Why do i do this to myself?

Clothes you spend way too much money on

A year ago my hubby and I went on our second annual weekend getaway to Antwerp. Dinners, a bit of romance and a whole lot of shopping. There’s a concept store in Antwerp which is a must when you’re in the city and it was definitely on my to-do list while we were there: Graanmarkt 13. In the store stood a hip, Flemish lady prancing around in a poncho in front of a mirror. An item from their newest collection evidently. I liked it but as soon as I heard it was from Isabel Marant and it was their last one, I knew I had to have it. I shoved the Flemish lady out of the way (just kidding, she hung it back on the rack) and headed to the cashier. The four hundred euro price tag hardly made me question my purchase. Anything for Marant. I recall saying something along the lines of ’this is the ultimate fashion item’ and ‘I’m going to be wearing this all the time’ to my hubby. Once we were back in our hotel room I spread the poncho across our bed (as you’re supposed to do with new purchases) and came to a rather bitter insight. This was nothing more than a square shaped piece of cloth with a hole in the center. A pretty piece of cloth, but still. A squared piece of cloth with a hole. Nothing less, and certainly nothing more.

“Great!” he said, “looks like you’re ready to repaint our walls.”

I also recall being in New York once with the Amayzine team for fashion week and on our final day Liesbeth and I headed to Times Square to get personalized M&M’s and our health editor Jet and I also headed to SoHo afterwards for one last quick trip. I dragged her into the Ralph Lauren store determined to buy something for my beloved until I fell head over heels in love with a pair of jeans in the store’s window display. We completely ignored the men’s department and both Jet and I went straight for the jeans. They were customized with a few splats of paint here and there. The price tag wasn’t necessarily cheap, but hey, we couldn’t leave these guys hanging. Jet, who’s a few centimeters taller than I am, found a pair in her size, but for unfortunately for little mini-me, they no longer had my size in stock. It wasn’t an issue though cause the sales lady let me know that she could order a pair and have them sent to the Netherlands for a little extra cash.

Three weeks later the jeans finally arrived and I had to try them on right away. My hubby hardly looked up from his news paper. “Babe look, these are the jeans I fell in love with in New York!” “Great!” he said, “looks like you’re ready to repaint our walls.”

“Another Peruvian piece of cloth babe?”

This season I bought a cape from my trusty Isabel Marant. Luckily it was at a vintage store, so technically it was a ‘bargain.’ “Another Peruvian piece of cloth babe?” my hubby asked. But I was so happy with my newest purchase that I really did wear it practically every day. That was until there was a parent teacher conference at school and one of the teachers said to me, “you always look so good and you’re so creative when it comes to clothes. Did you cut those holes yourself?”