A bit of a moment, here....
I'm a blog-reader (more than I am a writer, admittedly), and I follow a number of personal style blogs. They're not high-fashion -- they're generally real people with real jobs not in the fashion industry, who post a picture of what they wore that day, identify the various bits and pieces, and talk a little about their personal style. One of my favorites in the genre is "Already Pretty," based in Minneapolis. Sal is neither model-thin nor disinterested in comfort, and I generally quite like the way she thinks.
I really liked the look she posted this morning -- jeans, an olive shirt, with a dark gray blazer and a fairly groovy purple scarf around her neck, one with black skulls on it. Then I read the descriptive text and had the aforementioned moment. You see, that scarf was "a bit of a splurge" for her, in that it was an Alexander McQueen designer piece that retails for $295. $295. No, there's no decimal in that price. Two hundred and ninety-five dollars. American money. *goggle*
In my world, $295 is perhaps more likely to be the price of a car than a scarf, though it wouldn't be much of a car. I can't twist my brain around to being willing to spend even a third of that amount on a scarf. I've come around to spending $100 on a really good pair of shoes, because cheap shoes hurt my back and can dramatically affect my life. I could maybe spend $100 on a winter coat. I've been looking at the wonderful dresses at Trashy Diva, which sometimes retail for a couple of hundred bucks -- looking, but I couldn't justify buying one. But .... a scarf?
Am I just being overly cheap here? Is this a sign that I'll never be chic, never draw admiring glances? Is this the reaction of a midwesterner, and it seems more reasonable on the coasts?
I really liked the look she posted this morning -- jeans, an olive shirt, with a dark gray blazer and a fairly groovy purple scarf around her neck, one with black skulls on it. Then I read the descriptive text and had the aforementioned moment. You see, that scarf was "a bit of a splurge" for her, in that it was an Alexander McQueen designer piece that retails for $295. $295. No, there's no decimal in that price. Two hundred and ninety-five dollars. American money. *goggle*
In my world, $295 is perhaps more likely to be the price of a car than a scarf, though it wouldn't be much of a car. I can't twist my brain around to being willing to spend even a third of that amount on a scarf. I've come around to spending $100 on a really good pair of shoes, because cheap shoes hurt my back and can dramatically affect my life. I could maybe spend $100 on a winter coat. I've been looking at the wonderful dresses at Trashy Diva, which sometimes retail for a couple of hundred bucks -- looking, but I couldn't justify buying one. But .... a scarf?
Am I just being overly cheap here? Is this a sign that I'll never be chic, never draw admiring glances? Is this the reaction of a midwesterner, and it seems more reasonable on the coasts?