As an adult i’ve often struggled with what life is really about. Understanding what my priorities should be. What’s important.
But i can tell you one thing it’s not. Shoes.
I remember being at a friend’s house once. I knew she liked her clothes. Fancy stuff. But i was still pretty stunned when she proceeded to get her collection of shoes out of the wardrobe to show me. Individually wrapped in velvet cloth in their original boxes. Unworn. She stroked them like a soft kitten. Audibly purred.
Don’t get me wrong, i like shoes. I get a warm fuzzy feeling when i buy a nice new pair. I could go as far to say that i sometimes covet them. But this was different. Even more than an obsession even. It was like she was trying to find herself through shoes.
And it made me feel sad.
I was reading a magazine the other day. I’d like to point out that i rarely buy magazines these days, and when i do i am always disappointed. Ok, Hello – once crack cocaine , now total yawn material. Cosmo, Marie Claire – too much fashion and flounce. I need the equivalent of the Saturday Guardian Magazine in glossy.
Anyway, i digress. I was reading an interview with some fashion people in August’s edition of Marie Claire (if you care about this sort of thing), and all i could think was. “God, could you get any more v-a-c-u-o-u-s?”
Here follows an edited highlight (or lowlight) of a feature entitled “On my wish list”. The fact it’s even called “on my wish list” makes me cringe and want to put two fingers down my throat. “You, like, take it all so seriously you spend time writing a clothing wish list each season?” Sorry to go all Twitter on you but #get a life.
Anyway, on we go with the highlights:
“I get my high-street hit at…COS. You may see rails and rails of jersey and wool, but then you find something really unexpected.” (Alex Styliandis) What, Alex, like polyester/rayon mix? (and surely that’s not your real name?)
“My desert island shoe is…the YSL riding boots. I think every girl should be buying tan and brown shoes and bags.” (Bridget Cosgrave) Really Bridget, would that be before or after i’ve peeled the playdoh off the bottom of my sneakers and pampers wiped the snot from my (dangerously last season) shoulder pads?
“My lust-have bag is…the coveted PS1 satchel from Proenza Schouler…It’s ignited my passion for a hands-free lifestyle.” (Alex Styliandis) Umm, hmm, how so Alex? Does it double up as a bad ass machete to slice your MF hands off with?
Am i going a little bit over the top with this? It’s fashion after all, right? All light-hearted and fun….
For me it’s just crossed that line. Yes, dressing up is fun. Yes, i can dribble over a nice dress or killer heels with the best of them. But it usually knows its place in the pecking order. I just start to feel uncomfortable when people take it this seriously.
We live in such a capitalist society that we’re brought up with an over-inflated view of material possessions. It’s somehow ingrained. And i’m as guilty as the next person. But when we start talking about a handbag or a pair of shoes as if they’re our raison d’etre, the source of all our excitement, our sexual partner, then surely it’s time to reassess our priorities?
Seriously, she got her shoes out to show you? That is taking things about 12 steps too far.
I love this post, and agree entirely. Yes i want clothes and shoes that make me look nice, my interest in them ends there. I don’t want to read about them, pore over pictures of them, write wish lists for them or wrap them in velvet and take them out of the closest to show off to people.
Maybe I’m missing something but to be this sort of stuff is just dull, dull, dull.
..not this post, the constant need to be talking about, reading about, lovingly stroking, items of clothing.
dull, dull, dull.
spot on.
That said, i wouldn’t mind those gorgeous new kitten heels by…..
stop right there!
Riding boots on a desert island sums this up really??
xx
Hear hear to you I say.
I spent more money on less items now, I think I have readdressed priorities and simply do not buy into disposable fashion.
If I spend on something gorg, I love it but I do it just for me … Not to be seen so to speak.
I love great clothes and shoes because they do Make you look and feel great … But the trick is to know what your life is about before you get dressed
i love that “know what your life is about before you get dressed”. priceless.
I think Notes has summed it up perfectly.
Yes, I like clothes – I enjoy looking at them and the way something new makes me feel (even more true of shoes). However, there comes a point where you have to be completely practical… I have small children. I have a limited budget. I have a limited wardrobe. These things tend to bring me down to earth with a bump.
What amazes me is the number of seemingly “normal” women that have no qualms about spending a small mortgage on clothes and shoes every month. It does leave a very unpleasant taste in my mouth and you do have to wonder if part of the reason we (as a country) got into the mess we are in is because of our obsession with things like this, and the seeminly endless credit that has given people the impression that this is normal.
