Primarni or Armani?

Primarni or Armani?

One of my main worries as a student, or more so a fashion student, is where or how am I supposed to get the money to survive. Surviving as a student means finding money for food, books, materials, washing, domestics...and blah blah blah. But more to the point, how are we supposed to do all this and spoil ourselves.

Speaking on behalf of probably most students living near London, I’ve already been and relished in the land of Topshop and wept my way through the designer floors at Selfridges. And whilst carrying my ever so light purse around with me, it made me question...Labels: friend or foe?

When living at home it is my choice to surround myself with people who are similar to me, who share my values and live an almost identical lifestyle. But living in a place that has unfamiliar surroundings with people whom I haven’t choose to be near, has allowed me to observe the people whose lifestyle is a little more lavish than mine: or so it may seem.

In particular, there is one type of girl that I see myself surrounded by on a day today basis; The label girl. The girl that will strive each day for designer clothes merely so they can brag to others; the girl who will buy her high street clothes from the non-sale floors in Topshop and Urban Outfitters; the girl that claims never to have set foot in Primark and spends more than the necessities on food and drink purely to have the well known brands stacked on their student shelves.

It would seem these girls must be millionaires or have a rich daddy to run to. But do not be fooled, they are merely girls just like myself. They are just mimicking the lives of those they admire; the frenimes.

When choosing a between an identical pair of shoes, an £80 pair from Topshop or a £25 pair from a local store, which would you choose?

 Of course The label girl would choose Topshop, claiming they would never buy a copy of an original. But let’s not forget ladies, each patch of fabric, each heel of shoe and trouser of pant from any retail store has all descended from the top of the food chain; the designers.

So if The label girl really really wants an original, it looks like she will have to travel further than Topshop to impress their frenimes.

Designer labels; friend, foe or frenimie?

Beginning with a sinning

Creating a blog, becoming a domestic goddess and actually acting a little pro-active...what HAS uni life done to me.

Off course the blog in almost compulsory due to my fashion journalism course and the domestic goddess merely refers to me washing a few pots but the pro-activeness has sprouted from my new attitude towards working hard and doing well.

Granted I have merely fiddled around with a few Topshop paper bags and some newspaper cut outs from London’s freebee newspapers, but I have created a pleasant wall hanging to cover up a couple of inches of my prison cell room and have also allocated a place in which I can keep and view any newspaper article, image or headline that has caught my eye. Oh how my father would be proud; he’s not dead or anything...I’m just too wrapped up in my new found creativeness to pick up the phone, plus it means I may have to confess to the £170 I spent on a pair of shoes yesterday.

It started with my first trip to Oxford street Topshop since the move down south...I was doing so well to begin with. Having previously paid off my £250 bill to them whilst spending a little in store, I decided to pick up only a few jewellery items and merely glide past the clothes; the whole 2 floors of clothes. I returned the £70 shoes I had bought two days earlier and was feeling particularly proud and angelic when I felt the presence of a singular, heeled shoe that brought goose bumps to my toes. Kurt Geiger’s; tan, leather, studded and so comfy...oops must have tried them on then without even noticing. There must of been a deal on or something because with the shoes came a rather good looking, male sales assistant just observing in admiration. And then it arrived, the one thing I,  and many girls dread; the eyebrow lift. The facial expression from the sales assistant that says, ‘I don’t know why she’s even bothering trying them on, she’ll never buy them, far too expensive taste for her.’ And then, even before that oh so perfect eyebrow had chance to caterpillar its way back to form, I’d made a run to the till.

So the last two days have made me realise 3 things...

1.       Being pro-active has given me a rather ironic source of energy

2.       I must someday learn to ignore the ‘upper class’ sales assistants

3.       I need my student loan to come through