Them: “Cute pants.”

Me: “Thanks. Old Navy.”

Them: “I like your necklace.”

Me: “Thanks.  New York and Company.”

Them: “I like your shirt.”

Me: “Thanks.  Target.”

Um….WHY do I feel the compulsive need to tell people where I buy my clothing when they don’t ask?  EVERY TIME!  I think it’s a throwback to my high school days when “cute shirt” was pretty much always followed up with “Where did you get it?”  It was like, conversationally required or something.  I think it was a sort of meant to be taken as “if-I-know-where-you-got-it-than-I-can-get-one-too”, but for some people it was a sneaky way of asking ‘how-much-did-you-spend.’  And the more you spent, the cooler you were.  (i.e. ‘Nordstrom’ was a better answer than ‘Wal-Mart’) Now, it’s kind of the opposite.  The less you spend, the cooler you are.

So now I have to pre-empt the ‘how much did you spend’ non-question by shouting out ‘TARGET!’ ‘MY SISTER GAVE IT TO ME!’ ‘CONSIGNMENT STORE!’ OK, I don’t really shout.  I just speak in a normal tone of voice.

And I do LOVE consignment shopping. I have a pair of True Religion jeans that I paid $35 dollars for. If I’m wearing them, you can bet I’m telling you that, too, or at least the consignment part. I don’t walk around spouting prices, except for, um, just now.  Because even though I love how the jeans  fit and look, I do not want people thinking I can spend $200 on jeans. Obviously, I still have issues with what other people think of me.  Hmmm….I should work on that.

(I actually didn’t know True Religions were that much until after I got them home and googled.  And I’m guessing most people don’t recognize the brand and think ‘expensive jeans’ the second they look at me.  But I have to tell you where I bought them, JUST IN CASE.)

In the meantime, if you tell me “I like your shoes”, I’ll probably answer “Thanks. Payless.”  Sorry if that’s annoying. 

Do you do this too?  Does it bother you if others do it, or do you like knowing where clothes came from?