I like to dress nicely and snag a bargain as much as the next lady. I also know that cheap clothing is bad for the environment and bad for workers. All the cognitive dissonance makes me crazy!
Really, what does it mean to be fashionable? I can’t buy clothes in Chengdu, so the fashion I came with is the fashion I’m stuck with. I’m too tall, too big, too preppy to find anything here. The coquette look favored here would look silly given my age and height. I was thinking that I might like a new pair of shoes, but I fast found out that a size 9 – European 40 – was not available in ladies sizes. I could get men’s sneakers to fit, but then I decided that I’d rather keep wearing out the shoes I have.
Because I can’t buy anything here, I’m not interested in looking. Everything I have is just fine, thank you. Is it because I don’t know what I’m missing? Back home, the catalogues are multiplying, but does it matter? I don’t know.
Right now, I have no interest in buying new clothes. It seems silly to me – I have six perfectly good shirts, and who cares if everyone on campus has already seen them six times already? Why does anyone need more?
Now, will this mindfulness stick with me, or will it be gone the moment I see the duty-free shops at the Beijing airport? It’s a mystery!
