Byline: SAMANTHA MURRAY GREENWAY
TEN YEARS ago you might have lusted over and saved for one fabulous handbag.
Gucci Boston Fake HandbagsAn item to cherish, it would warrant the price tag because you knew you would be quids-in when it came to cost-per-wear; you'd still be carrying it and loving it for years to come.
These days you might still lust over and save for a fabulous handbag. The difference is that come the new season, your pricey piece will be put into retirement because you will have moved on to the Next Big Thing.
Blame it on the cult of the must-have, but in the Noughties, fashion's merry-go-round is an increasingly expensive ride.
According to a recent survey, women spend about [pounds sterling]97,000 in a lifetime on fashion. But flick through any glossy magazine, walk through a department store or pop into a boutique and that figure, calculated by multiplying the average woman's yearly spend by 65 years, seems somewhat conservative.
At John Lewis, for instance, on the same floor as the knitting yarns, you can find the current Mulberry 'It' bag, the Phoebe, costing [pounds sterling]595. Meanwhile, at selected House of Fraser stores, Marc Jacobs handbags, which retail at [pounds sterling]600, are flying off the shelves.
And these are not even the most expensive fashion splurges to tempt us.
While accessories are still the big draw, the right dresses (this season, the one to have is from Issa, and starts at [pounds sterling]350), coats (Balenciaga's duffel, [pounds sterling]1,380, or the Burberry trench, [pounds sterling]700) and jeans have all garnered a following.
OK, we've had designer denim since 1979 when Gloria Vanderbilt stitched her name all over fashionable derrieres, but never have we had so much choice. In Selfridges this autumn you can find a huge array of denim. There's Seven For All Mankind's jeans with crystalembellished pockets that weigh in at a hefty [pounds sterling]465, and Kate Moss's favoured Sass & Bide skinny jeans, [pounds sterling]130, are already so popular the store regularly reorders hundreds of pairs.
And the pricey seasonal must-haves aren't restricted to fashionistas or the monied few.
Walk down any street and it seems every other backside is encased in designer denims, and hitherto 'exclusive' handbags are everywhere.
How can so many afford these things? 'Often they can't,' says psychologist Jenny Summerfield, of those who shop for designer clothes on plastic and rack up the borrowing that helps fuel Britain's [pounds sterling]1trillion debt problem.
'It's a worrying trend. It's easy to borrow money and we are more image-conscious than we have ever been. Look in the magazines, look at the celebrities - we christian audigier clothing have a fame mentality. When the ordinary woman buys [pounds sterling]150 jeans or a [pounds sterling]500 handbag, she is purchasing the dream that says I can feel beautiful, be famous, just like a celebrity.' It's all a faAade, of course.
Many of the celebrities we admire don't pay for the clothes they wear or the must-have bags they carry. Such is the power of celebrity endorsement that fashion houses are wellpractised at sending out key items as 'gifts' in the hope of column inches.
The result? Whether it's the shape of a bag, the pockets on a pair of jeans or the details on a shoe, the rest of us are convinced we must seek out th
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