In a spare moment yesterday, I flipped through a Lucky magazine to take a peek at the latest fashion trends for Fall. I don't generally buy this magazine, as it's just another collection of junk ads geared to make us buy things we don't really need to try to make us look like people we don't really need to be....but that's another blog post for another day. Sometimes when I travel on business, I pick up this magazine, because I can escape into it and make it last for a 2 or 3 hour flight, cover to cover. Often, I toss it in the trash at the arrival airport, but this time I kept it. And yesterday, I perused it again and came away with some general thoughts about it.If you're not familiar with Lucky, it's a magazine "all about shopping", and it puts together outfits and looks and then tells you where you can find all the pieces and at what price, etc. That is, in between pages and pages and pages of ads filled with 12-year old models trying to sell us wrinkle cream and overpriced handbags (just like every other fashion magazine out there).
Yesterday, I spent some time looking at the outfits created and some of the individual pieces that had come together to make 'the looks', and it occurred to me that most of it makes no sense. For example, they'll put together an outfit with a skirt from Christian Dior for $2400, paired with a blouse from J.C. Penney for $50 and a $7500 bracelet from the latest jewelry maven. Now who wears this, really? If you had the money to spend $2400 on a skirt and $7500 on a bracelet, would you be caught dead at J.C. Penney? Conversely, if you were a JCP shopper, would you be inclined to buy the blouse and then suddenly bolt over to Neiman Marcus to pick up the Christian Dior skirt? Would that ever even cross your mind? Nope, didn't think so.
I'm also quite amused when they try to show us "fashion for less'. They'll pair together an outfit -- blouse, skirt, shoes, jacket, jewelry, etc. -- all for a fairly reasonable price. And about the time I think, 'well, that was clever', I'll get to the last piece on the list, and it'll be a Louis Vuitton handbag for $3,450. Now, hold the phone. I'm spending $250 on my entire outfit that I cobbled together from the discount stores at the mall, and I saved so much on it, that I'm now going to waltz over to LV and splurge on a $3500 handbag? Uh-huh. Yeah, sure, that's how my budget works.
WHO is writing this stuff?
1 comment:
Strangely enough that is how fashion seems to work over here now. We have Primark (which is called Penneys in Ireland so may be connected to yours) that is dirt cheap but very quick at picking up on the trends and in recent years it hasn't been shameful to shop there but rather people take pride in getting a stylish bargain.
Economics-wise it doesn't add up of course - you aren't saving yourself enough money for the designer bag because you are still spending!
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