Remember the famous "Devil Wears Prada" scene where Miranda Priestly schools Andy in the importance of fashion? "OK, I see. You think this has nothing to do with you..." Miranda intones as her assistant quakes in her cerulean sweater.
A new study is proving Miranda Priestly right: 59 percent of American women admit to seeking fashionable, trendy items when shopping. Moreover, 55 percent of American female shoppers admit that they've bought clothes they didn't even like purely because they were trendy.
Of those shoppers, 67 percent say they never actually wore the items in question. (We're guessing peplums, wedge sneakers and cropped tops might have been involved.)
The new survey of 2,825 adult women in the U.S., done by CouponCodes4u.com, shows the heavy influence of fashion trends on what real women buy. 42 percent of the women polled by CouponCodes4u.com said that they felt "pressured" to wear fashionable clothes, and 39 percent of those women blamed that pressure on the media.
Just an unscientific survey of today's media would show why. Every day there seems to be another fashion-related TV show, movie, book or blog hitting the airwaves, not to mention all the fashion coverage done by non-style news outlets. (Did anyone notice CNN's heavy coverage of Michelle Obama's Inauguration Day outfit?)
Plus, Americans are shopping more than ever before. 2012 saw the biggest Cyber Monday sales in history, record numbers for Black Friday shopping and a rise in sales of clothing and jewelry.
In other words, Miranda was right: "It's sort of comical how you think that you've made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when in fact, you're wearing a sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room from a pile of stuff."
Do you feel like you're being driven to buy more and more trendy clothes, whether you truly want them or not? Are you more influenced by the fashion media than you'd like to admit? Sound off in the comments!
For old time's sake...
Here's a few fashion trends you might have tried yourself...
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