Ten things I would tell my younger self about buying. Not rules. Just what I have learned.
- A bad shoulder bag will literally betray your body. Carrying the wrong one once gave me scapulocostal syndrome. Check the size and the strap before you buy. Not all of us were born with model proportions, and your spine will hold you accountable.
- There is no pleasure like buying someone something. For those ten minutes in the shop, they are on your mind, and I think that is what intimacy is.
- Do not buy a book if you do not plan to read it. Having Homo sapiens hang out on your shelf does not make you look smarter.
- Those fairy wings were worn exactly twice. Let that sink in. Every extravagant, occasion-only piece lives the same life: gorgeous in the store, forgotten in the closet. Buy for the life you actually live.
- Buy yourself a proper dinner. Hot pot for one. A corner table at that Italian place. Anywhere you actually want to be. Stop catastrophising what strangers might think. Dining alone is one of the better things you can do for yourself.
- Invest in your perfume. People remember you by your scent, or at least I do, and a unique fragrance is always a head-turner.
- The 24-hour rule exists because most impulse buys do not survive a night's sleep. Let them die there.
- If the bag is already heavy before you put anything in it, put it back.
- Dressing for other people pays no salary. Do not treat it like a full-time job. At some point you have to quit and dress for yourself.
- My mother paid for my piano lessons and I did not think much of it then. They gave me a party trick and a conversation starter. Invest in a skill. The return is never what you expect. You do not have to be good. Just learn a thing.
Buy for the life you actually live.
Most of it comes down to one idea: fewer things, chosen well, that earn their place in your days. That is the whole philosophy, really.