Interesting point,I agree with you; “you hit the hammer on the nail”.
The real problem with being so “into” fashion is that so many women get too “into” it in the sense that it takes over their lives, how? They forget to treat other women who might not dress how THEY CONSIDER “GOOD” with proper middos and then they do things like “looking people up and down”.
Many women end up letting the fashion take over their lives that gasmius becomes more of a priority for them than ruchnius in that they are focusing on how other women are dressing… and then forget that everyone has feelings and wants to feel comfortable which is not what happens when women are “looked up and down”.
devrachel, you seem to like to dress well and that is fine, but the concern is when women who like to dress fashionably, “look down” at other women who are not dressing as fashionably.
You said you like to dress to look “good”. Well, what is good to one woman is different to another. Many times I have met woman who only talk about what they will wear and how __ is coming “in style”; I feel that those women are so shallow because they act like that is their only concern while I want to spend more time focusing on life’s challenges and how to grow in our faith towards hashem with our challenges.
Unfortunately, there is not as much pressure in “dressing fashionably” by the goyim that I work with. Yes, you could look good by finding good deals but buying clothes is still expensive. I just do not understand how many families who say they can’t pay tuition are then spending a lot of money on clothes for the “woman of the house” just so that she could wear the “latest style” in other words be dressed “fashionably”.