Are you what you wear?
Anybody recognise this? It's from the film Confessions of a Shopaholic, a story of a young woman named Rebecca who's addiction to shopping and clothes obsession gets her into trouble. Obviously for entertainment sake they've exaggerated her but I think that a lot of us may have more in common with her than we think...
Now rewinding back to my 2nd ever post, you may (or may not, because why would you really) remember me featuring this cute little white number.
Now I'll let you in on a little behind the scenes gossip, just before I took these pictures there was a mishap involving an iron, this top and and several irreparable holes.
I would've loved to go back and see the look on my own face at the time discovering one, two and then many many holes. Now the culprit was one of my good friends. You're probably thinking 'ooo this just got awkward'. How does one react because you don't want to yell at your friend but at the same time you know that you bought this top a while ago and so it's unlikely that you'll get it again and it is one of your favourites.
Well here was my reaction: Contained annoyance followed by frantic web searching and calling to see if I could find the top again to buy it straightaway. I even considered going all the way to Oxford Street then and there to get it (and I live in zone 5, Oxford St is in zone 1, just to show you how dedicated I was to the cause).
You may think I sound like a crazy person and writing this I think I agree with you, I kind of do. But that's the funny thing, I never knew how attached I was to my clothes until that moment. I'd always known I've loved shopping and clothes but to what degree? Well I'd just found out.
So back to the story: I was panicking and then something weird happened, it was like a lightbulb turned on. I realised that it is just a top. I am not my clothes or any of my other possessions. Did I love that top? Yes. Was I disappointed? Yes. And did I find the top eventually and buy it again a few days later- haha yes I did but my attitude had changed. I realised that it was totally pointless getting angry or upset over it.
Because I am not my possessions, with or without them I'm still me, still have the same character, the same good (and bad) bits. For fashion lovers like myself (and Rebecca) it is really easy to get caught up in what you own because that's what your hobby lies around, but I think its also healthy to separate your hobby from your sense of self. If you're sense of self is intertwined in the clothes, shoes or makeup you own then you may have a problem on your hands because those things are perishable. And God forbid your self worth or happiness should perish along with your favourite pair of shoes.
Source: http://www.tylershields.com/
And its not just the girls; fights erupting over trainers being stepped on is pretty ridiculous- boys I'm talking to you...