Fashion Fetishes Out of the Closet
Donna Crean simply can’t say no to a new pair of tennis shoes. They’re her passion.
Inside the antebellum-style mansion where she lives with her husband, John, the retired founder of Fleetwood Enterprises, Crean has a stash of dozens of pairs of tennis shoes festooned with everything from gold stars to Mickey Mouse.
“They’re comfortable. Other people will be in spiked heels, and I’m in my tennies,” said Crean, who even wears her tennis shoes to black-tie galas.
Most people have some kind of fashion fetish, a type of clothing or accessory they can’t get enough of even if their closets are already bursting with duplicates. In “Your Money or Your Life,” the bestselling book that espouses simplicity and scaled-down living, the term coined for these fetishes is “gazinga pins.”
They’re any kind of knickknack or possession that triggers an irresistible impulse to buy.
Crean doesn’t buy just any old tennis shoe. She hunts for ones that stand out, finding most in mail-order catalogs. She has tennis shoes in all colors, including purple and two patriotic pairs in red, white and blue. Some fancier models have beading and sequins. She has four or five pairs with cartoon characters, and glitzy gold and silver pairs to go with her evening wear.
“They’re unusual,” she said. “I don’t see them on other people.”
Shoes are one of the most common “gazinga pins.” Imelda Marcos was famous for her shoe fetish. Yet fetishes can take many forms.
“For me, it’s leather goods,” said Nina Robinson, director of sales and marketing at Fashion Island in Newport Beach. She especially likes large black leather handbags and organizers.
“I have a dozen of some version of the big black bag. It’s somewhat embarrassing. People say to me, ‘Nina, you do not need another leather bag.’ ” But sure enough, she finds another she can’t resist, like her recent conquest: a backpack-style by Perlina.
“Of course I don’t need it, but it has fabulous silver hardware,” Robinson said. She has six daily organizers, all in black leather.
“I get so excited when I see one I love. Yesterday I bought a new Kenneth Cole organizer for a woman in my office, but I would have kept it for myself if she didn’t want it. It just looked lonely on the shelf.”
Robinson attributes her passion for fine leather goods to her career in retail. At age 18, she worked in the buying office of the accessories division of Robinson’s in Los Angeles.
“Everyone I’ve known in retail has always had big black bags,” she said. “I’m crazy about them.”
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Megan Thompson, public relations manager for Neiman Marcus in Newport Beach, has a weakness for white T-shirts.
“I’ll do fancy silk all the way to the Gap,” Thompson said. “I have at least 20, and I hang them all up in my closet. I wear them under suits. It’s just so easy to get ready, and it’s a clean look.”
Many people like the rush of pleasure they get when they buy a certain item, so they buy the same thing over and over whether they need it or not.
“Everyone has that thing they like to collect,” Thompson said. “I do it for the ease of getting ready. For others, it’s their personality. It tells the world, ‘This is who I am.’ ”
Often, the “gazinga pin” is a small, inexpensive item that’s easy to accumulate. Billur Wallerich, director of community relations at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, can never get enough lip color.
“I’m a lipstick junkie,” she confided. “I have drawers and drawers filled with them. I have to have every shade possible in burgundy and orange tones. And I’m forever buying lip liners to go with them.”
Wallerich isn’t sure what triggered it. “I have big lips, and I always liked to play with crayons when I was a little girl,” she said. “Buying a new lipstick gives me a lift.”
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Why do some latch onto lipsticks, shoes or other specific item?
“It’s psychological. It’s usually something they wore at a time in their life where they felt good about themselves. I can clock it,” said Dianna Pfaff-Martin, founder of California Image Advisors in Newport Beach. “They get compliments, so they tend to repeat the action.”
People get locked into a look, and the habit can be hard to break.
“It’s all about security,” says Mark-Alan Harmon, wardrobe consultant and owner of MAH Clothing Co. in Fullerton, who helps clients get out of fashion ruts. “It’s something they know and they’re familiar with. I have women [clients] who have to have Manolo Blahnik shoes. They’ll buy 10 or 15 pairs at a time, for $400 a pair. Others buy every Armani suit every season. It’s all about what they know.”
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Harmon, himself, isn’t immune to fetishes: “I personally have 65 pairs of pants,” he said. “I always see a pair I have to have, because it’s a new style and a new designer. No matter what comes up, I’ll always have the right pants.”
Gayla Totaro, image consultant and owner of Color Me Beautiful in Huntington Beach, tries to help clients break fashion habits by coaxing them into new colors and styles. She matches them with palettes of 36 color swatches; one client had shoes in every heel type--flat, low and high--to go with each color in her palette.
Totaro’s weakness is earrings. She blames her fetish on her urge to be perfectly color-coordinated.
“The worst part is, once we buy a pair of earrings or shoes, then we go in search of the rest of the outfit,” she said. “Now, that’s really sick.”
