A different world than I live in

[jethrien]

A group of women next to me on the PATH were talking about the upcoming wedding of one of them. She was trying to decide whether to drive an hour (each way) to get her hair done at a salon the day of, since apparently the ceremony is in a remote area upstate. So that's two hours of driving on her wedding day, for a blow out. (Not an updo.)

They then moved on to how to obtain a designer purse (didn't catch the designer). Apparently they are not available in the designer's store. What you have to do is go in the store, purchase a scarf or a necklace for a thousand dollars or so, and then comment wistfully about the purses, at which the salesperson is supposed to say "Oh, we might have something in the back". Then they may deign to grant you the privilege of paying $9000 for a purse. (Apparently, it's a better idea to fly to Hong Kong, where they're currently going for only $7000, which covers your airfare.)

From that, they moved on to talking about getting fake eyelashes for the wedding. There are two different places they've gotten them done, and one girl was complaining that hers weren't as nice. It was because she went to one store instead of the other--apparently the one store only takes an hour and a half to put them on, while the other takes two to two and a half hours. You have to spend the entire process with your eyes closed.

These people don't live in the same world I do.

Comments

[puella-nerdii.livejournal.com]

When I try to picture Mith and me spending that kind of money on a purse for our wedding...yeah. I don't even know. Hell, my mind blanks at the thought of spending that much on the dress. Or on any single part of the whole damn thing, honestly.

Weddings are kind of scary. Sometimes I still can't believe I'm having one.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

The only way ludicrously expensive purses make any sense to me is that in Manhattan, you can't show off your wealth by dropping 50 Gs on a car, so you do it by dropping 10 Gs on a purse. There is literally nothing that you could do with a purse that would ever be worth that much to me. (Except fill it with diamonds.)

[negativeq.livejournal.com]

I thought you flaunted your wealth in Manhattan by buying a nicer overpriced box to live in.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

But how would people on the street know that? Clearly you need a $10,000 purse and $5,000 shoes.

[puella-nerdii.livejournal.com]

Me neither -- heck, I used a messenger bag I made in my costume class as a purse for years, and it worked just fine. And I can't fathom a thousand-dollar scarf, either. I admit that I'm not a huge fashion person and were it not for Mith I'd barely even put forth the effort for a dress, but what on earth makes a purse worth nine thousand dollars? Is it made from the hide of an endangered species?

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

See, $9000 purses are the tip of the iceberg. There is some facacita company that makes bags that people are on waiting lists for years to obtain and they cost $25-50,000. People leave these bags to their children. My fashionista co-worker talked about these bags like they were the second coming of Christ (only not because he couldn't ever afford such things).

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Demand.

Why is a small chunk of rock smaller than your thumbnail worth thousands and thousands of dollars? You can't eat it. It's not really useful for much, except cutting things, which no one uses it for. But people consider diamonds to be worth enormous sums of money because there aren't many of them and many people want them. Same for purses, I guess.

[fyrna.livejournal.com]

Actually, diamonds are used for cutting things. Or sharpening other things to cut with. :) But those diamonds are not jewelry-sized, they're much smaller and more numerous...

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Sorry, what I meant is that no one uses jewelry-quality diamonds for cutting. You don't buy a two carat solitaire for etching glass.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't think this was for the wedding. I think this was just a general "how to obtain a purse". I got the impression that this was not intended to be the only purse they ever owned, either.

I spent less than a thousand for my full outfit, including alterations, and still felt weird and guilty.

Weddings do not need to be this crazy, I promise.