Faux Conscience

While compiling a wish list for my approaching 32nd birthday and Christmas, I stumbled upon some strange feelings. Is it morally wrong to buy a knock-off handbag? The "faux" handbags are genuine calf skin and still cost the same as the monthly payment on my husband's work vehicle. This is the vehicle in which he transports carpet, tile, tools, wood, etc., all around town working his ass off to put food on the table for us. When it comes to getting a great deal, I am a champion. I rarely buy anything new, opting instead to troll second hand stores for anything I can't make myself. So why, I ask myself, do I feel the need to own a truly magnificent handbag? I realize that just because I am fabulous, doesn't mean I am entitled to have fabulous material things. I am young and have plenty of time to earn money and buy nice things. Unfortunately, affordable purses are purely functional and virtually indistinguishable. Designer handbags, however, are like art that you carry around with you and put things in. Faux bags look like art and cost a pretty penny, but they are still just forgeries-copies of someone else's genius. So I lack respect for even a high quality counterfeit, yet have only enough net worth to purchase a brass buckle off the soft calf hobo by Prada that I adore. What am I to do? After much soul and internet searching, I have decided to follow in the footsteps of the great Coco Chanel. The ropes of pearls, an intigral part of her signature style, she preferred to be fake. To wear that many real pearls of that size would simply be vulgar. So, until I can afford to feed a small country and have done so, wearing genuine Prada on my shoulder will have to wait. Nevertheless, Prada employees will still have their jobs whether I buy a knockoff Prada, or a cheap vinyl number at Walmart. When you see me around town, you can safely assume that my jewelry is off the clearance rack, my clothes are second hand, and my Prada handbag is indeed a fake. I will look and feel fantastic, conscience in tact.