Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Shopping with the Grouch

The Yellow Dress


I went into H&M the other day to look for the orange dress which my friend KTS wore while celebrating Queensday in the Dam. Orange is my favorite color, & I figured it would be cheap. I found & tried on several things that I liked (orange is apparently in this season) but left empty-handed as I didn't want to spend $60 on something that wasn't my groceries for 1.5 weeks.


I did pick up the complementary magazine, and therein found a somewhat appalling quote from their head designer, Ann-Sofie Johansson:


"it’s great to reinvent your wardrobe at the beginning of a new season. Fashion doesn’t change as drastically as it used to so you could easily get last season’s favorites to work with smart updates. Safe buys for spring are cool classics in beige or white, and the longer skirts and dresses feel new and very feminine” (Found here)


Look, I realize that if people don't buy clothing, this lady is out of a job. I also realize that she is saturated in an industry where if something isn't new, it isn't wanted. 


But really? I was unaware that real people actually paid attention to what's trendy. Most of my friends have a style which they stick to, adding new additions when their clothing wears out/gets ruined, not when H & M tells them that maxi dresses are in.

The past few years have seen a kind of fashion drought for me: I have too much self respect for leggings as pants, and I'm too tall to wear skirts shorter than the tips of my fingers without it looking like my butt is about to fall out the bottom.

So I've been wearing long skirts for a long time (I'm pants-averse). Unlike in Middle School, when I would be grumpy if something I liked got popular, the fact that they are trendy excites me since I'll be able to cheaply stock my wardrobe with things I enjoy wearing. 

Will I perhaps look out-of-date in a few years? Who cares? This leggings/jeggings thing has been refusing to die, so I'll wear whatever I want, thank you very much. That's the difference between fashion and style.

Besides, I live in New York City. I am so far from the strangest thing anybody will see all day I couldn't even hit it with a machine gun. 

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Televisions

Computer wall

I am one of these Americans who does not own a TV set.

Allow me to rephrase: I don't have a cable box.

Housemate & I use our TV in the living room as a black panel to look at during conversations when it's not being used for Netflix & Mad Men DVDs.

I was raised in a house where we didn't get past channel 13 until I was in Middle School, so the TV watching habit is not ingrained in me. However, to most of you who are my age I'm sure the lack of cable is not groundbreaking. Our computers & smartphones are our windows on the world: I read multiple newspapers through Twitter, and watch TV shows and amusing videos on Hulu & YouTube.

Why pay $80 for a cable box when I can get all of that information for a far lower price? I live in the most exciting city in the country, I'm not going to sit in my house & watch the world through a box. I have only very occasionally wanted a TV: during the Egyptian Revolution (I watched it on Al Jazeera online) & to watch SToriBook Wedding (I got over it). Other than that, I don't really think about it.

TV stoffen met plumeau / Dusting the television with a feather-brush

What about the rest of you? Do you have cable? Do you think it's worth it? Anybody want to make any wild predictions about the future of television?