I have been wishing lately that my friends were a bit less far afield and could take me shopping.
Currently, I have no close female friends where we live, which has many downsides only one of which is that I have no one to shop with. This is not a huge problem expect that it just means that I never shop. I have needed a new pair of blue jeans for… three years and haven’t bought them. Now I need a new pair of shoes, and a new pair of shorts (after my favourite but thoroughly worn out pair got accidently bleached last summer), and a new summer top or two would be nice.
My husband is hopeless as a shopping partner. In the six/seven years I haven known him, he has never bought a single clothing item. He just wears what he already owns ad infinitum, which only changes when he is given clothing gifts at Christmas. Which is great… I admire this complete lack of interest in outward attire and rejection of consumerism—indeed, it has influenced me quite a bit—but it does make him a terrible shopping partner. To be fair, he wants to be supportive. He cares if I have the things I need and doesn’t mind at all if I buy clothes, he just doesn’t enjoy shopping, and doesn’t really understand how it works (ie that is role is to provide an opinion or encourage me to buy something that looks good). Being myself a kind of hesitant shopper, I kind of need someone there saying- buy that! It looks good!
Basically, this means that I only shop when I home in US (with my mom) or very occasionally in London with my friend Sally. But with neither of those two opportunities in sight on the horizion, I am feeling the lack. I actually really do need new shoes. And new shorts. And jeans. And a sun hat. And I am not sure that I want to wait until Fall to buy them (or if some of these items will even be available in that season).
Maybe I will just have to take matters into my own hands, and spend an afternoon shopping in central Oslo, although prices are sure to be cringeworthy, further discouraging a picky and timid shopper like me from buying. Or maybe I can try to buy a couple things online, like the hat maybe. I know my situation is not exactly that grim, but I guess it is just another example of a the importance of friends. So when is that next reunion happening again?
Our next Skype session can be you at a store trying things on. Or, send us a bunch of choices from online shops and we will give our opinions. I definitely want to help you. But I also fear that the prices in the stores will be more than you want to pay. You may just have to buy online and send a couple things back if they don’t work. With jeans it should be OK because if you stick to a kind you’ve gotten before you’ll know what size to get.
Blerg. Shopping in foreign countries can be so daunting (and expensive!). I wish we could go shopping together, in fact I’ve been hoping/fantasizing about trying on dresses with Daisy when I’m back home on vacation soon. I do think I need to add a few pieces to my wardrobe…my old stuff was mostly form-fitting, and that just doesn’t look great with my newly acquired mom pooch. Bring on the looser fitting, flowy tops!