Style & Shopping Profiles

In Sex and the City, the women are constantly shopping. Carrie’s out buying “one too many pairs of Jimmy Choo shoes”, and Charlotte’s in Tiffany, stroking their silver baby rattles which go for $200 USD a pop! But as I’ve written before, women have very differen shopping styles. Most women like to go to the mall just to bond together and shop. It’s a happy time – the place is temperature controlled, everything is so shiny and new, and friends are talking excitedly to one another and catching up on gossip or gossiping about shoppers around them.

Quick Note: By the way, isn’t this dress by Diane von Furstenburg fantastic!? I’m in love with it, but the pricetag’s making me run for the hills. Maybe I can find a cheaper knockoff…

I thought I’d write about different styles and shopping profiles that go along with them, but instead of doing my friends (a later post.. je promise), I’ll profile the 4 ladies of Sex and the City.

The Classic Collector

A Collector likes to buy certain styles all the time such as fantastic wrap dresses a la Diane von Furstenburg but without the $500 USD pricetag, and in many different colours, shades, and variations on the style (but never straying far from it). She has the same wrap or A-line dress for example, but one dress may have long sleeves, another with 3/4 sleeves, short sleeves, collared, uncollared, frilly necked, lace-trimmed.. you get the idea. She’s definitely a little bit of girly and pays attention to the details, because to her the details are what make the outfit. She shops with a preset framework in her mind of what looks good on her body, and buys according to that agenda.

The Avant Garde Trendinista

This woman likes to try the newest item on the runway. Case in point: when bubble skirts first came out, and were decidedly unflattering on most women with hips, she bought her first pair and strutted proudly around town with them on, complete with very 80’s ankle boots, and when bubble skirts became more mainstream, she was the first to ditch it for the next trend. She’s delightfully quirky and religiously follows the hottest designers for style ideas. But through it all, she’s dainty in her skyscraping heels.

The Image Conscious Debutante

The whole point of shopping for her, is to portray an image. An image of being luxuriously rich, having what she doesn’t, and wanting it all in a Fendi bag (fake or not!). She wears expensive and sometimes risque items (like a dress down to there) and wears controversial items defiantly (like a designer outfit to the said designer’s own funeral); but you will never catch her running around town in a Juicy Couture sweatsuit. She also has an iron-clad ego, strong enough to withstand the courage to wear asset-revealing items, and has fine tastes for all things luxe be it in resturants, or in clothes.
Sex & the City Style Icon: Samantha Jones.

The Corporate Twist

Everything about this woman is normally polished and a bit corporate, but something about her has a twist to it, but on her off days, she wears whatever she pleases. Her colour and accessory combinations can be quite sophisticated, such as wearing dress that looks like a fruit salad exploded on it while on the hanger, but the effect in the end turns out to be quite chic, especially with very large bracelets on either arm when someone else might’ve just worn a simple metal bangle instead. She does love to shop, but she knows that she’s looking for interesting pieces that have classic lines, and something that’s a bit ‘off’ and different about them. She won’t be the type to fuss over frills, and be overly ‘matchy’, but in the end, she puts great value on quality fabrics that are comfortable and not too revealing, yet hold a hint of sex appeal.
And as for me? Like an investment portfolio, I’m a good mix of all the styles:

60% Corporate Twist: I love wearing classic suits and punching it up with stylish colourful and offbeat accessories and shoes. This is me most of the time…Or at least, what I’d love to be all the time. Kind of hard to wear very nice things when you don’t have a car to keep them clean and in good shape!

25% Classic Collector: I own a lot of turtlenecks, shirts and dresses in the exact same styles (pencil skirts, a-line skirts, wrap dresses etc), and all of these are in classic black and white prints, tweed or pinstripes. I’m definitely girly-ish, and really into lace and anything pretty. But I don’t like too many frills or fussy things.

10% Image Conscious Debutante: I don’t wear a lot of extremely revealing tops, because when I do, I wear a cute cami underneath to cover up a bit; but I do like to pick pieces of higher quality, better cut and excellent fabric that won’t pill or tear after I spend $$ on it. Even if it’s a $10 dress, it’s a wasted $10 if I wear it a couple of times and it ends up looking ragged.

5% late Trendinista: I wait to see how trends play out and how they look on other before I pick the perfect piece of represent tha trend that comes out – after a lot of editting by stores and designers to make it a little less flamboyant, or in a nicer print/better colours, etc. Right now, I’m loving the lace, old boudoir glam thing that’s coming back in style (very much like current Christina Aguilera) and I’m still slowly warming up to the idea of skinny jeans tucked into boots. Cute idea, looks great most of the time, but I’m not sure if I can pull it off yet. Still adjusting to the thought..