Editor’s Note: This is part six of Noel’s ongoing series about her adventures navigating the NYC fashion world as a college student, adjusting to life without total financial support from her parents, and learning where to spend and save! In case you missed them, see Spending and Saving in New York City: Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, and Part Five.
“Ever since I met you, I’ve been spending more money,” said my darling suitemate, as I tried on a pair of the new Marc by Marc Jacobs Love Mouse Ballerina Flats at the Marc by Marc Jacobs store in the West Village.
“Met me?! You’re the one who’s online window shopping every time you should be writing a paper,” I retorted. The sales associates at the store chuckled at our banter. I fell in love with the shoes once over, twice over, and thrice over. They would be a whimsical alternative to my Valentino flats — and truly, one can never have enough flats.
“Well, I think these are a worthy investment,” said my suitemate, “They’re much more practical than those BCBG boots you bought recently.” She was right. I attained these coveted pony hair BCBG Mendel Wedge Booties a few days ago, and while they are amazingly comfortable for six-inch heels (and can do wonders for a petite girl’s legs), one needs to buy flats to stay sane in the city.
But you know, I started thinking about what my suitemate said, and maybe she was right — after all, would I have purchased these flats if she didn’t tell me how lovely they were? So lovely, in fact, that she herself wished she had a pair?
“I’m living vicariously though your shoes,” she said, as we walked to a nearby French patisserie for dinner. Actually, I wasn’t even supposed to be shopping for myself.
It was Friday, and I decided to finish my Christmas shopping right after my last final examination. My suitemate and I ventured to SoHo from Morningside Heights. To be honest, I don’t enjoy Christmas shopping — buying massive hoards of presents gives me a headache. I prefer buying birthday presents because I have more time and energy to personalize each gift. My plan of action? Uniqlo for the boys and Marc by Marc Jacobs for the girls.
I really don’t know how to shop for my guy friends — but luckily, Uniqlo offers quality basics at affordable prices. I picked up a wide range of clothing for my guy friends, from the one who loves his boxer briefs (don’t ask) to the one who looks good in his girlfriend’s clothes (again, don’t ask). I also picked up a wide range of tights and leggings for some of my girl friends — and a pair of long black leggings for myself! In my opinion, one can never have too much hosiery.
Afterward, I picked up some more Christmas presents for my girl friends in college and back home in California at the Marc by Marc Jacobs store. I ended up with two Marc by Marc Jacobs shopping bags and a giant Uniqlo shopping bag by the end of the day — in addition to another bag of tissue paper, gift bags, and Christmas cards.
“You’re giving a lot of presents to people. A lot of these people aren’t even exchanging presents this year,” my suitemate reminded me. “While people might be liberal with their gift giving where you come from, you can’t expect them to afford to get you a present too.”
Oh. Right. I went to a prep school in California where most of the students share fairly similar homogeneous economic and social backgrounds, mixed in with a sprinkling of liberalism and secularism. I had taken for granted that friends exchange gifts for Christmas, and it was one of the many things that became apparent to me when I came to Columbia.
Indeed, this morning, I had over 20 gift bags stuffed with presents for my friends — and I’ve realized that it doesn’t matter at all whether or not I receive presents in return. I spent the morning beginning my gift deliveries to friends, watching them wake up with bleary eyes as I handed out my tokens of affection.
I even bought some clothing for my friend who is a Jehovah’s Witness, who doesn’t celebrate or acknowledge Christmas or birthdays as a part of his religion. “These are your ‘thank you for being my friend’ presents,” I told him. Not for Christmas. Not for Hanukkah. Just for being a good friend and making my first semester in college unforgettable. He told me that’s his philosophy on gift giving.
Maybe we should all stop viewing presents as holiday necessities and start seeing them as spontaneous tokens of appreciation. After all, it’s the thought that counts.
I agree with many of the other commentators. Although Noel is a good blogger, this series seems to be off the mark. Honestly, I can’t fathom how a student can spend this kind of money and pass herself off as one “without total financial support from her parents.” This series is really insensitive to many readers and doesn’t fit with the rest of the CF posts. Maybe I am a little bit jealous, but this series is just so out of touch with its readership.
awesome, thank you for responding to my questions!
