I love to shop. I also enjoy doing nobler things like working hard, supporting the Make- A-Wish Foundation, and recycling the newspapers and plastic bottles. But when it comes to buying a necklace, a new pair of shoes or just about any piece of clothing, I make no apologies.
I adore the whole shopping process: Scouting out the jewelry displays in the shops up and down Madison Avenue, trying on a pair of insanely expensive flats in the sprawling Bergdorf Goodman shoe department, handing over my credit card to purchase a luscious, four-ply cashmere turtleneck in deep purple. My enthusiasm for shopping doesn’t stop with me. I adore shopping with and for my daughter, my aunt, my sisters, and my friends. I even love buying ties for my husband and rain gear for Rigby, our wacky but lovable Norfolk terrier.
When I asked FOF Lucy Lee of Memphis about her greatest indulgence, she said: “I knew you were going to ask me that, so I asked my husband if I could say contemporary art? He quipped, ‘only if you lie.’”
Lucy admitted clothes are her biggest indulgence. “When I was a little girl, my mother used to take me into Memphis to shop at a store called Helen of Memphis. We would go back home and I’d try on all my new clothes for my father. It was the most fun thing in the world. I’d have a mini fashion show for him. I’ve loved clothes my whole life.” Lucy’s favorite Memphis shop today is Joseph, one of the premiere stores you’ll get to know when we launch FOF.
I know at least one woman on Wall Street, a gallery owner, lawyer, fund raiser, doctor, author, restaurateur and landscape artist who would count fashion as their biggest indulgence. They all look like a million.
0 Responses to “I never met a shop window I didn’t love”
Geri says:
Hi Francine,
I love your description of how your mother wanted to dress you.
Geri
Francine says:
I have to say my main indulgence is probably theatre/concert/dance tickets. I’d love to add “opera” to that sentence, but it’s hideously expensive! Shopping in stores gives me a headache tout de suite, but I can happily browse online boutiques and fashion blogs for hours. When I was a child, shopping meant fighting with my mother (who wanted to dress me like a miniature 50-year-old). When I was a penniless young thing, shopping in stores meant the icy stares of haughty salesladies who seemed to suspect me of having grubby hands or planning to shoplift, so I gravitated to thrift stores. Now I just don’t have the patience to walk around to places that may or may not have anything that suits or fits me…. so I still go to thrift stores. But thank heavens for the Web. 🙂