The simple answer is that I would like to challenge myself. Of course, there is a more complex answer to this question....
I think of this as the Evolution of My Shopping Habits...
I did not grow up poor. I grew up in a very working/middle class home, where I didn't always hear the word 'yes', but I also hardly heard the word 'no'. By the time I was a senior in high school, my weekly allowance allowed me a biweekly shopping trip to Contempo Casuals and, if I budgeted well, a monthly trip to the Gap. In fact, I remember my parents telling me that the Gap was way out of my budget and that I needed to keep it moving whenever I saw a Gap store.
The thing was, I attended a private school in NYC, where students were ridiculed for buying cashmere from Bloomingdales. Where the one girl, in retrospect, who was actually stylish was called a witch/hippie/lesbian on her way to class. Where flip flops were considered dirty and hood.
But I grew up in the Bronx, where style was defined by Cross Colours and Africa medallion necklaces. I tried, not always successfully, to navigate the preppy school life with my hood tendencies. And, all on my postal worker dad's allowance.
College is a blur (I mean, seriously, who cares what you wear in college?)....but I remember that with my 1st post-college paycheck, I was excited that I could go to the Gap and purchase something for full-price.
I haven't really thought about the extent of my shopping habits since then. My shopping habits lean towards Payless, Target, and Etsy, but I shop early and often. I need to figure out why retail therapy is the answer to every stress in my life.
I hope that this will be a good thing. That I will find alternate ways to deal with life's issues. That my Am Ex will miss me as much as I will miss it.
Please feel free to join me on this voyage....
I know what you mean. Almost all of the clothes that I buy are from second hand shops, but I realized recently that over the past two years I have shopped with abandon even though I haven't spent all that much money. Then suddenly it didn't seem as important anymore as I started to think about why it made me feel good, why I love the idea of old clothing and creating a style and idea of myself through clothes. Now I've been really considering why I'm shopping and what I'm buying in relation to my closet and my life. I hope you write about this more, I'd love to hear about how it goes.
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