Scouring through the racks of shoes at Holt's, she finally finds it. There it is! What she has been hoping to find for all these weeks. That perfect pair of black stiletto pumps. The kind that can be worn with a strapless gown to a black-tie affair, or with a pair of jeans to a movie. The soles are red, the stamp on the inside says Christian Louboutin. They are worth every cent of their $750 price tag; there is no price for quality like that, and knowing that she has those coveted red heels makes it all worthwhile. She feels the rush, the smile on her lips, and she knows that the crappy day, week, month, year has just disappeared. None of that matters any more, she now has Louboutins, and and everything is now perfect in her world. Can you blame her?
Despite their versatility, these shoes will now be destined to exist only in her closet until that invitation to that black tie affair arrives, she just can’t wear them to the movies, shoes like that should be living a life of partying and scandal.
There is something about that designer label that sends us into a tail-spin. For some reason before we know it, there we are, we just have to HAVE that Chanel bag because that one from that other store that looks exactly the same is just NOT the same. That label on the inside makes it SO much more. We treat those items very well. They have prime real-estate in our closets where they spend most of their time, never to see the light of day. Only used for a few hours at night, where they get lost between the many legs under the table or in the dark depths of the coat check room, or slung over the back of the chair. We take such good care of them always saving it for that special occasion that may or may not ever arrive. While our other sale items get dumped on the bathroom floor, dragged through the snow and banged around the floor of the car as we drive.
What is it about labels? They don’t only apply to our clothes and shoes and accessories, they also apply to our lives. Being called his ‘girlfriend’ for the first time feels just as good as sliding into that Valentino for the first time. But, for some reason the labels that apply to our lives don’t always get treated with the greatest of care, like that Hermes scarf.
Labels in our own lives often get taken for granted. We throw around the labels: friend, sister, brother, enter your professional title here, mother, father, etc, very loosely, not always considering what those labels actually mean. We might argue with a family member the way we would never dream of speaking to a colleague and shrug it off as “but it’s my __________________, I can talk to them like that.”
I am lucky to have two older sisters. Their labels are not only sisters, but best friends. I cannot think of anyone else I would rather talk to or spend my time with. I have friends who talk to their sisters on Christmas and birthdays. That boggles my mind, but I guess for some people, having a sister is just a label for that girl that used to share the bathroom when growing up.
Getting rid of an unwanted label is not as easy as filling a bin bag and leaving it on the step of the Salvation Army. Liar, selfish, slacker, crazy, are all negative labels that we don’t want, but once we get them getting rid of them is like getting rid of wet sand in your bikini bottoms.
It might be a good time to clean out our closets of all the labels we don’t want, and keep only the labels that we are willing to use and are most important, even if we did get them on sale.
