The topic of this post came to my mind just half an hour ago, when I was walking through a store.
I just came from university, so I was dressed in simple dark blue slacks, grey chelsea boots, a dark blue Trenchcoat like coat and wearing my backpack (how else should I have transported my laptop and the heavy books??).
For the lock of my bike broke yesterday, I had to walk to uni and of course also back home, and thus, after looking for a new lock, I decided to walk through the city.
Last week or so I saw a very cute little Longchamp Le Pliage in dark violet, and then -of course- I started looking online, when I also found the Longchamp Planètes bag and now I wanted to see how they look and feel in reality!
So I went into one shop, which seems to be THE hotspot for everyone looking for a pricy designer bag (not talking about "Le Pliage"-pricy, for the price is quite fair I guess, but also the leather Longchamps, Chloé, Givenchy and MCM to give you some examples).
Of course the ladies in the store were watching me wander through the store, "trying on" different bags (I always have to see if the bag "fits to me" and my style, if you know what I mean...) and I noticed it, but just kept on looking at every bag I liked (which were about 10 bags).
Looking around the store, I only saw elderly ladies (people you would probably consider being "rich"), wearing their chic coats, being all dolled up, when the question popped up in my mind:
Do I have to dress up to shop?
Firstly, I guess the sales ladies were looking at me, because I'm young, and people apparently seem to think young people are poor (at least that's what I read in their faces while they were watching my every step).
Secondly, I was there with my fully packed backpack, which has a flower print (but was also blue, so it actually "matched" my outfit).
Thirdly, my hair was tied up in a "messy" ponytail (but that's the way I like it!).
So my question is: Why am I (apparently) not allowed to walk around with my fat backpack and a casual hairstyle when shopping in such places?
There was a report, or an article - I can't remember which one- where someone said that most rich people dress very casually, meaning even jeans and a plain white t-shirt!
Also, why is Cara Delevingne allowed to walk around with her baseball cap and funny backpacks, and normal girls like me are being watched although obviously coming back from uni with a fully packed backpack (ok, because we're not famous, but what kind of standard would that be?)
Just to let you know: I didn't feel intimidated being watched while walking around checking out bags, but still... I don't think it's nice of the sales ladies to give younger people who just come there the way they are those side glances.
However, I know it is sometimes also about the image of the store, which might be (or is!) a big reason why they wouldn't want anyone to lurk around in their store being poorly dressed.
Finally, in my opinion the things that should count for them are:
1. People don't look too trashy (and hey: you can't discriminate my backpack like that!)
2. People shouldn't steal anything (obviously!)
3. ideally, people should have enough money to buy something, for then the sales ladies can even profit from "us", because most people working in sales get a small percentage of commission for every sale they made.
To give you an impression of my look (and so you hopefully believe that I wasn't too poorly dressed ;) ) here is a selfie I just took (in a poor quality though, sorry for that!).
So those are my thoughts of the day!
I wish you a nice weekend!
x J.
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