My thoughts here on how to respond to "where did you get it?"....
This is just my opinion of course.
To me, pretentious is not what a person wears; it's the person's attitude. There are very wealthy people who drip with money, yet they are the kindest and most gracious people. There are also people who wear one little piece of luxury logo jewelry, yet they act high & mighty.
I feel that by downplaying what we wear and being vague in our response, we are indirectly being pretentious. The question asked is a simple question, yet we are immediately assuming the other person cannot afford nor does not know about the finer things in life. As they say, there is always a bigger bear, and I never assume I am the bigger bear.
For me, when complimented and asked "where did I get it" or "what brand is it", I respond with a big humble grin and say "thank you so much, it's a brand called Van Cleef & Arpels." If the person knows VCA, they will say so. If they do not know VCA, they will go and google. I try and come across as humble and kind. Being kind is different than being friendly. Being kind is being courteous and considerate.
I am a believer of learning from others as each of us has so much knowledge to share.
I want to be exposed to and learn about the finer things in life. Yes, it's a shallow comment, but it's relevant here in the context of this conversation about luxury goods.
I came from humble beginnings. I worked as a waitress on the weekends in high school. I worked through college as well, and I did not know much about the finer things in life, much less desire them.
I had a best friend in high school who's father was a jeweler. He sold very high end jewelry and custom pieces. My best friend would get amazing gifts for events. Eight gifts for Hanukkah, every year, and most of the time, it was bling!
I knew nothing of bling. I was a poor kid, but my friend and her father kindly showed me fine jewelry, told me about Cartier and other brands. They did not see me as a poor kid nor tried to hide it from me. They graciously shared with me what they knew.
This opened my eyes, not only to bling, but to life, the finer things in life. It gave me ambition, to want to be more than what I was.
Hence, my view is... when someone asks, tell them the truth, but be gracious and kind.
The more we know about life, the more we grow as a person. It is then our decision if we decide to run with that knowledge or not.
Without that knowledge however, we do not know what wonderful things are out there in the world.
Hence, for me... when asked, I say that my piece is VCA or whatever brand I am wearing...
The little girl who hears about VCA may google and realize... "nah, that's just for 'rich' people" or "wow, I want to own these pieces when I grow up, so I better do well in school and start working for it." I hope it's the latter. She may be inspired; she may be tomorrow's CEO who piles on VCA.
Sharing information and knowledge is a good thing. Just my thoughts I want to share for another point of view.
Dear @BigAkoya when you put it this way I completely agree with everything you’ve said. I hope I came off as kind and not pretentious to all the strangers who have asked me in the past. Besides all of the eye candy here I truly feel like I’m gaining pearls of wisdom from all of you ladies, and I appreciate every advice and comment.
What an inspiring story about your life journey and I admire you for working towards your dreams and making all your shiny gem wishes come true! You deserve all of it
