It saddens and baffles me that post-Christmas, the most headline-worthy fashion newsbit relates to the UK high street retailer Next [1].  Boxing Day 2007 was officially the busiest day [2] in British retail history and in the wee hours of the morning, queues were forming at stores, namely Next and Marks and Spencers.  Two women collapsed at the Next store in West Midlands, another was taken to hospital with breathing difficulties and another was trapped in a door.  Ludicrously, West Midlands Ambulance Service had to issue [3] some 'sales queuing advice' to people 'A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman said: "Our staff were somewhat surprised to get so many calls to different branches of the same clothing company.

"If you are planning to attend and queue in the future, pleases ensure that you wear suitable clothing to keep warm and either have had something to eat and drink before going or take it with you so that you don't become dehydrated or hungry."

Let me get this straight...  All of this grief.... for NEXT?!? 

I'm really not sure what it says on a whole about the British shopping nation that people are willing to stress themselves out over the possibility of picking up some shoddy cut trousers, coats that won't last and shoes that are made of pleather.  It's not a matter of brand snobbery here.  I love a good bargain as much as anyone and yes, I contributed to the online Christmas Day sales surge with my sale buys from Topshop. 

However, I feel that people aren't really weighing it up in their heads properly when getting shopping happy.  A guy loading up on cheapie £12 dress shirts (i.e. shirts intended for the office) could have bagged a wonderfully cut, beautifully shirt from Givenchy at £59.  The number of wears you get out of aforementioned Next shirt = 12.  Let's say once a month because said guy has bought a gazillion of these shirts for about a year before it gets binned/ruined in the wash...).  The number of times you get out of Givenchy shirt = 72+.  Worn twice a month because it's spesh enough to wear out as opposed to at the office and over many more years providing guy doesn't balloon.  I use a guy's shirt as an example just because it's interesting how the ratio of male/female shoppers in this Next sale frenzy was quite evenly split.      

Now we are into 2008, I will stick to my past prediction of saying that hard, fast, cheap fashion simply isn't sustainable and that we will soon learn the values of paying a little more but ultimately getting a lot more for your buck.