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Clifton Stone, associate general counsel at Smith Barney Inc., a unit of Travelers Group, says he will spend 50% more on apparel and accessories for himself this year, or about $3,000 on suits, shirts, Tiffany Set on sale and shoes. "Once you start treating yourself to certain quality items, you want to replace what you have with better stuff," he says. Among his favorites: ties from Milan designer Ermenegildo Zegna that cost $105.Retailers believe attitudes are somewhat different now than in the '80s. This time, "it's not about having as much as you can," says Marion Davidson, director of marketing and communications for Hermes SA. "It's about having a few things that are exceptional. A Gap dress with a Hermes handbag and scarf are all you need."Retailers say today's designer-goods shoppers are thinking investment, not splurge, when they make big-ticket purchases. Robert DiNicola, chairman of Zale Corp., sees a higher "comfort level" this year among customers at the company's Bailey, Banks & Biddle jewelry stores. The most popular diamond tennis bracelets cost between $599 and $699, compared with a $299 average price last year, he says. Customers nowadays are happy to trade up as long as they feel like they're getting their money's worth, he says.Donna Leone, a partner at a New York investment-advising firm, says she expects to spend about 10% more on her fall wardrobe this year than last. Already, she says, she has bought a four-piece designer suit for "several thousand" dollars. "I just like the classic designs," she says. "They last forever."Despite shoppers' new rationalizations, plenty of hits of the '80s are back to Tiffany Watch on sale the designer craze for the second time: $1,000-plus Chanel bags at Bloomingdale's "are selling like they're going out of style, so to speak," says James Gundell, Bloomingdale's senior vice president in charge of women's accessories.And recent increases in U.S. sales have prompted pen maker Mont Blanc Simplo GmbH to accelerate a three-year plan to open 20 stores in the U.S. At Mont Blanc's first U.S. specialty boutique in Boston's Copley Plaza mall, all six of the 888 Prince Regent pens on hand sold out, and 10 more customers put their names on a waiting list. Studded with diamonds and rubies, the pens retail for $5,900.

Even Gucci, whose canvas handbags with the "double G" logo became synonymous with excess in the '80s, is making a comeback. Investcorp SA, the investment group that controls 100% of Gucci Group's common stock, said yesterday that it intends to make a global offering of 30% of of the company's shares.Other luxury designers are becoming status symbols for the first time. Miuccia Prada has seen North American sales of her apparel and accessories more than double in the tiffany year, a spokeswoman for her company, IPI SpA, says. During two days of sweltering heat in early August, the eight-year-old Prada boutique in Manhattan sold out of a double-cashmere coat with a price tag of $1,980. Shoppers, says the Prada spokeswoman, are "like piranhas. They are worried there will only be one in their size, and they need it now."NEW YORK -- Tiffany & Co. is showing some gleam in its financial picture.The company reported stronger-than-expected fiscal second-quarter earnings last week, and analysts and company officials say the strategies that management has used in recent years are clicking, giving the company momentum.The venerable jeweler always has had its strengths -- mainly image. But there have been times -- like earlier this year when a slowdown in holiday sales in Japan raised concerns -- that the company hasn't lived up to expectations.

"They weren't always in a position to capitalize on the name and the image they have. Now they're doing a better job of it," said Terence McEnvoy, analyst at Janney Montgomery Scott Inc. "Tiffany's got a tremendous image, a great reputation, and everyone loves the blue box with the white ribbon."Prudential Securities Inc. analyst Amy Ryan, who has been bullish on Tiffany for most of the year, said Tiffany always has been a "good" company, but it has sometimes found itself distracted by a range of events, from a weak Japanese economy to snow storms."The goodness is shining through right now," Ms. Ryan said.The company last Tuesday reported same-store sales rose 15% in the U.S. and 11% in Japan. Net income rose 54% to $5.3 million, or 33 discount Tiffany Bangle a share, for the quarter ending July 31, from $3.5 million, or 22 cents a share, a year earlier. Sales rose to $184.7 million from $152.3 million.The results were six cents a share higher than consenus estimates, sending the stock up one dollar that day. The stock has risen more than 35% from its 52-week low of $29 in late January, most recently trading at $41.125.Tiffany's chairman and chief executive, William Chaney, said he is optimistic about this year's holiday season, and he expects high single-digit percentage increases in same-store sales for the rest of the year. He said he's comfortable with analysts' full-year earnings estimates for fiscal 1996. A First Call survey of 14 analysts averaged $2.27 a share, but at least one analyst raised his estimate to $2.30 after the earnings report.