We apologize for being gone so long—we hope no one has suffered a major fashion crisis as a result. 

    But the truth of the matter is, lately we’ve found ourselves becoming much more involved with—and excited by—interior design than with fashion design. 

    And, from what we’re hearing from our Top Secret Fashion correspondents, we’re not alone.  In fact,  it seems like the fashion-consuming nation as a whole has become much less shoe-and-handbag obsessed and more home-centric these days.

  Which is not surprising given the current economic climate, of course.  In a time when people are defaulting on their mortgages in record numbers, a designer handbag that costs more than the average person’s house payment can lose it’s appeal for some people, and, yes, the collective psyche has always become more nest-oriented during economic downturns (remember what a buzzword “cocooning” was in the early 90’s?)

  But is that all there is to it?
 
    When the patron saint of fashion consumption, the shoe-rich and house-poor Carrie Bradshaw, [as in, “I’ve spent $40,000 on shoes and I have no place to live? I will literally be the old woman who lived in her shoes!” finally springs for an expensive apartment makeover in the movie, you have to wonder if there are bigger forces at work:

    Carrie’s apartment before…

     
   
    ..and after.
   

.

Could it be we’re all finally growing up?