new york state of mind

i spent 12 hrs at work today, finished at 8pm had some leftovers and caught the news. congress in america had rejected the massive bailout plan for the american banks, wall street took a tumble.

what the crisis meant to people in banks: banks are wary of lending money to each other, liquidity dries up, no trading done, clients not confident of doing any trades, banks not making money, some suffers cash flow problems and need cash injections via sovereign wealth funds, banks freeze new hires, cut costs.

what the crisis meant to people not in banking: the bankers patronise the corner deli shop less, business suffer. deli shop's boss retrench staff, they have less money to spend. people will find their mortgage payments going up as liquidity dries up and cost of borrowing increase, disposable income decreases, people will be more frugal and shop less, retail industry will be affected, especially those who operates on a high volume low margin model as they will soon find volume of trades decreasing.

case in point: i was at H&M a few weeks back checking out the new H&M "man" trend collection. the collection is wonderful and uses much better quality materials, and in better times i wouldn't batter an eyelid and bag most of it, but with the credit crunch looming ahead i decided to walk away with just 1 piece, and this winter is about recycling and modifying.

enough of gloom talk, here are my picks:

brown block striped mohair sweater. great material choice, but somehow it reminded me of the sweaters prada did for fall 2007.

same sweater in orange, which i really like but feel would date after a while. i think the mohair sweaters retailed for about £39 or thereabouts. fantastic piece, i really like.

wool sweater with v neck details. i bought this sweater as i really like the neckline and details, and it is comparable to the balenciaga sweaters i have. the V neckline gives me a versace vibe too.

then i stumbled upon a great find, this faux fur scarf for just £8. however being synthetic material, it sheds and leaves a horrible trail of fur on the sweaters. it looked great in pics, but i am not confident of translating that in real life. cheap and affordable as it is, i decided not to. such is the state of mind. god bless the economy.

Ooooo00o00 but i really like the look. ok lets leave it.

and i returned a few days later, and tried on this striped pullover, which i really like but again passed on because i have enough clothes. this costs £19.

and i tried on a pair of really low crotched wool trousers which was generous at the hips but tapered from the calves down. i felt like ali baba, but also on trend and for a moment felt in tune with the cool kids who hang out at topshop.

i decided all is too much, and walked away in my £9.99 H&M canvas plimsolls which i bought in happier economic times. red cotton socks and faded denim incidentally also from H&M.
i love H&M, i really do. but blame it on george bush and his administration for spending billions on the war in iraq instead of the economy. ok this is getting political. just blame it on george bush, and not take it out on H&M.

"old man lying by the side of the road
where the lorries rolling by
blue moon sinking from the weight of the load
and the buildings scrape the sky
cold wind ripping on the valley at dawn
and the morning paper flies
dead man lying by the side of the road
with the daylight in his eyes

don't let it bring you down
it's only castle's burning
find someone who's turning
and you will come around"

~ don't let it bring you down / annie lennox