Gravity is Calling
By: Eleanor Ng
Here is a question for the masses; is the Internet as deadly to fashion as MTV is to music?
Amateur online shopping websites and blogs are popping out like pesky weeds. From locals to internationals, from personals to experimental(s), possibilities of an easy shopping experience is sweeter than a casual drive towards your shopping wish list. But to what extent does online shopping satisfy a consumer? Do we really enjoy the lack of communications between buyers and sellers? Have we succumbed to laziness as a form of personal expression?
picture credited to www.blogshopr.com
With sites linking to one another, the curiosity that lays the next link ahead is too strong for most of us to fight. Therefore, we spend hours smudging the linear of the mouse, looking at one positioned shopping blog after another. Prices are normally cheap (ranging between RM10 to RM150), and the pictures look average enough… Even if the garment ordered does not look good in person, what’s another RM50 to your bills, right? Wrong. Here we are fighting inflation, and here we are splurging on uncertainty.
Of course, shopping blogs are not the original culprit. They are merely carbon copies of a bigger criminal; eBay. There is a loose mentality that buying via eBay is so much cheaper than buying from the sources themselves. But in truth, shipping and the exchange rates bring us further from denial than we wish ourselves to be. Sure, eBay is the place of rare finds, vintage items, and labels unreachable… However, that does not stop stockists such as myself from taking criticism for actual retail prices involved in bringing an international brand in. Whether we are talking about Geren Ford, Hansel, Junk Food, or Milk & Honey, the naïve continue to bring local stockists down because of eBay.
picture credited to www.ebay.com.my
Nobody wants to see the fault in such a worldwide phenomenon. But here they are; by buying online, the assurance in authenticity and quality is but a measly 60% chance. You could be paying for rejected items, fakes even, but due to the half-hearted effort you made by purchasing said item, you stay awake in your web-bought garment, blinking the thought away with just one eye. Not only so, but descriptions and images can be deceiving. Take, for instance, the pair of Miss Sixty jeans I recently purchased as a form of research (seriously, a form of research!)…
The image quality is clear, the fit seems tightly flattering, and the descriptions read as they should read to impress… Seemed harmless enough, so I bought it at the accumulated amount of RM245.50, shipping included. Two weeks after that innocent click, my item arrived; it did not fit as the picture predicted it would, its description was slightly awry, and as a result of pure ignorance on my part, I am stuck with a pair of jeans two sizes too big for my indignant body.
Whatever happened to buying the experience? Your first step into Prada, your first touch of an Anya Hindmarch, the whole nine yards of a shopping spree… Do they not matter anymore? Just like the decrease in magazine subscriptions thanks to fashion blogs that update faster than the speed of sound, the hassle of walking into a shop or department store is no longer… well, a hassle. Just click on items you wish to purchase, check on the total amount, edit your quantity for the sake of your credit card, and exit with the iconic shopping cart. Simple. Buying big names without the intimidation of walking into the faces of a cold, stark, boutique. No obligations, no insinuations, no effort. However, there is also no trying, no fitting, no guarantee that the style or color will even suit your body shape.
Oh well, it saves you about RM5 worth of petrol and a parking ticket from KLCC.
