Wishlist

Rebecca Minkoff date clutch
I want a large, daytime clutch that I can tuck under my arm when I go on my errands. I like the idea of a beautiful, simple piece of leatherwork as a handbag. Will wait until it goes on sale somewhere.

A.P.C. black smocked dress, Fall/Winter collection
The collection this Fall season is rather watered-down and disappointing. Too much like past seasons in some ways (the things that I don’t need), and too little like them in others (in the things I do, like crepe-soled boots or a fantastic winter coat). Of all the things, though, I am enamored with this little black number, with its moody inkblot color and monastic lines. Will wait for the Winter clearance sale in mid-December. Still a lot of winter remaining then!

I’ve changed my budget to reflect a birds-eye view of my sartorial acquisitions. So now my budget spans several months (two seasons in Seattle: rainy, and summer) instead of one month, and that allows me to buy more strategically. Perhaps I’ll spend more than one month’s budget on one item, but I’ll get less items overall, and I’ll be sure that it’s something that can work for me the entire season at least.

The contraction of my budget has forced me to dive deeper into my existing wardrobe. I come across items that I don’t really love anymore, and I find that the next time I go shopping, I have a better idea of what will hold up in my affections. But I’m also moving through my wardrobe more as well, and I wear things that I had tired of. I do like the idea of wearing my clothes until they grow tatters.

Evolution

I've become a major online (window) shopping addict. It hasn't always been this way. I was an 80s mall rat like the rest of my generation, cruising the air-conditioned stores with my high school friends. But as I see it, several key events came together to turn me away from the stores and on to the little square screen. Catalogs were the first step.

In graduate school, catalogs were the only passive entertainment available to me. And between reading two books and grading 50 papers every week, I needed some passive entertainment. Television was not around, my internet was rudimentary (dial-up for God's sake!), and even my movies were foreign and required me to read.

I particularly loved the Oilily catalogs. They seemed magical to me, with little rosy-cheeked Dutch tots in a perfect world of colorful textiles and old-fashioned playthings.

What I like

It's good to take an inventory now and then of what you like and don't like, what works for you and doesn't. Now that my budget has changed, my purchases have slowed down A LOT, and I find myself picking things much more carefully. While the price tag of individual items hasn't gone down by much, the number of things has.

What works for me:
Marc by Marc Jacobs shoes -- I have a pair of glittery platform sandals from last summer that I still love. It feels like the arrival of spring when I pull them out from their box.

A.P.C. -- I like the simple, quiet, and versatile aesthetic that permeates the collection. And I can use this brand to expand my wardrobe with foundational pieces, especially since most of their items go on 50% sale about midway through the season. (But you have to act quickly. The summer sale occurred about a month ago, and the choicest items sold out within hours online, but I did snag a few new items.)

necklaces -- Of all the accessories that I own, I switch out necklaces the most often.

What doesn't work for me:
Earrings, bracelets -- I wear the same Tiffany diamond posts and jade bracelet every day.

handbags -- Nothing ever really grabs me and holds on. Yes, I get feverish crushes now and again, but they all end up fizzling out almost immediately upon procurement.

dresses -- I think they're the prettiest little things, but I never wear them. I think they feel heavy on me, and drag me down.

And here's a new test of what I know I won't end up liking...If I find that I have to persuade myself into an acquisition, especially if I picture myself in some sort of glamorous setting, then it's a no.

I'll add more observations as they come to me.

The mailman

...has started saying, "I'll see you tomorrow!" when he hands me yet another package.

Oh the shame.

Oxford shoes

I wear oxford shoes all the time in the winter and often at all other times because 1) I like comfortable shoes 2) I don't hem my pants. Flats look terrible when your frayed hems are dragging along the ground.

But I get tired of them sometimes. So masculine, so clunky. Sometimes I want an in-between alternative.

Like these, which I hope will work. They are modeled after 1920s tennis shoes. Cute, huh?

Summer girls

They reappear this time of year like little woodland nymphs reemerging after a long winter season.

This picture of Brigitte Bardot summarizes to me what they try to capture when they put on their pretty things: ephemeral beauty. That dangerous nymphette charm that Nabokov wrote about.

But why try to capture something that is ephemeral? It's a losing proposition, after all.

I might quote a friend and say, it's because of the whiteness of the whale. The railing against certainty and death--the certainty of death, yes, but also just certainty itself.

Perhaps both men and women hunt for an elusive thing. Though these things might seem so different--to kill one thing, to hold another--the reasons are one and the same. And both, fairly impossible.

Cupid

Kind of like the grey kitten that I wished for as a child and expected just to appear one day at the end of the sidewalk, I had some idea that somebody would wander on to the Saks Web site, find this necklace, and realize that it was just right for me.

But I ordered it myself yesterday on sale. Almost as good.

Good things come to those that wait

What is it about fashion that encourages obsession? A few months ago, perhaps back in early fall, I fell in love with a handbag. I've fallen in love with handbags before, but not to this degree. I saw the bag, I loved it from afar, I collected images off of purse forums, and I waited. During a first markdown online, someone had beat me to it and I lost my chance on getting this handbag on a deal.

Through some fortuitous Internet sleuthing, I found out who had bought the handbag. She was a member of an Internet forum I visit sometimes. She planned to return the handbag. From the online reps, I found out how long it took for a returned item to be reposted. I bookmarked the product page and waited. I checked daily for months. But alas, the bag never reappeared.

Many months later, the only change I ever saw on the product page was a second markdown. It was moot, though, since there was no item to buy. I came close to deleting that bookmark, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I had grown to enjoy checking up on my bag, like a little Internet pet. I suppose it's just one of the strange attachments that the Internet breeds.

So anyway. I idly opened all my bookmarks a few days ago, and lo and behold, the item had reappeared under the summer clearance! I hopped on that junebug!

So it's on its way to me now, at last.

Actually, I fully expect NOT to love the bag once it arrives, but what is it that they say? It's the journey, not the thing in itself. In this case, it was the waiting and the pining that was the most excruciatingly, exquisitely enjoyable.