La Perla

When a girl hears the name "La Perla", one thinks of sexy lingerie...

A La Perla advertisement ~ Very sexy indeed.

So you can imagine, I was quite surprised when I spent my allocated shopping time roaming the hosiery department of Isetan in Tokyo looking at La Perla's range of tights (didn't know they had branched out from lingerie).

Japan has massive sales around the start of January, so with "SALE" cutouts hanging from the ceiling, thats all I could think about! I found a beautiful pair of simple black tights with adorable bows at the bottom for AUD$24! What a bargain! And I thought wow, when the Japanese say sale, they really mean sale!

Japanese sale advertisement

Odakyo was another popular shopping destination while I was in Japan and you'll see these adds absolutely everywhere especially in the train stations because they are not just train stations, there are massive shopping malls inside.

You might think that $24 for a pair of tights might be excessive. But for La Perla, its a very good price (in my opinion anyway). So there I was, sneaking my way through the crowds to find the cashier and also to avoid the boys finding me and telling me that my time was over. I paid my "$24" and when the boys came to meet me I happily showed Big Bear my only purchase telling him what a deal I got for the tights. He saw the price tag and said "Uey, I think you missed a zero. Its $240, not $24!"

Big Bear still thinks I'm a fraudulent Accounting graduate but I blame it on the holidays. At the time $1 AUD was equivalent to about 100 Yen and the excitement that I was overcome with being at one of the biggest departments stores, it was quite understandable I couldn't do math properly.

However, I stood there with a bit of a guilty feeling because we'd been good; hunting for cheap meals, staying at business hotels and walking instead of taking taxis. But I've worn the same tights in Tokyo, Shanghai, Nanjing and Beijing through the coldest weather I've experienced and they have most definitely been worth the price! Sometimes it is better to spend that much more for something that will last for more seasons than one. I have my La Perla tights tucked away in the closet, but they'll be the first thing that I'll be bringing out when the temperature falls.

So if you do shop during these difficult times, make sure your purchases are smart investments instead of fast fashion buys!