Sky Flower

Great shopping days don't just come out of nowhere.

A myriad of circumstances, both internal and external, have to fall into place for you to take home a really impressive haul.

As far as internal circumstances go, you have to feel... a little compromised. But just a little.

I do my best shopping when I'm feeling slightly out of sorts. If I'm actually sad or mad, just finding something pretty won't be enough to make me feel better, and I won't have the patience to try on endless dresses.

But when I'm grumpy, treating myself to a little extravagance can take the edge off.

So. I'd been having a rough few days when I got an email from Another Man's Treasure alerting me to new stock, and if there's one thing I can't resist, it's new stock. Always a mystery! Like a big fat onion of possibilities. And vintage fashion has one thing in common with fast fashion: you have to act quickly, because when it's gone, it's gone. (I almost wrote "it ain't never coming back," but apparently I am unable to use the word "ain't" in any context without sounding affected and ridiculous, at least to myself.)

Meika loaded me up with dresses, including Sky Flower and three other pieces that are coming up very soon. Watch this space.

I entered a sort of fugue state.

When I got home, I had four new dresses and a belt.

And I was happy! Or at least a little high. Does anyone else get that floaty feeling?

I think the culture wants me to feel that way about shoes, but I only get it with vintage. It's like someone is reaching into the reward center of my brain and gently stroking it.

Have you ever heard about the study where scientists gave cocaine to rats whenever they pulled a lever, and eventually the rats all became addicted and did nothing but press the lever until they starved to death?

And then did you hear about the other study where some other scientists gave the rats plenty of distractions and intellectual stimulation, and it turned out the happy rats could take or leave cocaine?

I think about that a lot. It seems applicable to real non-rat life in a way that a lot of rat studies aren't. Without being stressed out, would I have been quite so susceptible to the temptations of an abstract floral print?

Would I have said to myself, "You don't have any dresses with bows at the neck, and that needs to be remedied"?

Would I have been quite so pleased to learn that all four dresses I was buying had belonged to the same woman, and come back the next day to buy a fifth dress of hers? (Remember how I was talking about external circumstances? This woman was a necessary external circumstance.)

Perish the thought. There is a price for being too satisfied with your life, and that price is complacency and a stagnant wardrobe.

Self-medication can lead to wonderful things.

All photos by Claire Loeb!