I don’t really do shoes. Or clothes. In fact I’m terribly scruffy a lot of the time, and even when I do make an effort I always end up with doghair/chickenpoo/snot all over me. I do like nice clothes, but I just can’t get excited about them. That’s why I struggle with magazines – they’re just stuffed full of clothes I’d never buy.
Totally agree! I like to look nice when I go out but I buy what suits me not the fashion. I do love coloured shoes but have never spent very much on them. I prefer to have a few cheap & cheerful than one pair I have to wear all the time!
Huh? Wha…??
God, I don’t remember the last time I read a fashion magazine. In my 20′s perhaps (please don’t ask how long ago that was). Even then I didn’t really get it. I think I’m from a different planet as these women.
I mostly shop at Target. I can’t bring myself to care. Sorry world, you’ll just have to cringe at the faux-pas-yness of it all.
Shoes are a necessity, handbags for carrying things in and also a necessity. These people must have such empty lives. I’m thinking about learning my next Beethoven Sonata or tackling the difficult Chopin and it’s so much more rewarding both intellectually, physically and emotionally. How do these people spend their days? Like Posh, just shopping and looking to see herself feeling and looking great – and she usually looks ridiculous. Surf the charity shops where all these things are eventually thrown out!
What is Target? Sounds like somewhere I should definitely know about.
And re the charity shops, totally agree. The really scruffy ones in posh areas are always the best. And the best place ever to find kids stuff. Also, the occasional hilarious kid’s outfit has been purchased by yours truly, giving me and husband hours of mirth at their expense. As mine would happily leave the house each day without wearing a stitch, they don’t complain either.
Hear bloody hear. I love shoes. I adore fashion pictures in magazines and the fantasy they inspire. But when women (who are most guilty of this – sorry girls) go on a bout a new pair of shoes or skirt as if it’s the most important facet of their lives – well, that’s just sad. STUFF ISN’T IMPORTANT. How good do we feel when the credit card/bank statement comes in?
I covet lovely shoes but usually refuse to spend THAT much money on them! Should I find a pair I adore I tend not to wear them (never quite having the occassion) and live and die in the same pair of comfy scruffs. Sometimes I’ll go through the bottom of the wardrobe and find them and think “ohhh I dooo like them, must find a time to wear them” then I put m’old trainers on and go walk the dogs!!
I long ago gave up reading the hello,closer,pimpmyceleb trash. Sometimes I buy one (maybe every 6 months) and think yup that’s why I stop buying them “this seasons must haves” – wtf? when did shorts and t-shirts stop being summer essentials – I have lots of then. Piss off Sarah Jessica Parker – you can’t garden in a bloody tutu!!!
:0) your posts bring out the ultimate grumpy old women in me :0)
Oh no. I’d never thought of myself that way before. I AM turning into one of them… *runs in other direction*
You see I have a secret hope that the credit crunch will lead to a whole home made / rediscovered / reinvented boom and we’ll all be making our own… perhaps
Hehehe, The only time I see magazines like that is in the dentist, I don’t choose them to browse through whilst I wait because I hate playing hunt the editorial… advert advert advert…
Since I became a SAHM making my husbands wages go as far as possible the only labels in my wardrobe are TU, George and the odd Per Una & M&co if I’m lucky but this was only a short step down from the Next and River Island I’d buy whilst working.
Clothes are bought to keep me decent, replace old ones and for warmth. I do usually have one item which is nice but never designer…
Shoes break my heart…. I have EEE fit feet with a high instep, I CAN NOT wear off the shelf fashion shoes I have to hunt out mini canoes, rarely glam…
This is me, I’m ok with it and everyone else will have to take me like it…
tbh, neither the clothes nor the shoes have ever been a thing for me. the thing i covet the most is time… time when OH is off work, time when the boys aren’t being teenagers, time spent together as a family. time is the most precious thing in the world, you can bet your Jimmy Choo’s on that!
nice post. x
I think the title should really have been “The Meaning of Whose Life”, because it feels like you are criticising everyone else’s but your own. Did you let your friend know how you felt about her “obsession” with shoes or weren’t you that close? If you lead a good, honest and kind life does it really matter what you spend your own money on? As for magazines, Marie Claire is described as a fashion and beauty magazine so it is hardly going to be intellectually stimulating, and if that is not your thing then I personally wouldn’t read it. It also sounds like you are condemning people without children for wanting to buy expensive things, because life for someone with children is so hard you haven’t got time for such trivialities? I think the meaning of life is to live and let live!
