Too Cool For Gucci

In today’s fast paced society, it’s hard to keep up with the latest fashion trends. Right when you cough up the money to buy that Coach bag you wanted, some fashion designer in New York deems it out of style and in an instant, Gucci bags become the new hot item. Now what? You could bare the embarrassing and possibly life-ending burden that is having an un-cool bag. Or, you could get the money (acquired from your loving parents or earned through hard work) to buy the new purse and spare yourself the social pain and suffering, all the while knowing that next month both of your bags will be out dated and therefore unused. It’s a lose-lose situation.

The fashion industry mixed with high school politics creates a vicious circle of empty wallets, low self esteem and closets filled with lonely handbags. So why enter it in the first place? Sure, your social pain and suffering would be devastating. But why would you want to be friends with someone who mocked you simply because you didn’t buy the right purse?

This generation has been taught to constantly monitor and look up to those who are better off, economically and socially, than we are. If Paris Hilton (or even just a popular girl at your school) has a new, expensive pair of shoes, then I should want and try my hardest to get them, even if I can’t afford it. What we need to do is to focus on being ourselves (as cliché as that sounds) and stop wishing for the tooth fairy to leave an extra 500 dollars for a Gucci bag under your pillow. Because, in the words of Mick Jagger, “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you’ll get what you need.”