Couture Clothing Crisis

Then again, if I'm not buying from my favorite upscale boutique and instead shopping at a low-brow department store with hopes of finding a discounted Armani of my own, I'm contributing, in part, to the venerable slaughter of couture clothing - and the boutique will suffer.  It's a merciless cycle, and it requires a real evaluation on brands and business practices alike.

In the meantime, I plan to make it my mission to rescue each Christian Louboutin pump and Missoni scarf that have gone missing from the shelves of independent glossy shops - by not purchasing them from carpeted islands of isolation in plazas that border Chili's.