Oh my..........just when shoes got cute again, they're gonna mess it up? I remember the platform soles. I wore them back in the seventies, and I think my g'daughter had a pair when she was six or seven a few years ago. No way do they ever make the legs look good. They remind me of the shoes Frankenstein wore in the classic version. Or the built up one in the pair of shoes for people with severe orthopaedic problems.

Don't even get me started on clothing prices. I replaced my whole winter wardrobe this year for the first time in three decades. I'm not kidding. LOL. I waited until the huge markdowns in January and just did it. I picked clothes I really like, for a change and didn't even look at prices (not like me at all), and when I got them home...those what were on sale were marked down to a quarter of their original cost. That tells me that is what a store could afford to sell these garments at. And, a more logical price would be 50% of the original tag.

I suppose the department stores figure that most people wait until a sales event to buy, and even at 1/4 off the original price they're still making out like Flynn, and the word "Sale" will bring people in. Then they guess a few folks are naive enough to just go in and pay full price, or must in a pinch, or just are afraid the store shall be out of an item by sales time. Clothing is now like a car lot. Nobody expects to pay the sticker price. What a drag.

I wanna see a $498.98 handbag that looks like a child dragged it home. :)

I just went to a box store to try and get by to the next size, finally giving up my three sizes too big pants (by giving them to my sister) and was surprised at how much they did cost. And lacked belt loops. Does no one wear a belt any more?

I really don't like summer clothes. They never last like my good winter clothes do. Therefore, I usually try & find serviceable & inexpensive things for the spring & summer. Target & Kohl's are the places I usually to to look for summer stuff. And you certainly won't find a $498.00 handbag in either of these places.

Now the shoes - those are a total other story. I think they've been pretty ugly for the past ten years or so. Either that, or they've got 4" heels & I must admit that my days for wearing stiletto heels were gone long ago.

For some reason, I've been watching the newspaper's ongoing pictoral accounts of the recent design exhibits. I do "classic", so yearly variations don't speak my language, and I rarely pay attention to the latest fads. But these "designs" deserve quote marks, they were so obvious in trying to be different and so ugly it was no wonder the models' expressions were all either embarrassed or ashamed.

Whatever happened to dressing for attractiveness? Whether hems were down or up or floating around in points, it used to be that one could buy a designer outfit and feel that one looked better with it than with anything else...

$500 handbags are the perfect example of conspicuous consumption. And when they are ugly as well, I guess that says that the designers are of the belief that we fools will happily part with our money ...