I have been an avid college fashion reader for years, but I am disguested by this article, as well as others written by Noel. I am also a college student and although I have a fantastic co-op job, I can not think of spending that much money on a pair of shoes. YOU LIVE IN NYC, there is no way you can wear any of the shoes you bought in the next couple of months. There is a thing called snow, which will ruin those pony hair BCBG boots. And your feet are going to be VERY cold wearing those marc jacob mouse flats. A good article about saving would be buying a good pair of Sorels or inexpensive gifts for friends.
Well I for one enjoy these articles. I would never go out and buy really expensive mouse shoes, but I do mostly limit my clothing purchases to high end pieces of clothing because I appreciate the quality. The fact that Noel shops at higher end stores is more interesting to me than a lot of the outfits including Forever 21, Wet Seal, etc. Those don’t really apply to me as I make it a point not to shop at these stores. However, the articles don’t bother me! The only explanation I can think of as to why the current article seems to bother so many people is perhaps a tiny bit jealousy. If it makes you feel bad, then why not just stop reading it?
And for the record, I am nowhere near as wealthy as Noel (…or her parents?) appear to be. I just place importance of quality over quantity in my budget.
I’m straying a bit from the topic at hand, but really I just wanted to post a positive comment to Noel. She has a fun “voice” in her articles and I enjoy them. 🙂
I really love College Fashion and have been reading it religiously for the past year or so, one of the reasons I love reading CF so much is because of the wide array of topics that everyone writes on, this way, I can relate to more than one girl and it’s a really comforting feeling. Even Noel, although she definitely buys much more extravagant items than I do, we’re definitely the same in that we both fall head over heels for certain items that we just HAVE to have.
I liked Noel’s previous posts, despite the extravagant purchases (to each their own!) but I would like to hear more about how she is able to save so much money for her purchases, and less about how many people she’s buying presents for.
By the way, I did appreciate Noel’s Spending and Saving in NYC parts one to five. This particular article just left a sour after taste.
After reading this post, I felt somewhat offended. I realize that I’ve never been to NYC and shopped there, but why is the content of this post about Noel and the money she can spend? I read college fashion because I like how trends are deconstructed and made affordable. I felt bad when I read this, because I can’t go out and drop a ton of money on designer shoes or 20 bags worth of gifts for friends. I wish this blog would stay more relatable to college students; I’d rather see posts about affordable and meaningful gifts than have to read about Noel’s dilemma of having bought expensive presents for her friends.
I don’t mind this series so much, but I do agree with everyone else that it isn’t relatable at all. And it is definitely much more spending than saving. I don’t really care–I mean, I don’t expect to be able to relate to every article that’s published on CF–but I think you guys are kidding yourselves if you think it’s something that the majority of your readers can relate to or even that it can still really be called “spending and saving in New York”.
BTW, anyone is NYC. A huge sale of balenciaga shoes at DSW. Limited quantities but its pretty, I checked. They’re all like $99.95. AND its real, I checked and its DSW, they aren’t going to fake it.
GO!
I can see where Noel and Zephyr are going with this, though — in the midst of so many guides and lists, a kind of literary journalism writing can be a nice change! And I think Noel has a pretty good voice; people above have certainly said they enjoy reading her writing.
And I think Noel definitely has a good eye — didn’t you say that you’re starting a fashion blog and magazine at Columbia? — and she would be able to write for an upscale young audience very well. Your choices here are so fun, chic and clearly well-made!
But I think the consensus here seems to be that her shopping experiences are not common among college girls, nor are they useful. I still think that the idea of a “budget blogger” on CF is a great idea, and I think that we shouldn’t rule out these longer blog-like pieces, but I think that someone who’s a little older and more experienced at college could end up being a more helpful, authoritative voice in that.
