I have become a shopping muse. It’s the retail equivalent of Salma Hayek’s character Serendipity in the Kevin Smith film, Dogma – someone who can inspire a flow of creativity in others, but cannot create anything for themselves. I have thus become someone who can inspire people around me (the boyf, friends) to shop to their hearts content but struggle to buy things for myself.
Just say a shop name.
American Apparel ("Ooh…those ribbed leggings would be perfect for XXX for pairing with her white dress.
COS ("XXX would really love those grey trousers to go with with his Swear shoes")
Beyond Retro ("Ah….the exact same Charles Jourdan shoes to replace the ones XXX trashed at Barfly")
Dispensary ("Why do I bother? The whole shop clearly says XXX all over….")
I don’t blame the XXX people of course seeing as I love them dearly. When I go shopping with them, I genuinely take pleasure in picking out something for them and them nodding excitedly saying ‘Yes yes yes!’.
My shopping experience of more than a decade has finally reached a plateau for me but is opening up many an opportunity for other people. It could well be the fact that my years of accumulation and retail excess have resulted in me looking at things in stores thinking ‘Hmmm….I definitely have something like that floating around…’ or ‘I could make something like that….’.
I have survived for so long in the world without a shopping muse, foraging for myself in the retail land of the unknown and right now, even though I’m content being a shopping muse, perhaps someone needs to send me a shopping muse? So of course the ultimate test will be to do the rounds (as in trekking to all my fave spots) ALONE relying on the muse inside me to help me out.
I totally agree! For my job, I spend at least half of each week in the shops. After awhile everything starts to look the same.
My only comfort to you is that at least now, when we do come across something which tickles our fancy, it’s a momentous occasion! I bet in your past days of retail excess those moments all glommed together. Now they’re divine! 😉
No that is not the sun shining it is the torrential downpour of self obsessed rain flooding the streets of ME ME ME TOWN.
OMG, I have never posted before, but I could not read this and stay quiet. Did they remove your brain in hospital?
A decade of shopping! like WOW man.
I have spent more than a decade in queues just returning clothes…
Huge speechless delay…
I thought , she can’t really have posted that.
But you have.
Shame on you……..
Oi whoever the person posting comment #2 is, someone needs to tell you you’re a bloody rude idiot (I’d fill in more swearwords, but Susie might be offended). That is absolutely no way to talk to a girl who’s just been sick, and by the way, if you’ve spent a decade returning clothes, you must have spent somewhere close to that amount of time buying them so really, the pot has no right to be calling a nice shiny bubble black. Shame on you.
Besides, doing your own shopping is kind of a natural result of being interested in clothing or fashion. If Susie wants to spend her money (whether it’s pocket money or her salary) on clothes and related thingumajigs, it’s her prerogative. You have no bloody business calling someone you don’t even know names for it.
Wait…. I’m confused….. what have I done wrong now?
I’m 23 yrs old – I have been buying things for myself since I was about 12 – by things, I mean anything ranging from an eraser upwards…… correct me if I’m wrong but is that not the case for most people?
This is a blog and yes, as it happens, I tend to write about well what I know best…. er….. the stuff that is going on my life. I was making a comment about how you end up not buying things for yourself because nothing is inspiring you but end up stoking up a friend to get something….
This is a blog about fashion and for better or for worse a lot is linked to consumerism….
God…maybe my brain has been removed…..what am I not getting about that annon. person’s comment?????
Oh dear… I really don’t think you need to pay any attention to that, Susie- especially not since whoever wrote that didn’t bother leaving an email address or anything to identify themselves by.
I don’t get it either. I read it twice, and I still don’t get it. So there’s nothing to understand and plenty to ignore.
In any case, I was actually writing to welcome you back. I’m glad that you are feeling better. I enjoy reading your blog (of course!)
omg i totally get what you mean.
i’ve been picking out things and outfits for my friends for forever.. but i havent been able to come up with anything inspirational for myself..
editing comment: it’s actually a kevin SMITH film. 🙂
There are always going ot be haters and purposefully mean folks as long as there is still free speach and as long as people can hide behind the comfort of their computers as annon resident “know it alls”.
I happen to think you’re on to something Susie. A shopping muse: I’ve become something of that myself. Congrats on getting this far fashion-wise without a muse of your own, that would be why you’re so original and creative. Maybe you are your own shopping muse o_O
Don’t let him/her upset you dear Susie. 😉
Usually when I walk around the high street I see so many clones and not many things inspire me in shops or on people… it depends on WHERE I go though, I noticed that the people that go in COS are totally different from people in H&M Covent Garden, but being a stylist is so fun!
The shopping spirit will come back to you, maybe for the moment you have just acquired what so many of us long for ‘the perfect wardrobe’. 😀
This is a blog, and one I have just discovered and enjoy very much, if I did not enjoy it or did not like the posts I would just not read it. I don’t understand why someone would voice distaste or hate in an obviously personal blog. You can’t really hate on something like shopping for 10 years, who isn’t a consumer? So to the person who posted comment #2 make more sense next time, I really don’t get your post at all.
Glad you are feeling better Susie.
it’s a good thing! you have reached some sort of saturation point. you are getting discerning [that sounds so serious]. i like to live vicariously through my friends shopping. they spend and i still get some sort of thrill. i think it’s nice.
Great to see you back, and cute pic. 🙂 I’ve only been shopping for about half as long as you and am beginning to suffer shopping saturation too. Attempting to be a shopping muse might be a good way to excite me again – thanks for the suggestion!
