Let me set the scene…..
It was 2001 -2007….the days where the standards of fashionable living was set by these broads…….
The days when you couldn’t step out the house unless all your clothing had a name and your shoes were made by some man who’s name you couldn’t pronounce. The days when the mere idea of stepping foot into a Target or Payless was worthy of getting you sent into exile.
Now flash forward to present day and you awaken to the oddest happenings. You turn on the tv and you see Target commercials where it’s “cool to be a Frugalista”.( Frugalista? I remember when frugal was the equivalent of a curse word.) You start to see more Payless and JCPenney commercials than you could ever remember or you hear that Vera Wang has a line at Kohls, Anna Sui is collaborating with Target, or Jimmy Choo is bringing their collection to H&M
WHAT GIVES! WHAT GIVES! What is this crazy world we have awakened to!?!?!
Well, don’t be alarmed my friends. It would seem that the rest of the world is catching up to what most of us already knew. Style is about taste, not price. For years television and other media encouraged us to go into debt for that all-exclusive handbag or $700 shoes. Now that the world is cutting back on the unnecessary items, those high-end designers are realizing that most of the world really couldn’t afford that stuff in the first place. Not that it wasn’t a quality product but, more often than not, it was WAY overpriced. Now the tide has turned and high-end designers are trying to appeal to those that, for years, they forgot.
The reality is that there are many more Targets, JCPenneys, Kohls, etc. than there are high-end boutique shops or department stores like Macy’s, Bloomingdales, Neiman Marcus, etc. In Manhattan, for example, there is 1 Saks, 2 Bloomingdales, 1 Bergdorfs, and 1 Macys but 10 H&M’s and 20 Payless locations. It may be a cheaper product but volume is clearly making up the difference. If they are selling in big volumes that means that there are tons more people willing to spend money in these places than in more expensive department stores. The other part of the reality is that if you don’t plan to wear something more than 1 season you don’t want to spend that much money on it.
So where do you fall into the fray? Where have you been shopping lately?
good will and salvation army, unfortunately. i’m so broke i can’t even pay attention. on the other hand, ican find goodstuff for reasonable prices.
with 2 teenage boys growing like mad, it’s the only economical choice i can make (my youngest justoutgrew pants i bought him 3 months ago!). i spent $35 at a good thrift store near here, and got 5 sweaters and 3 jeans for him.
works for me.
Ebay, girl. I’ve been shopping on Ebay. My latest score was a dress I paid $5.00 for. It’s a cute little J-Crew summer dress. New with tags. There are a lot of people out there who have bought things they can no longer fit or bought and can’t return for whatever reason and that equals bargains for us.
More recently, I’ve been shopping on my sewing machine. Over the summer I did hit the sales at Target, Macys, Old Navy, and Gap.
ALL CLOTHES HAVE DESIGNER LABELS, SOMEONE HAD TO DESIGN THAT PIECE, BUT WE ARE SO CAUGHT UP IN THE FAMOUS NAME OR MAKING SOMEONE FAMOUS WE FORGET OUR OWN STYLE AND SPEND SPEND SPEND. NOW GRANTED THERE ARE SOME FLIMSY PIECES OF GARBAGE OUT THERE BUT DOES IT MATTER WHERE YOU BUY YOUR CLOTHES, THRIFT STORE, FLEA MARKET, CLOTHES SWAP WITH FRIENDS, WAL-MART TARGET IT IS ALL IN WHAT YOU LIKE AND BY THE WAY IF YOU ARE INTO BRAND NAME CLOTHES YOU CAN DEFINETLY GET THEM AT THRFIT STORES AND YARD SALE OLDER STYLES BUT YOU WOULD BE AMAZED AT WHAT PEOPLE SELL AND OR THROW AWAY.