Of Handbags and Tee Shirts and Chronometers

Page 2 and 3 of today’s NY Times. Gucci bag, $1730. Cartier watch (from $3200). Chanel watch no price. If you have to ask. . . .
Movado gold and diamond pendant: $2795. Coach bag $378. TagHauer watch, or more properly, Chronograph, $3495. Saks Fifth Avenue dress, no price. Kind of ugly, too. Tiffany sterling silver “links” by Frank Gehry, $3800. Dennis Basso furs having a sale, no prices listed. An ordinary day for pages 2 and 3.

I must confess I’ve no idea who buys this stuff.

In the Globe South section today, a different take on things. Jim and Terry Orcutt founded My Brother’s Keeper 20 years ago. He says he’s happy when he gets up and the heat comes on, there’s food in the fridge and they have electricity. The Orcutts live more modestly than most of us would like, and founded an organization that delivers food and furniture to those who have nothing.

Such a contrast. I know whose side I’m on.

Something else in today’s Times caught my eye, again about clothing and being green. The paper had statistics about cotton vs. polyester, and said that over time, due to laundering methods, polyester, although requiring more energy in production, actually took less over the life of the garment. Then came some statements that made me wonder what planet I live on. The article said folks wash t-shirts in hot water with plenty of bleach and dry them on high—all this because they’re cotton.

Hmmmm. I wash mine on the delicate cycle and normally dry on low heat or hang to dry or dry flat. And only once in a very cobalt-colored moon would I ever iron a t-shirt. Who the hell irons t-shirts?

The other thing: apparently it’s terribly déclassé to wear clothes year after year. I have to confess I do. Have some really old stuff. Shoes, jackets, t-shirts, sweater. Some of my stuff would be even older if I hadn’t gained a bit of weight. Even when I weighed 98 pounds soaking wet and wore cool clothes I never discarded them after a season or two. If you like stuff, why would you get rid of it?

Maybe that’s why there are so many watch ads in the Times. Do consumers get tired of their $3500 watches and replace them? Obviously, that happens with the handbags.

Hmmm. Some of my handbags are so old that I could probably sell them at the fancy stores in Hudson, NY as vintage. I am starting to feel “vintage.” That sounds better than “old fart.”

Nobody ever replaced vintage wine with bottles of nouveau Beaujolais. Did they?

Wondering,

Grapeshot