I often used to see this phrase when reading Jimmy's posts.  What it amounted to, I suppose, in a sense, was style over substance.  But was he always transparent?  No-one enjoyed showing off and out more than he did and the rarity value of some item of clothing or pair of shoes was never far from his mind.  There was once a thread about washing in which hand-washing was insisted upon - precisely because of the rarity of some items in his wardrobe.
Yet he sometimes appeared quite content with Uniqlo and even supermarket chinos so long as the basic 'Look' was present.
I never could be and still reproach myself for odd lapses: buying things that had been obviously outsourced rather than sticking to my guns and buying, for the most part, union-made American clothing. 
Is this simply a question of ethics?  Well - yes and no.  Authenticity?  I suppose it must be, to some extent. 
Clearly, however, an awful lot of stuff made in the USA is either tat or, at best, of indifferent quality. 
Poses something of a problem, on occasion.