Well, men, if you are out and about and wondering what to get your wife for the holidays, the answer is usually simple. That is, if you have $2,500 to spare and live near the Miracle Mile. All you have to do is walk into Burberry’s, Louis Vuitton, Fendi or Gucci with a bewildered look on your face and you will promptly be approached by an extremely pleasant salesperson who will guide you toward the handbag area where upon you will be shown some exquisite looking luxury handbags and, voila, your decision-making is done.

But what if you’re a puzzled wife who is shopping for the man in your life and realize that he has more ties, shirts, scarfs and sweaters than he can possibly use. What to do? What to do? Your troubles are over because thanks to the ascendence of men’s fashion in America, you too can spend large sums of cash to adorn your man in the latest in sneaker apparel.

Welcome to the world of high-end, luxury sneaker fashion. For years I have been aware that certain entrepreneurial and enterprising young teens were engaged in buying and then selling the latest sneaker line of Air Jordans. But I was stunned to see how fashion houses were now in the serious business of designing and selling luxury sneakers for men. Or to put it more accurately, for wealthy men.

I was prompted to write this column after walking through Neiman Marcus in the Roosevelt Mall last week and noticed some truly odd-looking, hand-painted sneakers with silver studs by Dolce & Gabbana. I turned them over to see the soles and there was the price tag for these beauties at the cost of $1,500. Wow! Things have changed since I was a kid and the only things available to buy were those black high-top Converse sneakers for $12.

To do more research, I went back up to the Miracle Mile in Manhasset and waltzed into Louis Vuitton with the naïve assumption that one of those friendly salespeople would be happy to chat with me about sneaker fashion. Silly me, I should have known that since there is so much invested in LV branding, each salesperson is instructed to respond to a journalist’s questions with the line: “Why certainly, sir, I will be more than happy to get in touch with our PR corporate division and get back to you within a week or so.” Gee, thanks.

My next move was to exit stage left and saunter on down to Gucci and try my luck there. Naturally I put my camera, pen and pad away, walked in and asked where their men’s sneaker department was. I was promptly escorted to the right place. The service in any of these high-end Miracle Mile stores is different than what occurs if you walk into Century 21. At Century 21 you feel lonely and lost, but in a luxury fashion store you feel happy, enchanted, accompanied, and very welcomed. Sometimes, actually frequently, they will offer you bottled water. At Gucci’s the salesperson was engaging and pleasant and answered all my questions.

At this point I was able to understand the categories of sneakers on display. Each luxury brand used their familiar logos. Louis Vuitton used the “LV” insignia. Gucci used that “GG” and the green and red stripes, Fendi uses “F” and Dolce Gabbana uses there famous “DG” But that’s only the beginning of the fun. They have sneakers for walking, sneakers for jogging and sneakers for evening wear.

In days gone by the only guys who would have had the guts to wear sneakers at all times were Howard Hughes and David Boies. But Hughes was the world’s richest man and David Boies is one of the nation’s most well-known, powerful and brilliant attorneys. In case you don’t recall, Boies was the guy who represented Al Gore in that Supreme Court case.

But now it seems that sneakers are an in thing for almost all occasions. Or as the salesperson told me at Gucci: “There are no longer any rules in fashion.” That is if you have the cash or credit to spend on these sneakers. I think that enough money allows you to break any rule you want.

So, if you are a woman looking to buy your man something he certainly does not have yet, go out and buy him some high-end sneakers. They look good, seem to be fun to wear and are made to last with quality material. And one hopes that, unlike women’s handbags, these cute little puppies will not go out of style too quickly.

Which brings up another question regarding women’s fashion. How is it possible that each year the styles keep getting better, more interesting, and more appealing? It doesn’t seem possible for this to occur, but it seems to happen every year. The colors get better, the use of materials gets more unique, the way the stuff gets put together is more fun. This was a question I posed to one of the Gucci salespeople I spoke to.

I asked how fashion just keeps getting better and better every year. He paused, thought for a moment, smiled at me and said: “Isn’t it remarkable what the combination of money and creativity can do.”

I guess it is remarkable.