by Steven Jordan

Created on: March 29, 2008

The fashion industry is at its highest point ever grossing billions and billions ever year, and apart from the people who have a love of fashion, who is it that is making the fashion industry so wealthy?

I am a huge fashion addict and would love nothing more than to go out and spend thousands and thousands on clothes every week, but faced with paying bills and living costs, i begun to ask myself which would come first, living and eating or fashion and feeling good about what i am wearing.

This led me to the question.......is fashion just something we enjoy or are we using fashion as a block to stop us thinking about what is wrong in our lives?

I know the feeling of when you have bought something ridiculously expensive that i cannot afford, it is almost impossible to feel bad about money or how you can pay for the things you have bought, when you have this amazing thing that makes you feel so happy, and to this i believe that i myself do substitute my feelings for fashion.

Once upon a time at the age of 16 i had my first job, which i hated to say the least but there was one thing that was good, the 28 of each month. This date was particularly fantastic as it was the day that i would get paid and all my worries or feelings would be put to the back of my mind for at least a week while i was out spending every last bit of my wage in Harvey Nichols.

When this day came i would arrive at work at 6am that morning, all my clothes ready out on my bed for when i finished work at 2pm so i could run home bath, get changed and out the door straight away, the feeling was immense, noting would stop my 28th of the month splurge, and no other thing gave me such a release.

On arrival in Leeds i would of already planned which shops i was going to go to and the best route so i knew exactly where i was going to be and also knew the places that made me feel the best.

Coming from a family that believes 10 is a good price for a T-Shirt, no one could quite understand why i would feel it appropriate to go to Leeds and spend 1000 and not have a huge amount of things to show for it. And to be honest neither did i, nor could i explain to them the feelings i got when walking out of Harvey Nichols with a bag full of happy!

And that is what the shopping trips became to be, i wasn't so much shopping for clothes to look good anymore i was actually shopping to make myself happy, which begs the questions, was i that unhappy with my life that i had to go shopping and spend obscene amounts of money just

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