I am a self-confessed/diagnosed
shopaholic. It has been a burden on my parents, and their bank balance, since
they first started giving me pocket money. While my sister managed to save all
her money for months on end, as soon as I had reached £10 I headed to M&S
to buy the faux-suede, cow-print, tasseled handbag I'd been eyeing up in the
Girls section each time Mum went in to get her Gold teabags in the food
section. I am aware my taste was questionable, but I think I was only about 9
years old and Toy Story 2 was out at the time. It was a slippery slope from
thereon in really, from the Woolworths knee-high denim boots (yes, you
did just read that) to the hair scrunchie made out of turquoise, sparkly, fanned
out fake hair, if I wanted it, I found a way to have it.
This dangerous way of living has
continued into university life, where I'm supposed to be learning how to live
independently and how to be a grown up, although I think we all know that the
student life is a fairly unbalanced one. I dread to think what the world would
be like if everyone continued to
behave like students upon graduating. I started well, with savings still left
over from my Gap Yah, even after blowing a small portion of them having
declared that my entire wardrobe needed a reboot as it was full of straggly
beach attire on arriving back from the beaches of South East Asia. Now I have
an overdraft that too often I find myself living in, and no savings. They
weren't all frittered away on clothes, but on tickets to bands (arriving at uni
I became a slight cliche for a bit, I got 'really into my music' and
bought tickets for every night due to a huge sense of FOMO), trips to visit
much-missed school friends at other unis, and a pretty kickass Summer.
However, a lot of it was spent on clothes. I will
admit that I'd rather spend money on clothes than a boozy night out, but
ironically I often find myself buying 'going out clothes', the action in itself
leaving no money for an occasion to wear said items. I think most people will
agree, I'm talking about us girls here more than boys, that a new phase in your
life brings a bit of an urge to revamp our style. Starting university is on of
those phases, and in a place like Leeds, where students dress 'edgy' and start
trends rather than follow them, it's difficult not to constantly carry a mental
shopping basket around campus. My tiny halls cupboard-shelves started to sag
with ripped denim shorts, oversized lumberjack shirts, and trainers. I have just re-read
one of my first articles for a University Magazine where I
levelled trainers with crocs in saying they would never be OK as everyday-wear.
I now own two pairs of Nikes, three pairs of various Converse, a pair of Puma
suedes, and two pairs of Office flatform plimsoles. Pot-kettle-black?
The trouble with all this is that
I'm graduating in five months (I shudder) and I'm wondering how on earth my
student-fare will weather in the real world, ideally the fashion world. It won't. I mean, can I
legitimately wear Nikes to an interview? No. It was sheer torture to spend
lunch breaks on Oxford street and return to watch the Vogue girls swanning
around when I did work experience at Conde Nast last year, realising that I had nothing to wear that
didn't look vintage/homeless in the wrong way. I do exaggerate, obviously being
a shopaholic means I have many other kinds of shoes and I'm sure I can dig
something out, but my point is that recently I've had to start thinking ahead
each time I buy something. Am I beginning to squash the slightly more liberal,
grungey dresser in me? I always have baskets filled with things on online
shopping sites, and below is a selection of current 'wants'. On the left,
sensible buys, on the right the party-loving-student-living-on-the-edge-only-acceptable-in-Leeds
buys. Please read 'edge' with a pinch of salt as nowadays that term means
mainstream and I'm definitely very much at the low end of the edgy-spectrum, my
mother once deeming me a Punk because I got my second holes pierced.
Technically, I can't afford any of it, but it won't stop me lusting after them
and probably searching for loopholes in my bank account. Therefore, I continue
to live with my minor identity crisis...
Loafers: &OtherStories, Black and White Colour Block Top: ASOS,
Sequinned Crop Top: Topshop, Boots: Vagabond @ Urban Outfitters.
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