Every time I watched Carry in Sex and the City spend $900 on a new pair of Manolo’s it made me sick to my stomach. Don’t get me wrong, I love shoes. Love shoes. If could, I would have a pair for every day of the year and then some. The problem for me is spending that kind of money on one pair of shoes. Think how many you could buy somewhere else for the price of one pair of Manolo’s? Therein lies the issue. Many people don’t want 40 pairs of shoes, they want one pair of Manolo’s. They’ll do anything to have the most fashionable thing on their feet, including spending $900.

I don’t buy girlie magazines (if you want to know why check out my post on fighting the Cosmo-girl image), but occasionally I might flip through one my Mom brings me. There’s always a page or two on the new “hot looks”. It starts with showing you a famous person all glammed-up and how much their particular outfit cost, including accessories. It’s usually completely absurd… like $1300 just for the skirt. Then, they kindly show you how you can mimic this outfit buying less expensive items somewhere else. I always laugh, because even though they’ve found a cheaper alternative, it’s still more than I would ever spend on one outfit. I might consider it if someone could assure me that it would be timeless; it would never go out of style and I could wear it for years to come. Yeah, right! This $500 “mimic” outfit is  this year’s fall fashion and so next year if I want to be in fashion again I’ll have to go out and buy something different. Chances are if you want to be fashionable you have to consider buying more than one outfit too, because fashionistas certainly don’t wear the same outfit over and over and over again.

And realistically, the outfit is only the tip of the iceberg. There’s hair style, hair color, makeup, shoes, necklaces, earrings, handbags, and outerwear. Did I miss anything? It seems like it would be a full-time hobby just to keep up with everything.

Imagine what it must cost us every year to keep up… and I doubt that most of us even spend the kind of money that I’m speaking about.  Make an estimate of what you spend in an average year on the Christmas party dress, new work clothes, fashionable hair style, and everything else and I bet you could almost take a trip somewhere for the same amount of money!

There was a Sex and the City episode where Carry tries to buy her apartment, but realizes that she’s spent all her money on shoes. She has hundred’s of thousands of dollars worth of shoes and as a result she now lacks any kind of net worth, can’t buy her precious apartment. This is the high price of fashion. It’s not the actual cost in dollars, it’s the opportunity cost that is lost when you spend your money on it. For the price of two Manolo’s, I could redo my bathroom and increase the value of my home $5,000! For the price of two Manolo’s, I could take my kids to Hawaii! Of course, I don’t actually have that kind of money, but you see my point. Fashion can sometimes end up costing you much more than just the green stuff.

Since I have neither the time nor the money to keep up with the rat race of fashion, I am terminally uncool. You’ll find me most days in some version of a t-shirt and jeans. And ya know… that’s ok with me.

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