I suspect my blog might be your Marie Claire.
Who the F do you think you are judgy mcjudgealot. Up yours.
Can’t top the trunch now can I? Great post, shoes are for wearing not stroking, unless your name is Malcolm and your paying 120 quid an hour…
Ha ha those last three comments were very funny! All for very different reasons. Clothes/shoes etc are great for about two seconds and then the thrill wears off and what have you got left? I can’t imagine carrying about these things any more – no time, no inclination. Let’s hope it stops meaning so much in time for our daughters to grow up.
Quick, quick! Let’s bring back the stocks and public flogging. How dare a person spend their money on anything which brings them joy. So what if it stays in a wardrobe for the perfect time to be worn…really, where’s the harm in that? And God forbid that any woman would take time out of her day to read a fashion magazine; what a silly little thing she must be! What offends me the most, is the fact that you refer to the person as ‘a friend’.Really? Using a friend as a subject of ridicule to fill up space in your blog? Now surely that’s vacuous.
Can’t stop laughing at the flames in the comments. Oh dear someone’s got their knickers in a knot. About shoes? Other people’s shoes! LOL!
Sorry but did you say anything else after Shoes?
wake-up Pippa, wake up…stop mumbling about Jimmy and Choos, wipe up the dribble from your chin and join the DEBATE. I am hoping someone comes up with a term even funnier than judgy mcjudgealot.
This is an excellent post and I couldn’t agree with you more. Loving the spits and hisses coming out of ‘some’ of the comments – oh dearie me. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.
Eh you’ve gone and done it now m to m. You’ll be going viral next!
I’m half with you and half not. Could I sit on the fence any more?
But yes, there are more things to worry about than shoes. Although I do love shoes. Personally I blame Sex and the City.
Well I like shoes! Although I mostly wear my Birkenstocks. Fashion people are a different breed so they have to talk the talk. Your friend sounds great – at least she is looking after her beloveds! She would get on with my husband who has 45 pairs of boxed Nike trainers in the loft for ‘investment’ purposes… I am sure he would purr too…
I like shoes. Honestly i do! I even sometimes worship the beautiful ones. I just hope that i don’t need them to, well, be me, that’s all. Thanks for the comment. Sounds like you should introduce your husband to some of my readers!
The problem with laughing really hard after having three children is that I slightly wet myself….and I’m sitting in an office…luckily no-one sitting that near me today…
Go you, well said. I love shoes on some days, less bothered on others. But they are only shoes. Big kiss.
ps – you didn’t do the meme I sent you. I’ll get over it.
i’m sorry. i’m rubbish with memes. I love getting them. They just don’t give me the space i need to be highly offensive ;<)
xx
I love how contraversial a lot of your posts are, go you! I must say, I do like clothes and shoes, but thats as far as it goes, I rarely actually BUY anything which I see and like, I just circle items in More! magazine, and put things in my online basket knowing full well I will have to take them all out again before checkout… however, I do cringe when I see a woman wearing baggy black leggings and t-shirt, picturing her entire wardrobe full of these items, so I do think it’s important to pay some attention to what one puts on in the morning. But stroking shoes?! wow! even if I had the time, it would still be absurd.
Boy does this strike a chord with me. A few years ago I was all over InStyle, Glamour, Marie Claire, and Lucky. I’d bend the pages over to remind myself to search for this or that perfect, decadent item. Now, in this horrible economy, I could care less what designer bauble is on this summer’s Must Have list.
Thank you for coming by my blog today. The post you found was from 2 years ago, and I felt sort of awkward releasing it. I’m glad you could see the true message.
What a great post and so true!
I got a comment on facebook on this post which i wanted to share which totally sums up the point i was trying to make. The friend recounted an incident where she had been running a stall at a school fete and was asked by one particular mother whether she could put her bag behind the table because “if she carried it around the sun would fade it.”
Anyone fancy arguing why that’s NOT a bit excessive?
Well, imhave to wear inserts so I wonder what that means????
It’s simple … the woman with the bag that might fade, she should not be allowed out!