Two items I purchased towards the end of last year came out of the Desigual concession in the Parkway Parade branch of Isetan. They were having a sale, of course, or I would not have been attracted to look at a label I tend to dismis as 'a tad pretentious'. As a general rule, I don't like to buy clothes where the brand's logo has been incorportated into the design, and Desigual is huge on doing that, unfortunately, hence I hadn't ever shopped there before now. Sadly, I'm not so sure I'll be shopping there again anytime soon, no matter how much they slash their prices by.
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OK, so here's Item No 1, which I figured would go with a pair of not-quite-black skinny jeans/'denim leggings' from Uniqlo, which it does and I ought, therefore, to be happy with it, right?
Indeed, I was happy with it to begin with. I wore it to classes a couple of times (I was studied at RELC for a Post Graduate Diploma in Applied Linguistics last year and have just heard that I not only passed but graduated with a distinction, yay!) and was pleased to be match a couple of items of low-key-but-pretty jewelry to it that I'd been missing any opportunity to wear for a while. That was before I noticed not one, but two other women wearing the exact same top in the exact same shopping mall I happen to visit more often than any other, mostly because it's really nearby but also because it has a pretty good mix of shops for an out-of-town mall. |
Fortunately, I wasn't actually wearing my T shirt when I spotted each of these two women. However, I was wearing Item No 2 when I almost walked into a girl also wearing Item No 2 on Chinese New Year's Day. 'That's really a nice dress,' I told her, mostly because it seemed churlish to pretend I hadn't noticed it. 'I was just going to say what great taste you must have,' she replied cheerfully, and we both continued on our separate ways as if nothing untoward had happened. Sadly though, something untoward had happened for me. You might say I ceased to be enchanted with my purchase, but, actually, whatever it was that happened was worse even than that. Truth be told, I remain totally enchanted with this dress; I like the neckline, I like the length, the colour suits me, etc. It's noticeable, which is something I generally like. But - and it's such a massive BUT, it's really a serious deal breaker - Desigual appears to have made and sold so many of it, it no longer feels at all special to me.
The fact that there might be 1000s of people who own and wear the exact same Uniqlo crew neck as me is different. It's possible to dress a plain coloured T shirt up or down or anywhere in between; you can make it your own, in other words. The Dolly dress is the Dolly dress, however. People will remember if they've seen you wearing it before; they'll also remember if they've seen somebody else wearing it, which, let's face it, isn't something any of us want. |