desinger brands

I seem to have run out of steam and inspiration. I cannot think of a single topic to rant or complain about or even a question to ramble on about. This is dire, I never run out of stuff to say. Oh, ok, got it. This will probably come in parts since I have no time to write a lot and this topic has so many things to talk about, for me, anyways.

There's something about the prestige of owning a designer brand that makes paying that amount for what is essentially a small bit of cotton or viscose or whatever your clothes are made of, worth it. I admit it, I've wasted so much of my money buying expensive clothes just because of the brand. Some of it I haven't even worn, which is really bad. I'm going to blame this on the Western consumerist society. There are always new things coming out and if you've bought something you only semi-like then chances are, you'll forget about it pretty quickly and never wear it.

The brands that I would call designer for teens are Jack Wills, Abercrombie and Fitch, Gilly Hicks and Superdry. These are the ones that I've bought so there could be more but I don't know them. I wouldn't really say Hollister, which is an Abercrombie brand like Gilly Hicks, counts as designer because the prices are actually sometimes cheaper than Topshop and River Island which I guess are higher end high street shops. Also, just because of the amount of people who wear Hollister it seems somehow less exclusive and prestigious therefore, in my mind, lowering its brand value. I'm 16 right now so I probably shouldn't even bother buying expensive designer clothing but these brands are aimed at my age group and slightly older as luxury brands so I guess it's ok. Although, it was mainly the last 2 years that I bought a lot of all of these brands, by this year I stopped finding that many things I liked in Superdry and Jack Wills and completely lost interest in Hollister. I've actually preferred Topshop and Urban Outfitters, just because my style has changed and I prefer the vintage look over preppy. Also, this is more recently though, I read a few articles about the Abercrombie brand that have put me off. A while back a representative said that they didn't want larger women to wear their clothing as it would ruin the brand image. A few weeks ago, another representative, or even the CEO, said that they would rather burn their clothes than donate them to the homeless. This type of thing is really offensive to me. I mean, that's just unnecessarily harsh. And I have the determination to completely avoid something if I really want to.

For example, a few years ago I found a PETA video about how KFC treat their chickens. It was horrific, the chickens were thrown, live, into boiling pots of water. Sometimes they wouldn't have died by then and are still living when they are clamped, by the neck to a machine to be processed. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Since I saw that video I have completely stopped eating KFC, I kept protesting to my mum that she's bought it much less frequently now.

This is not to say that I'm going to throw away all of my Abercrombie clothing, because that would be wasteful, I think I'll just not shop there as frequently and not plan my trips to London specifically to be able to go to A+F. It's just, I'm always talking about helping people and I was talking to a friend once and she said that I should write down one of the phrases I'd said, 'I hate it when I can't help people', to keep me motivated through all the hard work it'll take for me to become a lawyer and be able to help people. So I don't really want to support a brand that goes against my core beliefs. Plus, a lot more people are wearing A+F and GH now, so like Hollister, it seems less special and worth the expensive prices for the branding. So it's good timing really. And I'll be able to buy more clothes with my money from high street shops now. It's a win-win situation if you ask me.