Seriously? Renting a purse? (And an ugly purse, at that- that classic LV print is the most hideous thing since gold lamet)

It's ridiculous enough that Carrie can magically afford all this designer crap as a columnist. It's shallow enough that she'll pay $400 for a pair of feathery D&G shoes you could buy at a fetish shop for $20.

This is all fantastic enough.... But is Carrieland really so disgustingly removed from reality that an assistant (who is probably making 20K and sharing an efficiency in Brooklyn in order to afford her Ramen) would rent a purse? A purse whose rental payments probably rival her share of the electric bill?

Do you live in New York? Have you ever met any New Yorkers?

I don't personally know anyone who lives like that, but I have friends who tell me stories of people they know who spend all their money on material things like clothes and forgoing necessities to do so. Just because you aren't that shallow doesn't mean others are the same. I used to work at a restaurant and a coworker pointed out this group of young women from Long Island (she actually knew them a little from growing up there) who noone ever wanted to wait on because as they prettily posed over their lunch salads with their designer shoes and bags, they still never tipped.

People have their priorities. I've met people that will get their hair and nails done before they pay their rent. A lot of people spend money on cars (rims, etc...) or the newest technological toy (all the fools that stood in that line for a first-day iPhone weren't rich. in fact, when it comes to phones, i've met people in the most menial jobs who have the newest phones with all the web, texting, games, and ringtones features possible!!!)

There are web sites where you can rent designer handbags. As deduction writes, NY is the most materialistic and status conscious place on earth.

I'm with you. The Louis Vuitton bag (any LV bag) is hideous. It's so hideous, and so easily copied, that it's one one of the most counterfeited bags in America. Anyone with aspirations, but without taste, can walk around with a LV-looking bag. And that means the the LV image is starting to suffer.

LV is striking back, though. Not too long ago, there was a big raid at Trader's world. Hundreds of counterfeit bags were nabbed. <link> The argument for the raid was that the counterfeit bags cost jobs. Of course, that raises the question of whose jobs were being endangered. Was it the off-shore Asian workers who make both the original bags and the knock-offs? Or was it the Ohio branch of the LV outlet- which doesn't exist.

We are, of course, to assume that the people who frequent the Trader's World flea market <link>(across from the Turtle Creek flea market http://www.turtlecreeks.com/ and next to the Solid Rock Church, home of one of the most-mocked graven images ever<link>) will now rush out and buy a real Louis Vuitton.

So... you're telling me that this is the future of NYC?

<link>

Dear. Lord.