Monday, May 23, 2011

The Dying Art of the Print Catalogue

I love technology and everything it has given me, including my flat screen TV, my Blackberry, my iPod Touch 2nd gen. and net-a-porter, but there comes a point when I cling to things that are still substantial, like my second hand books, my vast collection of movies, and my love of print catalogs. Print catalogs in particular restore a certain nostalgia in me, like the Sears catalogs, and especially the Wish Book. Every Christmas I would mark out the toys, clothes and shoes I would like for Christmas and my mother would order them (well, some of them).

We lived in a rural community of less than 200 people and so I spent the first 18 years of my life ordering clothes out of a catalog and relishing the occasional trip to the mall, where I would stock up on Campus Crew clothing. I have lived at home with my parents on and off since I was 18. Since January when I moved to Ottawa, I have been feeling increasing tinges of home sickness and they culminated today in my ordering of about ten different print catalogs from stores like Sears, J Crew and LL Bean. And this led me to realize how few stores offer print catalogs now as compared to my youth. Yes, we can online shop to our hearts content but how nice does it feel to flip through a glossy catalog and scope out trends, deals if you order before a certain time, and badly posed catalog models?

I'm eagerly waiting the arrival of the catalogs so I can battle homesick feelings with style.