a fashion impoverished POV

(photo by salon.com)

So the recession is finally catching up to me, no thanks to a whole semester's load of new (extremely expensive) books. I've been too poor and far too busy with internship research and applications to even think about looking for great shopping deals. Since when did fashion and luxury get pushed so far to the back burner? Maybe that quote in Becoming Jane, "nothing destroys spirit like poverty," applies damn well to pretty much everything. It seems that I've lost my fervor for a good find, my energy to appreciate style and its countless executions.

Or maybe... like the predicament that fashion publications are facing right now, it's actually a good thing that I've lost all grasp of fashion acquirement. Hear me out -- maybe the fact that I literally cannot afford any form of hedonism only adds fire to the ashes? Like all fashion magazines that continue to place $10,000 hair clips next to recession-friendly articles on "shopping your own closet," maybe approaching fashion in a detached, impoverished perspective only allows us to appreciate its luxury even more? To spell it out in clichés : we all want what we can't have and the grass is greener on the other side of the field -- these platitudes are pretty accurate, don't you think?

Without the funds, and thus the ability to purchase a coveted item (like these Cole Haan pumps) luxury has become even more of a far away fantasy, not reality -- which is not necessarily a bad thing. After all, the mission of the world's largest luxury holding company, LVMH, is to "kindle dream and fantasy," and this goal seems even more important, more crucial in these economically tough times. But what do you think? Does poverty encourage spirit, or, like Austen said, destroy it?