ABSTRACT
Shopping is an important part of my life. Thinking back on when and how it became so integral to my identity, I see in my mind’s eye the rst material thing that I remember wanting desperately. Perhaps six or seven years old at the time, I convinced my mother that I had to have an apricotcoloured lacy dress with a sash tied in a bow around the back to wear to my cousin’s bar mitzvah, the rst formal event to which I’d been invited. Never a “girly girl,” and not remotely interested in fashion until my early adult years, I still wonder at my insistence on that particular item.
