Wildly Appropriate

Shopping: The Last Taboo

Today thanks to MeFi I'm OD'ing on The Smart Set. If you knew about this site before the MeFi linkage and neglected to share it with me, shame on you! And if like me you're kindof obsessed with online shopping... go read this column by Paula Marantz Cohen about The Last Taboo and take heart!

The snobbism that scorns shopping is, like all snobbism, hypocritical and selective. It makes exceptions for high-end kitchenware, first editions, sushi-grade tuna, and Rosewood pottery. Trips to Tuscany for leather goods and Paris for Louboutin shoes are permissible. But trolling for a tank top in The Limited or rifling through the racks of Ross Dress for Less are as verboten as reading a Jackie Collins novel or eating iceberg lettuce.

My intention is to blow the cover on this sort of thinking. Shopping is shopping. There are cut-rate treasures to be found in the strip malls of New Jersey, and charming bric-a-brac mixed with conventional housewares in the aisles of Pier One. If you want local color, you’ll see as much in the communal dressing rooms of Loehmann’s as on the beaches of St. Tropez.

Go read the full article here. Turns out Ms. Marantz Cohen has a regular column about shopping called On Shopping. Column roundup available here