Buying Tiffany and Label Whoredom

I did it!!! :D  When I was in Manhattan.  I bought my first Tiffany.  And I bought one for my mum.  Nothing elaborate, just simple, elegant silver rings that we can wear all the time.  I've gotta start somewhere and work my way up, you know?

It was the most lovely shopping experience.  When I asked to try something on,
Maria, our lovely sales representative, told me, "You can try on anything you like."  I was on cloud nine, of course.  But then again, that's what Tiffany does to many girls.

When I was planning my trip to Manhattan, I knew that I wanted to hit up Tiffany to buy my first Big Girl Trinket from there, and I knew I wanted to get something for my mom, because as I've told her, when I have nice things, she has nice things. 

When I was looking at their website online for something pretty and affordable X 2, something important occurred to me that many would consider blasphemous.  I thought that a lot of their designs aren't really that outstanding to me.  And, in fact, many of them looked kind of like the cheap, Korean baubles I can pick up at any Chinese mall in Toronto.  I understand that a lot of companies imitate the simple, elegant style of Tiffany, but it kind of backfires when the expensive stuff reminds you of their cheaper counterparts, no?  Is that really worth the Tiffany Price?

I mean, Tiffany diamonds are always top quality and the craftsmanship of their pieces are excellent, so I can understand buying diamonds there when you can probably get something that's the same size for much cheaper elsewhere.  I get that.  But the Tiffany setting, the Lucida, the Legacy - all their trademarked styles - are mainly status symbols, are they not?  People buy those so that when others check out their bling they know right away that it's Tiffany.

And that's when I came to realize that I was buying Tiffany just because it's Tiffany.

My name is Tina and je suis label whore.

I decided that any Tiffany item I buy must be recognizable right away.   I don't want any generic-looking pieces like plain bands, overdone shapes (bows, butterflies, and hearts, for example), or anything like that just for the satisfaction in knowing myself that it's from there and that I paid much more for it than I would have if I bought it somewhere else. No.

My Tiffany jewellery is a status symbol.  Even if it's just a simple piece of sterling silver something, it has to be Obviously Tiffany.  So I ended getting this, which I'm really please with, because it's recognizable but nice and simple, and something I can wear every day - until I can afford something fancier:

My First Tiffany

Superwoman didn't know that I planned to get her something too, and like most moms, she kept turning down everything I asked her to try on because she didn't want me to "waste money."  But then we saw this, and the price was right, and I was being really pushy insistent, so she ended up taking home this sweet, little piece:

Tiffany ring I got my mum

It was a good day.

However!  To my surprise, a few days later I learned that my label whoredom does, apparently, know bounds.  It drew the line at Longchamp.

I'd been debating for a long time whether or not to buy a Longchamp Le Pliage bag - you know, the one that everyone has, that comes in a ton of colours, that folds up and, sadly, is made of what I call "backpack material" - this nylon that feels just like my elementary school bags.

I hate the material and the design is kind of boring to me.  But I still considered buying one because, as I've established, I'm a bit of a label whore.  That, and they were on sale at Woodbury, albeit in summer colours that I didn't love.

So after much hemming and hawing and overthinking, I decided not to get one because somehow, that was the line.  Sinking that low would kind of disgust me. I really didn't like anything about it except for the brand. Plus even though somehow things that "everyone has" has its own strange allure, I normally don't like having things that are super common - in fact, I hate to have anything about myself thought of as common, including my taste.  So I didn't go there in the end.

But then I went on the Longchamp website and realized that they have a custom-made version with three panels where you can choose the colours of the body, the handle/size pairing, and you can personalize it by embossing the leather and/or embroidering your name on the middle panel.  I'm a HUGE sucker for personalization so...

Hee.  Not yet, but later. :P