So many wonderful style blogs, practical and purely inspirational, it has never been easier to check up on the latest offerings or feel empowered by the sartorial majesty of someone who doesn't look like a model and shops on a shoestring budget. Whatever image I'd like to create or recreate, it's all here at my fingertips. But while I'm shopping? Browsing through on-line shopping sites from uptown-uptempo to high-street brands, I'm shocked by how many commercial businesses offer me 'advice'. I can 'get inspired' by the style of celebrities I've never heard about on Matches, I'm told to have a pedicure before you wear our "pretty ugly" shoes (Clarks) and stay away from bolder prints (M&S). When did the store that wants my money start to think it's alright to dictate my grooming habits, what I should be buying and how to dress? If stores spent more care making sure their items didn't fall apart and a bit more time making sure their merchandise fit a human figure and less thinking they were the next Vogue advice column, we'd all dress a lot better and I might decide to spend some money with them.
