want

About 3 years ago I stopped buying new clothes, limiting my sartorial spending to my local op shops and vintage stores instead. This was no grand statement against fashion (who would listen to a girl known to shop at Best&Less for her evening wear?) but more because I couldn't fight the whingey, tight-arse, greenie voice that kept muttering at me every time I eyed off some sparkly new item in Myers. I swear each time I pulled my credit card out of my wallet I would see a giant blue whale choking on a sequined cocktail dress while a small child in China, his hands bleeding from stitching a pair of cheap patent leather pumps, looked on and Chrissy Hynde sang 'I'll stand by you' in the background. So strong was the image I would be forced to run from the counter, seeking the shelter of the nearest Oxfam store to subdue the middle-class consumer guilt building inside of me.

And so I stopped buying things that hadn't been loved and then tossed by someone before me.

But while I get a small amount of retail therapy each time I unearth some sweet, sweet brogues or a cute check dress at the Salvos, I still turn to the web and the orgy of window shopping it offers, to sate my need for new. So in the torturous spirit of abstaining, here is a bunch of things I will never own. Unless, great joy and love, Chloe Sevigny starts donating to my local op shop.