Latest Female Fashion Trends

Why People Are Borrowing Bling

Advice Seeker: Dear April,

Lately I've been noticing a lot of websites that you can go to and pay a fee to borrow bling. Between expensive jewelry and designer handbags, you can make yourself look incredibly wealthy for a fraction of the cost of actually owning the items. I just don't understand why you would want to pretend you can afford all of these expensive items when you really can't. Isn't this false advertising? Why do people want to flaunt what they can't even afford?

Sincerely,

Nice Purse...Is it Yours?

April Masini's advice:

Dear Nice Purse...Is it Yours?,

Appearance is an anthropological facet. Men and women flaunt their appearances to be attractive to the opposite sex in order to partner and propagate the species. That's the biological reason for people caring about their appearances. It's very basic and animals do it.

One of the big sexual turn-ons for women is men who can support their women. Call it old-fashioned, sexist, or whatever you will, power is an aphrodisiac, and money is a form of power in our society. Men often advertise their material wealth in non-verbal ways. One of those non-verbal ways is by wearing bling. Bling isn't cheap, and if a man has on bling, he's advertising his wealth.

Similarly, women have taken on traditional male roles, and they, too have taken to wearing bling in order to advertise their wealth as an equal or superior partner in that category.

Borrowing bling is just one way to appear wealthy. It's a cheaper way to wear bling than buying it. People who don't have the money to buy their own bling or who have the money but don't want to spend it on bling, but want to wear bling, will borrow.

In addition to borrowing bling there is faux bling to buy at a fraction of the price of authentic bling. Cubic zirconium makes bling affordable without having to pay for real diamonds.

The reason that people flaunt what they don't have is two fold:

1. They want more than their natural status will afford them. They think that if they look rich they will attract someone who is rich, and this is probably true.

2. Then there are those people who have high self-esteem and like the look of bling, but don't feel that they need to buy it to wear it and enjoy it. These people will borrow, still know who they are, and attract whatever the world sends them!