July 17, 2006

How-To TV Shows Make You Weak

I blame What Not To Wear. I'd been aware of the show for a long time and watched every once in a while, but several months ago I decided it was worthy Tivoing, and when I skip the boring parts, I can watch an episode in about 25 minutes. So now I've seen many episodes from the past couple of years. Damn it. I always thought I looked ok, and dressed fairly well, but this show made me see I wasn't always correct. So what do you do? You go to the store and start buying the right clothes. And the sucky thing about that is, the most fun right clothes are the kind that cost more than you want to pay.

When we lived in Dallas, we lived within a few miles of several malls, and most of them had some upscale stores, but I hardly ever went to them. I was satisfied with Target and Kohls and Old Navy. But now? I still look through the racks at Target for tshirts or shorts that will probably only be in style for this summer, and that's ok, but I realized the cheap stuff often doesn't fit well and rips or fades easily. Maybe there's a reason clothes from fancy stores cost more.

So now we're in California, and again there's an upscale mall nearby, but I've been going there a lot. Last week I saw an ad in a magazine for some bronzing blush at Sephora. It never occurred me to consider upscale makeup. I thought my drugstore makeup was fine. Probably some of it is, but Sephora's gimmick of letting you try on anything in the store is nifty, and expensive makeup is supposed to be more subtle and stay in place longer. I've only worn the stuff for 2 days, and that seems to be true. You can also get stuff there I've never seen from Maybelline, like plum mascara. I didn't buy it, but it's good to know it's there if I want to.

So pricy clothes, shoes, makeup.. what's next? I vow to not start buying $400 purses, as long as the $15 Target varieties hold my stuff (and as long as there's a chance the security guys at the airport will want to cut something out of it.. long story). I just bought my first pair of $60 jeans the other day, and they fit very well. I'm a long way from buying the $300 kind, especially when my waist size is not very stable.

So I PFFT you What Not To Wear. You've made me see the light on these things, when I thought I was happy before.

Published: July 17, 2006
Editor: stacy