For everyone’s enlightenment, I’m pretty sure post #2 is being sarcastic about “A decade of shopping! like WOW man.” (i.e. that’s not actually a long time, hence her comment that she’s spent a decade in line returning stuff.) I’m not a hater at all Susie, but from your post it can sound like you’re bragging in a way, like with smug satisfaction? These two bits especially: “I have thus become someone who can inspire people around me…” and “I have survived for so long in the world without a shopping muse, foraging for myself in the retail land of the unknown…” I think that’s where post 2 is coming from, regardless of whether or not the impression is true.
iawtc. sometimes this blog does comes off a bit smug.
I’m sorry if the blog has in anyway come off as sounding ‘smug’ because I’m (as in non-virtual me…)anything but….
I’m sorry if the post sounded smug….. the statement I made about being able to ‘inspire people’ – that was just me going along with the whole Serendipity thing….I really mean just picking stuff out for people…
The language was meant to be OTT so of course I’m not foraging or doing something monumental by going out shopping by myself…..that’s just make ‘I like to shop alone’ sound a bit more interesting…
Ok….I still don’t really think I’ve committed any major blog crime…. actually I’m still confused…so I’m going to eat my Danish pastry and try and get some clarity…
ugh..don’t worry about it. sorry. your blog is wonderful and it takes real dedication to keep updating. love the things you choose to post about!
Can I play devils advocate here? OK, for what’s it’s worth, here’s what I think:
I THINK what post #2 was trying to say is that by telling us you inspire creativity in others, and declaring yourself a “muse”, has been conceived as arrogance (for lack of a better word) and, as the poster above says, misinterpreted as “smug”. By all means, other people can declare you a muse, as you certainly seem to be to many of your fans, but to declare yourself as one isn’t perhaps your job. It also seems to be saying that, regardless of whether it’s what you meant or not (and I think not), you are higher on the fashion scale than any of your friends, therefore they cannot possibly shop for you because they aren’t ‘advanced’ enough.
BUT, I think what you are ACTUALLY saying is that you encourage your friends to shop and revel in fashion, yet your friends don’t/can’t do the same for you, and that you can never find anything for yourself that excites you anymore? And it’s really just the usage of such a powerful word like ‘muse’ that’s the issue. But, as you said in your Zara dress post, your friend DID find something that was “So Susie”, but you doubted her before you’d even seen the dress. Yet, it was perfect for you. By your own admission, what’s “So Susie one day, is so un-Susie the next”, so maybe your friends find shopping with or for you really hard work because you try things out at a faster pace than them, therefore they simply can’t keep up.
Personally I can’t imagine not being inspired by my friends. Even if it’s just a kind word or compliment, a colour they wore that I haven’t, anything can inspire me. And I actually think your friends probably inspire you more than you think, because love does that. You don’t even know it’s happening, but it is.
So I think it’s simply been a huge case of misinterpretation. If nothing, I have certainly learned that what one writes can be translated in soooo many different ways (and it was you Susie, that made me realise that) and more often than not, most of them aren’t actually what you meant at all! I could of course be totally wrong…it has been known.
Susie, you’ve certainly done nothing wrong, and your blog is fantastic!
Poster #2 seems like that familiar old biddy-in-training type: the “I’m more humble than you and therefore kinder” type who goes around ironically making sure no one else feels good, and thinks she’s doing the world a favor.
The intention of your post and the non-smugness of you as a person comes through just fine to those of us with any sense. Please, carry on…
I don’t think your post comes across as “smug” or “self-absorbed” at all. It *is* your personal blog and your personal take on things.
I understand what you mean with the shopping muse concept. I appreciate it when my friends tell me that they found things that are “so [me].” Sometimes they’re right, and oftentimes they’re very, very wrong. Friends often ask me for styling help and I find things that they’d never think of on their own, but I rarely ask them to do the same.
Does that mean I’m arrogant and think I have a wonderful style and don’t need any help? Absolutely not. I’m continually inspired by things I see and I change my style accordingly; sometimes I realize that what I’ve been doing all along looks silly. It’s just that I’ve been shopping alone for long enough that I know what works for me and what doesn’t, and I’ve known my friends long enough to know what works for them and what doesn’t.
I think the real issue is whether we respect our friends’ individual sense of style or we dismiss it and want to change it. There’s nothing wrong with making suggestions of what might look good on a friend (they can take it or leave it), but there’s a lot of wrong with saying “I think this will ‘improve’ your style.” The latter smacks of disrespect.
you are far from smug. there are some real pseudo-intellectual fashion blogs out there that i actually visit and then get all wound up and almost apoplectic with rage at the smugness.
that is beside the point though.
i call it “enabling” and I am very good at it too. I enable others to buy stuff.
The worst thing, though, is to be a ‘sabateur friend’ who says you look good in rubbish clothes or poo-poos things that look great on you.
anyway, its great to have you back.
maybe your title for this post was more appropriate than you realized at the time.
I totally agree with this post, I have one particular friend that always gives me clothes that she thinks I would like or fit my style and another friend that I always find clothes that I know she would love when I’m shopping for myself.
I’m in a shopping funk. Inspire me susie?
Random, and not really fashion related, but you look really pretty in that picture 🙂 Love your blog, and your love for fashion and individual style really is inspiring 🙂 Take Care.