I shop, therefore I am.

'Whoever said money can't buy happiness didn't know where to shop.'
Bo Derek

model: magdalena frackowiak

magazine: harper's bazaar US September 09

photographer: Terry Richardson

if anything is a sign of economic frugality or at the very least of delicacy it is high fashion magazines including the use of high street labels (here bags) in their editorials. It's a nice thought that these glamazons shop not only at Dolce Gabbana, Chanel and Versace but also at the Gap and H&M. Nice, if a little naive. 

With the economic crisis looming large in everyone's minds and yet magazines still having to present september issues replete with glamorous editorials and go-forth-and-buy shopping pages the question on everyone's lips is - 'can we still shop?' and then, barely a breath later, 'am i a bad person for enjoying it?' 

Because, almost unanimously the evidence points to people enjoying shopping. Once a chore, once considered merely the obligatory middle point to necessities like, oooh, clothing, shopping, of all different kinds is now considered enjoyable, if not a hobby. It's not just clothes i'm talking about here, although the ephemeral pleasure that we get out of the act of shopping does stem primarily from those trips revolving fashion. But, depending on your interests shopping can be enjoyable for anything, be it children's toys to kitchenware (my mother and godmother respectively). 

This happiness, this momentary joy at the new, is the reason why shopping figures of the high street have not taking a dive for the worst following the economic crisis. Despite dire warning from financial heavyweights predicting the end of mindless consumerism and the heady materialism of the 1980s and early 90s figures stayed solid, and we still shopped. 

Are we surprised? I'm not. I am the worst for it, a compulsive shopper, someone who enjoys the act of shopping and not just the end result and a competitive window shopper (I challenge anyone to outlast me in the Strand Arcade's The Corner Shop). I am not ashamed to admit that my ultimate no-fuss quick fix for anything from mild bouts of uni related depression to self-consciousness about my body is cured with the quick snap of a fingers by entering a store. I don't spend a lot of money on it, luckily (or not so luckily, whichever way you look at it), my funds do not extend past the odd topshop or sportsgirl binge and the bargain find at sales time, but i do enjoy looking. 

Can we still shop? The answer is yes. Of course. Shopping has survived bigger things than financial down turn, people still shopping in World War I and II, there are hilarious tales of people like Lady Idina Sackville visiting the original Jeanne Lanvin store in Paris during WWI and bemusedly noting that she seemd to be the only one out on the streets. Should we feel bad about it? Well, that one is a little bit trickier. 

Despite the fact that we are still shopping it is clear that we are no longer in the throes of consumerism. While people believe that there is an ex-nominative link between consumerism and shopping this is not always the case. Intelligent shopping is most definitely not synonymous with consumerism, and i would hazard a guess that this is what defines the shopping landscape today. 

In the not so distant past impulse buys and mindless purchases were a main-stay of my wardrobe. On the way home from school i would pop into whatever store was within reach and buy something, silly things, things that didn't suit me or that i didn't really want, just because i could. Things that i then threw away months or years late and now regret, recalling how perfect they were for me now, even if my 15 year old self didn't appreciate them (*sniff*, raffia and chocolate gros-grain espadrilles! *sniff*).

Now, however, impulse buys are things of the past. I still shop and i most definitely still buy, but perhaps this economic downturn and my wish for a 'french wardrobe' have led me in a different direction, i am buying differently and more importantly i am shopping differently. I know what i want, and i look for it. Right now that's a replacement espadrille heel, silk tee shirts (i think i've found a promising candidate in Satch, the Australian answer to COS, i suppose). By making lists of what i want, or what i'm hoping to purchase for coming seasons i've managed to streamline my shopping and keep my bank balance in check.

I don't want less, lord knows i probably want more, but i do care less about these aching wants. When once this desire used to plague me so much i would needlessly annoy my parents until they conceded or i would count the 20 cent pieces from my 'unbreakable' piggy bank hoping to scrape together enough to get something, not i know that i have lots of lovely things, not having 1 more isn't going to kill me. 

This is a hard thought to come to terms with, but it has certainly been changing. It has meant that my purchases have been less wild and more thoughtful, that i am starting to piece together a wardrobe that really defines me, coat hanger after coat hanger of clothes that i genuinely want and adore, and are not just blithe reminders of my thoughtless desire. Each piece of clothing in my brand new wardrobe contributes in some way or another to my sense of self, however silly and contrived that may sound. I want to be able to express myself, my poetry-loving, magazine hoarding, friand eating francophile of a self, and i think my clothes do that. 

So while some harbingers of doom expound on the virtues of restraint and the need to cut down on shopping, i for one would recommend a different kind of therapy. If you are feeling the pinch of the economic crisis as we all are, don't stop shopping if you, like me, love it. Shop differently. Take a look at your closet and think, about yourself, your clothes, your lifestyle, your likes and dislikes, your creativity, your personality. Coming to terms with yourself means coming to terms with your shopping, which in turn breeds a different kind of consumer environment. 

It's all changing, and i wouldn't miss it for the world. 

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