9/5/13 – The Lesson of the Burberry Jacket

It rained all night last night and so our other tour of Central Park today was cancelled. But the lack of an outing today, does give me a chance to tell you the story of my Burberry jacket. As it was wet today, this was possibly my last chance to wear my Burberry jacket as the weather had been heating up. So I dressed smartly and stepped out on the street to be part of the game as a local. That was when disaster struck.

I didn't have the boots! Everyone who was wearing a Burberry jacket today had on their Burberry rain boots – the ones with the little straps on the top. Oh why didn't I get the memo or perhaps there was a website I still hadn’t found. Surely not everyone who was wearing jacket and boots today gets an email.

So I went from feeling proud as punch to be ‘in with the crowd’ to feeling incomplete and in fact less than those who weren’t even part of the fashion game. And I suppose that’s the lesson to be learned here. To be ‘in’ is a never ending climb up the slippery pole of ‘cool’ that is set by others.

 And here in NYC rather than was the case in the 19C where one wore clothes for a lifetime, or the 20C where one wore an item for a season, it seems that in the 21C (or maybe it’s just NYC) the look lasts until the weather changes and some times that is only for a week.

In an era where we’ve been begged to change our behaviour and consider the issue of sustainability can we continue these expensive consumer practices? There seems to be a fundamental flaw with the model of capitalism as so much of it is based on the ever expanding consumption of goods.  

It creates a never ending list of wants not needs and to the many who seek security through their material possessions, this can be a never-ending struggle and one in which success can rarely be achieved let alone sustained. There can one be one person at the top of the pile yet many seem willing to spend their lives in the pursuit of ‘things’ like money, power, shoes, handbags and even Burberry jackets.

So I guess I should have thought more about the heated conversation at the Burberry counter in Bloomindales between a mother and her daughter when I was buying my jacket. The girl was insisting on buying the coat because of the brand. Burberry had designed a long sleeve so that you could see the distinctive design when you turn the sleeves up.

The mother was guessing the cost of production having looked at the fabric and where the item was made. The girl was quite happy to pay for the label regardless of the quality or what the item looked like because it was the ‘in’ brand and the ‘in’ item.  

Lesson learned but I still love my jacket and I think I will still allow myself to still covet Manolo blanaks…. as long as they come from the thrift store!