Why the Guilt, Ladies?

I want to know why, as women, we feel guilty shopping for ourselves? What is so terribly wrong with it? Why is collecting art, Llardro figurines or vintage vinyl more important or worthy than collecting adornment for our bodies? Why the guilt?

Like anything, shopping can become a problem, but lets look at it in it’s purest form: The pursuit of beauty.

Whole institutions have been built around the collections of fashion. Whole institutions are rooted in the art of fashion. Revolutions started by fashion. Celebrities made and immortalized by fashion. History made by fashion.

Fashion reflects our culture, teaches us about others, and at its best is art.

Train your eye, be discerning, and a collection will be born in your closet. You might even build a collection worthy enough to show when you’re old and grey or dead and your name will be next to Anna Wintour’s at the Costume Center in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Yes, shopping can make you happy. It can also make you, you. There’s no guilt in honoring yourself.

Below is a list of the top-ten Fashion Museums. Go visit one and be inspired to become an icon.

Next time you stop into a boutique ask yourself, Why am I feeling guilty? Should I be? Is what I’m looking at disposable? Or is it simply a beautifully crafted, quality piece of fabric that has been transformed by an artist? And when you put it on and look at yourself in the mirror, does it reflect the better parts of you? Are you transformed into a work of art?

I just can’t find the guilt in that.

1. The Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England

2. The Kyoto Costume Institute, Kyoto, Japan

3. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Anna Wintour Costume Center, New York 

4. The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York

5. Musée Galliera, Paris, France

6. The Black Fashion Museum Collection at the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC

7. The Fashion and Textile Museum, London, England

8. The Bata Shoe Museum, Toronto, Canada

9. The Gucci Museum, Florence, Italy

10. The Balenciaga Museum, Getaria, Spain