Jenice Armstrong: For prom 2011, a $14,000 dress

WHAT FOOL would buy his daughter a $14,000 prom dress?

It's one thing for parents to want the best for their precious little princess, but there are limits in terms of how far you should go when you're outfitting someone for a measly high-school dance.

And, if you ask me, the nincompoops who buy the prom dress that a Bensalem retailer is offering for $13,997 are crossing the line when it comes to spoiling their kid. Things have changed a lot since I went to my senior prom in a pink, cotton dress that a friend's sister sewed for me, but this is the most obscene prom expense I've ever heard of.

Are people nuts? Even if you can afford it, what sane, rational adult would throw away $13,997 for a prom dress?

It doesn't matter how fabulous the dress is, with its slim silhouette and thigh-high split. There's something morally reprehensible about the idea that a teenager would show up for a high school dance in a decadent dress dripping with diamonds. We're talking high school gathering with chaperones - not the red carpet on Oscar night.

It's wrong on so many levels. Especially when you stop to think about what $14,000 could buy, such as an entire semester at Temple University's College of Engineering. Or the down payment on a condo, which would set your little princess on the path to home ownership.

You have to wonder if the prom gown comes with a bodyguard? It should, because I can picture how things might go down: Little Susie shows up looking resplendent in her jewel-studded dress only to be circled by green-eyed classmates eager for a souvenir from their big night. A few sharp tugs and before you know, Susie's frenemies will have the raw materials for that pair of diamond-stud earrings they've always wanted. Talk about a memorable prom favor.

As appalled as I am about a $14,000 prom dress, I can't blame the local folks who dreamed up the idea of taking a simple prom gown - La Femme prom dress No. 15987 - that sells for a reasonable $398 and blinging it out with real diamonds worth thousands of dollars. The husband-wife team who took over the online retailer DressGoddess from relatives, are in business to satisfy their customers and they needed something over the top to appeal to the MTV "My Sweet 16" crowd.

"If there's a customer out there that's interested in a dress like that, we are happy to provide it for them," said Jon Liney, DressGoddess' president. "Some people wear watches that are more expensive than that," he added.

Liney, 40, who also owns a prom-dress boutique called the Golden Asp, on Pasqualone Boulevard, must know what he's talking about because the dress went on sale just a week ago, and he has sold two - one to a customer overseas and the other to a U.S. buyer outside the tri-state area. When I chatted with him yesterday afternoon, he seemed like a rational, down-to-earth guy, so I posed the question to him: If he had a daughter, would he buy her this dress?

"If I say no, then I look like a hypocrite. If I say yes, then I look like I'm as crazy as the rest. Let's just say it depends," Liney said. "I don't know if I would or not . . . "

Wrong, wrong, wrong. As a smart businessman who knows the value of a dollar, he should have said, "Hell no!"

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com. My blog: www.philly.com/ HeyJen.