Everything's OK

Today I'm in the mood for doing things, like writing posts. I've been frantically surfing around recently and I've come across some great things, which I will be feeding to you in small doses. Also there's a great idea in the pipeline, which is making me a bit more optimistic...but more about that later perhaps.

I've seen a lot of stuff to buy recently on sites such as etsy. I've seen some fantastic bento boxes and other Japanese cute stuff that is so adorable. I've seen books and magazines. I've seen clothes and shoes and bags. It's nice to browse and see what to spend my hard earned money on. But do I really need this stuff? Why do I need this book - it's only going to sit on my bookshelf for the next 20 years looking pretty. Why do people feel the need to surround themselves with beautiful things? Why is something vintage better than something new and why should I pay more for it? A couple of websites have caught my attention in this respect: cherry blossom girl's blog and Väärä dikotomia blog. Both blogs are slightly worrying to me. Don't get me wrong, they both are visually pleasing and give sound fashion ideas. However, there's just something disturbing about putting on your own clothes and modelling them on your own blog in a variety of whimsical poses. I still enjoy looking at pretty photos...

So I come on to my next point. Why do we pay so much for things that are worth literally pennies? I came across OK Versand through Zitty's Berlin shopping guide. Basically what they do is import everyday items such as egg holders or envelopes either from developing countries or from former Eastern Bloc countries and sell them at German prices. Their justification for this is that they are supporting fair trade and buying products that otherwise wouldn't be imported into Germany. At the same time they are giving consumers something unique, something beautiful in form, something fascinating. True, they may be sustaining production in countries such as Russia, Indonesia and India, but this is on a tiny scale. It's also true that they are selling aesthetically pleasing objects, but my main question is how much profit are they making from all this?

Created: 2007-10-17 17:33, Tags: consumerism, design, germany, life, products, shopping, Comments: 2