One of my favourite things - of all time, ever - to do is to trawl through my favourite online stores, put everything i want into the shopping basket, glance at the total, and then exit. Oh you know, I just "spent" $4000. No big. I was talking about this the other day with Talisa. Is it weird that I do this? Am I alone? She comforted me and told me that she likes to do it too. What's up with that? Is this the new window shopping? In the days where a lot of women - especially those living in countries where there is a big mark up on luxury goods - buy their clothes online, is the thrill of 'shopping' now to be found in perusing a site, adding to the shopping bag, and then casually exiting the browser before 'payment'? I mean you can't do that in a real store. Well, you can, but you'd get a few looks. If I went into Lands End and just casually picked up $4000 worth of merchandise, strolled around the store, then put it back and left I would look like a bit of a knob. But because of the anonymity of online you can do that - and more - with online retailers. I've once gone so far as the "put your credit card details here" part. I was never going to purchase all $2500 of clothes and accessories in my shopping bag, I didn't have anywhere even remotely near that amount of money in my bank account. So why did I do it?
Part of it is, of course, that imaginative factor. It's fun to picture your new and improved wardrobe filled with fantastic finds - like the Acne silk parka or the Rag and Bone kirby crew knit. It serves the same purpose in the same way that Polyvore does. Maybe I won't ever have these nice things, but boy is it fun to hope. But even more than that, it's about how shopping has changed. I haven't been properly 'shopping' in ages. I just don' have the time anymore. Sure, I've popped into The Corner Shop or Belinda on my way home from work the other day, and I dashed into Incu to grab my Alexander Wang knit. But last year, hell, even last month, I used to trawl through department stores and the big chains like Country Road and Witchery like it was a spectator sport. The reason I haven't been 'shopping' - window shopping, just to see what's around - recently is partly because of my new work and uni timetable I just don't have any spare time anymore, and if I do it's taken up with seeing friends who I shamefully neglect or doing uni work. It's simpler and easier, and well, a little bit more fun to just lie in my pyjamas on my bed with a bagel and a cup of tea and scroll through beautiful websites instead. It's less painful on my feet, and with the advent of zoom technology and 360 degree views, it's just as much, if not more fun than 'real shopping'. But I think the material point here is that 'real shopping' has changed. It's no longer about spending hours in stores, seeing what's new and what's just arrived. It can't be - not when stores have their own blogs, websites, twitters and facebooks.
So what is modern shopping? I'm not sure yet. I still love little boutiques and well-edited department stores too much to proclaim their death in favour of the online, where you can't try stuff on. But I think that the new window shopping is here to stay.. Tonight I might give net a porter a go...
X
You have read this article clothes /
clothing /
fashion /
friends /
me /
online /
shopping
with the title window shopping. You can bookmark this page URL http://startthefire-cafagesta.blogspot.com/2011/03/window-shopping.html. Thanks!
