only $75 (it was a clearance bridesmaid dress, and perfect for our super-cheap Jamaican beach wedding).
Prom dress, a blue crepe and chiffon sheath, $79 (I wonder whatever happened to it?) My hair (I had the works, highlights and upswept curls) cost $50 alone, and purse, wrap, and shoes another $40…Several bridesmaid’s dresses, between $100 - $150… I haven’t had occasion to wear a dressy-dress in decades, though I have a couple classic little black numbers, just in case, one new for $30, one from a thrift store for $14… When I was younger, I would buy the occasional work dress from mid-level department stores, Casual Corner, occasionally Macy’s or Bloomingdale’s when I was in NYC, but nothing over $100.
I have several bollywood style dresses in the $400-800 range that I’ve worn to various weddings. I’ve been only been able to wear each once though. I just bought two more in September, one for $300 and the other was $400 for a family members wedding. Caucausian dresses I have spent about $200 for one at BCBG that was on sale during boxing day. I have not worn it yet.
Bah, I forgot about my prom dress. It cost about $300, but I wore it to three proms, so it still evens out.
My wedding dress was about $650.
The next most expensive dress I ever bought was under $200.
I really don’t buy many dresses.
$160 for a Jones New York dress to wear to my cousin’s black-tie wedding.
My wedding dress was just over 500.00. I loved it and glad I spent the money.
From the film Working Girl, as Joan Cusak’s character holds up a dress:
Six thousand dollars? It’s not even leather!
The most I ever spent on any article of clothing was $30.
I have a couple dresses I paid $100-$130 for back years ago that get trotted out once a year or so on the rare occasions I need to look dressy. Since I didn’t really have a wedding, my “wedding dress” was a sun dress pulled out of the closet for a day at the beach. I think it cost $25-$30
About $300 all told for a bridesmaid dress including shoes, hair, bustier, and alterations.
Otherwise, I have a couple sundresses I bought for about $30. I don’t wear dresses all that often as it’s hard to find something that works for me (tall, curvy, combined with wide shoulders and big boobs makes it hard to find a dress that doesn’t end up way too high on the thigh for propriety…).
If I ever need a nice dress I’ll go back to where we got the bridesmaid dress, they had some real nice evening dresses that were less than the bridesmaid one.