(no subject)
Love these dresses, very fashion-forward and definitely not what your average girl on Orchard Road will wear, but unfortunately, they're overpriced by my standards. FEP does spoil a girl! When you get awesome dresses that people stop to ask you where you got them from at $30+, anything more than $50 is over-priced.
Ditto for these dresses. Perfect for work -- chic but formal enough. But still too pricey!
And I found the cutest solution to my shoe storage problem -- cuteness!
Clearly, I've have been blogstalking to get over my shopping pangs. I love online shopping: you get the satisfaction of poring over options and making your selection, but without having to pay for anything. Click, click, click, everything's in my shopping basket, but I never check out. Helps that my wallet is always in another room -- more work to spend money = less money spent. I found a few pretty decent Singaporean fashion blogs!
- Vogueite: very bitchy!
- Soon Lee: they have a shop on Haji Lane, that I'm dying to check out. Girls, can we please go to Haji Lane sometime soon? Like when we finally have money again? :P
- Fashionation: Comes with their own list of Singaporean fashion blogs or websites!
All this fashionstalking has been making me happy, but I've also been thinking about materialism and consumerism. I like owning pretty things, and I like owning new things, but recent conversations -- plus the plans to renovate my room so I can actually store all my possessions neatly -- have made me question this lifestyle. Before I moved back to Singapore, I swore I would not succumb to the gross consumerism underlying our society. I'd rise above it -- no shopping, no clubbing, no frivolous spending, only indulging in things that feed you intellectually.
Well, we all know how long that lasted. ;) It's hard to fight off, the bling culture of instant gratification and self-indulgence. The book I'm reading now, Londonstani, has an interesting rant about this:
'Like I said, boys, this particualr subculture's not a passing phase. You can be a hippie or a punk and then one day grow out of being skint and stoned or having ridiculously spiky hair. But you won't one day wake up and say, I know, I want to be less comfortable, less well off, less sexually attractive and less healthy. ... This isn't about society becoming more affluent, this is about a subculture that worships affluence becoming mainstream culture. '
But I have been feeling guilty, I have been questioning the purpose of all this spending. Do I really need so much STUFF?! Even my books? Do I really need any of this? Of course not. I look at how much I junk during my regular 'spring-cleaning' sessions, and I shake my head at how wasteful this all is. I have so much stuff that's in great condition, but that I simply don't need or even want anymore. I think my maid thinks I'm crazy; she always marvels at how I throw out stuff that seems perfectly fine to her.
And I start wondering about what it means that buying things is one of my biggest source of happiness. I'm so scared that I'm becoming my worst nightmare: one of those stereotypical Singaporean girls whose lives are just an endless stream of mindless superficial self-indulgences. Hence the stack of books from Kino for intellectual stimulation -- but which also involved spending money. It's practically hypocritical. I find myself contemplating buying designer bags, signing up for massage packages, getting my driver's license, buying a car... and I have to stop and ask: why the hell do you need any of this?
Money is great, but after a certain point, more money doesn't really mean a thing. Jumping from $1000 to $2000 a month, from $2000 to $4000, can make a world of difference in your quality of life. But jumping from $4000 to $8000? $8000 to $12000? What does that really do for you? So instead of getting a car, you get a fancy car; instead of getting a home, you get a fancy home in a swanky district; instead of going on a quick getaway, you jet off to some exotic locale whose name most Singaporeans will have trouble even pronouncing... but does all that really make you happier?
I read the articles on how inflation has affected low-income families in Singapore and I can't help feeling guilty. Entire families are surviving on less than my monthly salary, and I'm complaining about not having enough money?
Ditto for these dresses. Perfect for work -- chic but formal enough. But still too pricey!
And I found the cutest solution to my shoe storage problem -- cuteness!
Clearly, I've have been blogstalking to get over my shopping pangs. I love online shopping: you get the satisfaction of poring over options and making your selection, but without having to pay for anything. Click, click, click, everything's in my shopping basket, but I never check out. Helps that my wallet is always in another room -- more work to spend money = less money spent. I found a few pretty decent Singaporean fashion blogs!
- Vogueite: very bitchy!
- Soon Lee: they have a shop on Haji Lane, that I'm dying to check out. Girls, can we please go to Haji Lane sometime soon? Like when we finally have money again? :P
- Fashionation: Comes with their own list of Singaporean fashion blogs or websites!
All this fashionstalking has been making me happy, but I've also been thinking about materialism and consumerism. I like owning pretty things, and I like owning new things, but recent conversations -- plus the plans to renovate my room so I can actually store all my possessions neatly -- have made me question this lifestyle. Before I moved back to Singapore, I swore I would not succumb to the gross consumerism underlying our society. I'd rise above it -- no shopping, no clubbing, no frivolous spending, only indulging in things that feed you intellectually.
Well, we all know how long that lasted. ;) It's hard to fight off, the bling culture of instant gratification and self-indulgence. The book I'm reading now, Londonstani, has an interesting rant about this:
'Like I said, boys, this particualr subculture's not a passing phase. You can be a hippie or a punk and then one day grow out of being skint and stoned or having ridiculously spiky hair. But you won't one day wake up and say, I know, I want to be less comfortable, less well off, less sexually attractive and less healthy. ... This isn't about society becoming more affluent, this is about a subculture that worships affluence becoming mainstream culture. '
But I have been feeling guilty, I have been questioning the purpose of all this spending. Do I really need so much STUFF?! Even my books? Do I really need any of this? Of course not. I look at how much I junk during my regular 'spring-cleaning' sessions, and I shake my head at how wasteful this all is. I have so much stuff that's in great condition, but that I simply don't need or even want anymore. I think my maid thinks I'm crazy; she always marvels at how I throw out stuff that seems perfectly fine to her.
And I start wondering about what it means that buying things is one of my biggest source of happiness. I'm so scared that I'm becoming my worst nightmare: one of those stereotypical Singaporean girls whose lives are just an endless stream of mindless superficial self-indulgences. Hence the stack of books from Kino for intellectual stimulation -- but which also involved spending money. It's practically hypocritical. I find myself contemplating buying designer bags, signing up for massage packages, getting my driver's license, buying a car... and I have to stop and ask: why the hell do you need any of this?
Money is great, but after a certain point, more money doesn't really mean a thing. Jumping from $1000 to $2000 a month, from $2000 to $4000, can make a world of difference in your quality of life. But jumping from $4000 to $8000? $8000 to $12000? What does that really do for you? So instead of getting a car, you get a fancy car; instead of getting a home, you get a fancy home in a swanky district; instead of going on a quick getaway, you jet off to some exotic locale whose name most Singaporeans will have trouble even pronouncing... but does all that really make you happier?
I read the articles on how inflation has affected low-income families in Singapore and I can't help feeling guilty. Entire families are surviving on less than my monthly salary, and I'm complaining about not having enough money?