I feel like I’ve just woken from a coma and the flame that used to burn so fiercely within me has just been rekindled. I woke up one morning by the chattering of a voice reading off a list over and over and over again. Where the hell is this voice coming from and most importantly who on earth does it belong to? Low and behold it was my voice, my voice in my head listing – Skinny jeans from Zara, Jeweled bag from Accessorize, save one hundred pounds towards designer funds, one hundred pounds towards shopping in Sicily, buy wedges to wear on grass for film festival … trust me the list goes on and the list repeats itself most days and can go on for the majority of the day and night if I allow it.
What is this voice? – My shopping voice, planning out my pay cheque before it has even landed into my bank account.
I say I feel like I’ve woken from a coma, as I only have recently come into funds that have allowed me to even have a voice that considers buying hundreds and hundreds of pounds of clothes week upon week. I have always been concerned with fashion, I’ve always taken pride in my appearance and have always enjoyed dressing up and trying out new looks. However being a recent university graduate means that I haven’t had thousands of pounds hitting my bank account each month until recently. I had to become the connoisseur of reviving and remixing garments – pulling out old shoes and jeans and wearing them in a way that made them seem different than they did in their first life – instead of buying tops and jeans I’d buy belts and bags – things that could change and reshape a whole outfit without necessarily having to buy a whole new outfit.
Then the job with the pay cheque came and suddenly I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t think straight, I couldn’t check my emails without logging onto Gucci’s website and starring in awe at the bags or getting on ASOS and building a huge basket of clothes and shoes and belts and bags – and that was after a careful selection and elimination process. I realised – this is a true Love Affair that I have going on with fashion right now and it continues to come back to me, find me and make me fall in love with it all over again. How?
Well – I loved fashion from a young age anyway, I’ve always been a bit of an exhibitionist if you’d like to call it that. I’m an ex – dancer, expression is an essential outlet in my life and fashion is one of those many ways that I can creatively express myself. I made an application to the London College of Fashion to study a degree in Fashion Buying and Merchandising and was sadly turned down due to my disability to draw – and I would definitely refer to it as a disability! So I decided that my affair with fashion would simply have to remain a retail and consumer relationship. Then I met my partner, a Sicilian from a family made in the fashion business in Italy and an ex UK fashion agent for Italy. He gave me a writing opportunity within his business and once I finished, he turned round and said to me, ‘You need to be in fashion.’
A problem arises when you earn money, love fashion and all your money is disposable income – you can spend and spend and spend till your heart is content and worries about having funds to make it to the next month are completely non existent because you have no overheads. You may be questioning what exactly is the problem with having disposable income and no overheads? Well, the problem is you can end up buying any and everything just because you can – and well, that’s not fashion, is it? No, that is simply having a consumerist nature and great purchasing power. Fashion is about learning and knowing the trends, sourcing and finding them and then deciding which of the trends suits you best. I personally pick up on the trends and then decide which trend is going to inspire my look or wardrobe for that season - then I begin to accumulate key garments bit by bit. This means any garments that don’t make the trend list I don’t need to buy. This works for me because anything concerned with image I’m pretty much a sucker for – Hair, Clothes, Make up, Hair and Nail pills, Nail Varnish, Waxing - ultimately I can find almost anything to spend my money on, which means I have to approach my fashion consumption strategically.
After great thought I have decided that I want to share my strategic fashion, shopping consumption techniques with the World Wide Web. Initially I was dubious about this as everyone’s image is unique and personal to them, I can’t preach fashion and I can’t expect everyone in the world to dress the way that I do (nor do I want them too), however this site will only give you ideas, tips and act as an index to your own shopping, it’s not a shopping bible – it’s about shopping technique. You’ll find product reviews on key garments of current trends, reviews on key shops for the current trends, trend overviews prior to their entry into the shop or the season and much, much more. When you become passionate about something it becomes very hard to be logical about it and when you’re just an ordinary girl on an ordinary wage – Sloane Street and personal shoppers are not always so readily at hand - But I can be!
I am a Fashion TV watching, internet shopping, price comparison, sales watching, quality rating fashion index and I’m going to share my knowledge and shopping techniques with you so I can clear my head of it’s voices and you can clear your head if you happen to be suffering from SHOPAPHRENIA too!