Noel’s just a freshman, and I know that I didn’t really figure out how to use my budget well until junior year! This might be her using her budget well — we all have different budgets to draw on — but I don’t think her posts are providing useful lessons for readers right now.
Elizabeth: Exactly! MXMJ is relatively budget friendly for trinkets :).
Malorie: In fact, I hold a part-time job in the city when I’m not doing school-related work, extracurriculars, or interning. I also work full-time during winter break. I pay for my own health insurance and taxes, although I am very lucky for having parents who pay for my books and tuition/boarding at such an expensive school. And yes, I do pay for my own clothes and gifts for others.
I make about $15,000 by myself in a year, but I don’t touch 95% of it because I am saving up for my own apartment in NYC for when I graduate college. I am also trying to save up for business school (I dream of attending Harvard business school — which is highly improbably, I must admit). My parents have the means to completely support me and my mother has the habit of handing me wads of cash to ease herself of the guilt of never being home, but they are completely self-made people and they want me to be self-made too. I guess I’m not, by the model set by my parents, but I do hope this provides a “frame” for you, Malorie.
Merry Christmas, everyone!
yeah, i thought this series would focus more on the saving. i don’t really care to hear about how much money you can freely spend.
You spent nearly $900 on two pairs of shoes…a lot of college students don’t even have that much money in their bank account, let alone the resources to buy “Marc by Marc Jacobs for the girls”…
I’m not judging you, I would love to be able to afford those things an get extravagant gifts for my friends, and I love the last bit of your article.
I just think these articles are a bit superficial. most people were hoping these posts would be a real way to find places and ways to save in NYC while living with a slim budget
I too like Noel come from a wealthy family. However, I felt uncomfortable reading this article. It’s insensitive and tactless to be posting about how much money you are able to spend under the guise of a “saving in NYC” article. Know the majority of your audience. Talking about Marc Jacobs is fine but focus on the bargains in the store or boutiques in NYC that offer similar things for half the price. Maybe the focus of your article should be about where to find nice, quality things in NYC even if they cost more. That way your readers won’t feel short changed when the point of the article is completely different from what they expected
I honestly agree with all the previous comments. This series is great, but totally useless. Originally, when Noel’s series was first introduced, it was supposed to be on how she saved while living in New York, not about how she can afford BCBG boots, Valentino shoes, and Marc Jacobs flats.
Buying expensive gifts for friends that can’t return the favor will just make them feel inferior and will make them feel alienated from her. Maybe she should look into other ways of showing affection…
Most college students can’t relate to Noel’s style of life- why is it on a site dedicated towards college students?
my best friend since elementary school and i stopped buying each other birthday and christmas presents when we got to college. we both decided that we wouldn’t have enough money to do each other justice, so we would spend time with each other instead. we bought our first present for each other in three years for our respective 21st birthdays!
as to my friends at college, i always bake insane amounts of cookies, caramel corn, peanut butter candies, and chocolate covered pretzels for them. they are mostly guys, and never complain 😉
What in the world is the point of this series?? This just seems to be a random blog about Noel’s life to me, but isn’t this supposed to be a FASHION blog about where we can learn more about fashion and where to buy it. I live in NYC and I’ve been following Noel’s blog for a while thinking I would get some great tips either about shopping in NYC or shopping in general. So far this blog seems like a waste of time and completely irrelevant to the rest of this website. I absolutely love College Fashion and a lot of the new writers but this series is just pointless to me. It does not offer any advice on HOW to budget (other than the infamous “buy a $200 scarf”) nor does it talk about the real deals out there.
Zephyr, in all of your interviews you talked about how you wanted to create a site specifically for college students. This blog series can be found a dime a dozen and they are usually a lot more helpful and they relate to their audience much better! I can appreciate Noel’s article on her personal blog but not in the context of this site and it’s a little annoying to click onto a site that I love and find articles like these.
Just to clarify for Zephyr and anyone else who might jump down my throat – I am NOT a hater. I really just want Zephyr to know that this blog is seemingly pointless. If it included actual shopping tips or more discussion on actually budgeting, it would be a lot more helpful
Nikki