I don't get it

I have, through the sewing boards, discovered Project Runway. The whole design it- make it-show it process is very interesting. Now, we don't have cable at our house, so I've sort of been following the progress of the season via blogs and websites, which has introduced me to another world on the net...fashion blogs. I've become a Manolo the Shoeblogger reader, mostly because the Manolo, he can be unbelievably witty in his commentaries on the fashions and the peoples of the fashions. Not to mention the way of his communication, it is extremely contagious. But the Lisa of the Laree, she does not understand why anyone would pay such of the exhorbitant sums of the monies for the shoes...especially the 'superfantastic' shoes that require the real women with actual bones and tendons to have the feets of the Barbie dolls. :D

But mostly what has amazed me in reading about Fashion Week is the almost religious zeal that is associated with haute couture. It's just clothes. I can make clothes. Ok, so the fabrics are wonderful and the fit is terrific (well, by some standard) and the designs are unique (some of them so unique I can't for the life of me imagine real people wearing them)...but it's still just clothes. Clothes are to provide cover for the body, so that the world at large does not see that which should be reserved for only the most intimate companion (and I do believe some designers deliberately overlook that important function of clothing), provide warmth against the cold and protection from the sun, and, if clothing enhances the appearance of the one inside it, so much the better. But, in the end, a $3,000 blouse is still...a blouse.

Apparently, there are people who have $3,000 to spend on a blouse and they will buy the $3,000 blouse, just because it was designed by the Big Name and is what the Big Names more or less agree a blouse should be...for this season.

And that mystifies this daughter of frugal Midwest farmers....