Stop, put that credit card down! We will shoot!

I inherited my parents' love of fine things. I remember going with my mom to the Chanel counter to get her usual items. I remember going with my father to get a BMW. I remember going with my aunt to Saks 5th Avenue.

It's part of my makeup, I'm a male fashionista. I enjoy seeing what fashion is doing.

I, however, did not inherit my parents' incomes, or their financial discipline. I inherited a $1 million love of things, with a journalist's salary.

So, I make do. You learn to purchase some really nice things cuz they'll last you a long time. you get good shoes, you get good ties. You don't buy season fashion, you buy classics. Thanks Mom, Chanel taught you, and vicariously me, well.

For mainly reasons, I've always been restrained in my ability to purchase fashion. Money, yes. But more isolation than anything else.

I lived in Flagstaff - there's no shopping there.
I lived in Columbia, Mo. - there's no shopping there.
I lived in Tucson, AZ - there's no shopping there.
Now I live in Hong Kong. … and… well, there's just too much shopping here.

Now I get to the point of my blog entry - that I, in all I have learned in fashion, is giving up.

Hong Kong is free trade, and complete and utter access to all fashion. And I mean all fashion.

I walked into the Prince's Building today, which is one of ugh, 30 maybe, major shopping malls in Central, where I work. I list the following flagship stores that I walked past: Valentino (2), Dior, Verace, Chanel, Prada, Dolce and Gabanna, Gucci (3), Tod's, Dunhill, Bally, Yves St. Laurent(2), Armani, Hugo Boss, a dozen high-end tailors and enough jewelry stores to make Elizabeth Taylor throw up. That's not counting the stores that I have clue if they actually matter or not, with pretentious names that only Brenden may know.

With all this fashion, what I have I learned?

It's just too much and I give up. I tried. I tried getting nice ties, good shoes, nice pants. I tried. I tried to look good. And then you see some random white tourist who bought the outfit instead of the one item I got.

So, what have I learned about shopping here? Unless you have an American Express Centurion Card, or you're Madonna, insane or all three, fashion is depressing.

First off, good taste is damn expensive. I found a coat at Zenga this weekend, it was a great basic - Brown leather, wool lining, would have been in my wardrobe for decades. It wasn't outlandish at all. It was HK$34,000 (divide that shit by 8.. and you what do you get? Depression). Good jeans are now US$150-200, with something interesting starting at $300.

The cost of a tie is directly related to it's cost. It's a fact, the $20 sale tie is ugly. I worked in ties - I know.

I tried for emulation. I bought letigre polos instead of lacoste - the letigre ones faded and fell apart. the $100 dress shoes hurt my feet, the $200 ones are a compromise to the $600 ones, which would last longer and way look better.

And don't get me started on that I want a watch, just a watch, and the one I wanted cost more than my car. (No, I didn't go for price). If anyone knows anything about me, with one key exception, I'm not a logo fiend.

So, I give up.I'm going to wear free sleeveless t-shirts and sweatpants and ugly madras blazers to black tie events. I just can't keep up anymore.

And also, here in Hong Kong, I've learned somehow, the Chinese have the highest savings rates in the world and also spend the most on fashion. I can't save or buy fashion. I'm a jewish barbarian.

I was talking about this with a friend at work today. This is his quote:

"One of the sad facts of journalism, is you work for no pay to talk to people with IQ's hundred times your own and a million times your salary. It sucks mate."

Ain't it the fucking truth?

Please Mind the Gap - and the $6,000 Valentino dresses … they're frail you know.

~Ken