This point is being written after a long game of Code Names, snuggled up in a big Wooly sweater, laptop on my lap. Home Alone 2 is playing on the family TV, for the first time for the 5-7 year olds in the group and probably for the 248th time for me, but who cares: when you love something, you don't count...

Consume at Christmas

This year I feel like the Christmas pressure started very early. First with Black Friday (which Patine doesn't participate in for reasons already explained, and without judgment towards all the independent brands that do participate), then with the advent calendar craze, a symbol of a "Labubu" era where we buy micro-doses of dopamine packaged like surprise bags. Another trap I've avoided; I'm not (yet) a fan of adult advent calendars, even though as a child I passionately collected baby dolls, Panini stickers, and Garbage Pail Kids.

Nevertheless, even though I'm very aware of the pitfalls of our hyper-capitalist society, even though I'm conscious of the ecological disaster accelerated by overproduction and overconsumption, Christmas is, let's be blunt, a time when I feel like joining the shopping frenzy. Shopping feels like a "pre-holiday," a time when it's "allowed to shop" because it's to please others...and oneself too...In short, I feel like I'm letting loose, "unleashing" myself, like the scooter I rode at 16.

In this buying frenzy, I have identified five intertwined factors in my own life that act as safeguards:
1. Ecological awareness and the need for meaning
2. Purchasing power, a very concrete issue
3. Consistency between values ​​and actions
4. The desire for free will
5. Specific desires (which we will call my “taste”)

These safeguards are neither perfect nor heroic. Some are a matter of choice, others of necessity. But together, they allow us to – sometimes – avoid the pitfalls of one-click shopping.

Stay cool & don't buy it :)

Not having an "unlimited budget" (despite my very privileged position according to the Inequality Observatory ) curbs my spending impulses. This brings us back to the graphic novel adapted from Hervé Kempf's book, *How the Rich Ravage the Planet, and How to Stop Them*.

“Shop like a billionaire”: a dangerous illusion
Temu's slogan makes me furious. "Like": because it's obviously just an imitation, like playing house with plastic tomatoes as a child: billionaires don't shop at Temu. Through blatant advertising brainwashing, these new companies are impoverishing us all, customers or not, enriching a minority, and accelerating the depletion of resources.

Free will versus algorithms
No one is completely immune to influence; algorithms shape my tastes, my wants, my desires, whether I like it or not. But remaining vigilant, refusing to let others decide for me, is already a form of resistance.

This is also why at Patine, customers are involved in the creation of the clothing, and some of you have even become shareholders. Selling, yes—but by bringing consent and awareness back into the transaction.

Buy with purpose (and reject certain models)
Not having bought anything from Zara or H&M for over 10 years is a matter of principle. As Timothée Parrique so aptly wrote in his latest column published on BonPote, which I read yesterday morning: "The more we consume, the more we enrich a minority who can then invest their surplus to produce something else." Personally, that's enough to convince me: I don't want to contribute to the enrichment of the founder of Labubu. I quit smoking Phil Morris cigarettes and drinking Coke for the same reason 10 years ago. Supporting the people and projects I believe in with my purchases, and deciding not to consume, isn't a moral stance: it's a political act, even on a small scale.

Regarding fashion and clothing
In fashion, asking whether a purchase is "useful" or "necessary" isn't always enough. As a complement to the BISOU method, here are a few additional filter suggestions:

M is for Sheep
Am I buying it to follow the herd, to show that I know the codes? Baa! I'm changing the channel.

C is for Copycat
Is this a pale imitation of an iconic piece that I'll end up regretting? Wouldn't it be better to save up, wait, and find the real thing secondhand?

B is for Ben & Jerry's
Is it an impulse buy, like a spoonful of ice cream? Sometimes it's okay, as long as it's conscious. I love Cookie Dough.

E is for Commitment
Do I sincerely believe that I will love this piece for a long time and wear it often? "Do you swear to love and cherish it?"

These questions are as important for buying as they are for designing: they are at the heart of the creative process at Patine!

(Re)See, (Re)Read, (Re)(s)Feel: when Zola was already talking about fashion

On a whim, I decided to read all the Rougon-Macquart novels in chronological order. After La Fortune des Rougon, I devoured La Curée, a delightful novel in which Zola already recounts the excesses of Parisian fashion: the heroine goes into debt with the couturier Worms, who is none other than a pseudonym for Worth, a great couturier of the time.
"The season was a long triumph for her. Never before had she had such bolder ideas for outfits and hairstyles."
Making a splash at trade shows or making a splash on Instagram , two eras, same struggle.
You'll currently find me immersed in The Belly of Paris, Les Halles (fruit, tripe, and vegetable section), before Sephora, Lego, and H&M. Most of the action takes place in a delicatessen under garlands of caul fat—not easy reading for a vegetarian, but I'm holding up :)



I'm totally guilty of overspending at Christmas. But conscious consumption, with meaning, genuine desire, and a bit of perspective, is that half forgiven? Stay cool, think before you buy… and sometimes, don't buy at all. Hugs