personal: my experiences with shopping

In middle school, I discovered Poshmark.

This was merely a few years before Depop, where the only vintage items you could find online were through Poshmark. The app was run by junk-ridden Millennials who simply wanted to leave their high school clothing behind. I was barely twelve years old when I downloaded the app. 

I’ve always had a specific taste for fashion. At four years old, I would beg my mom to take me shopping with her. In the early 2010s, malls were still packed every weekend with high school girls rummaging through Rainbow, Forever, 21, and H&M. She called our errands (grocery shopping with occasional trips to the mall) “adventures.” My mother would unbuckle me from my booster seat in her cherry-red Jeep, and I would propel myself from the car onto the concrete. My mom reached for her iPhone 4 and her work Blackberry phone in the front seat, red lipstick in her opposite hand. 

“Mommy, I’m ready!”

My mother puts the cap on her lipstick and smoothes it with her ring finger. “Alright, let’s go. Remember what your budget is.”

$25. That was enough for maybe a Justice T-shirt and a pair of Claire’s earrings. Those items were precisely what I had in mind; of course, it doesn’t take much to please a four-year-old, anyway!

When my mother and I visited the mall, she would park close to the flagship department store. With me holding her right hand, we waltzed into Macy's women’s shoe department, scouring for the clearance rack.

Clearance shoes are what my mother lives and breathes. She loves shoes, and her love for good deals on quality shoes is why I love sourcing vintage bags online.

In seventh grade, I spent a few hours a week on Poshmark looking for discounted designer bags. You may think how ridiculous that sounds for someone who barely knows Algebra, but I take pride in having a mature taste in clothing!

It wasn’t like I would buy any Louis Vuitton anyway—I had plenty of hand-me-down Coach bags in my closet that would last me forever. I wanted something to look forward to when I got a job and made enough of my own money.

Finally, in my sophomore summer of high school, I started working. I was an assistant during the summer, then I worked for a smoothie company, quit that job, and assisted again the summer of junior year. I finally made enough money to buy as many vintage bags as possible.

However, the aspirations I had computed when I was younger were unrealistic—now, I care about spending my money on dinner with friends, clothes, and some splurges on bags here and there. I indeed don’t have a shelf stacked with the newest YSL totes—I just don’t care enough for it!

Do I still consider myself a bag connoisseur? Yes, absolutely. Do I still find myself scrolling through Depop during my free period? Mhm-hm! Did I spend an hour and a half in Come on Eileen (40 Rue de Rivoli, 75004) while visiting Paris? 

….I did.