Dog accessories and designer bottled water are the first items to go

Jun 11, 2009 18:31 GMT  ·  By
Survey shows celebrity trends – such as those set by Paris Hilton – are now seen as an unaffordable luxury
   Survey shows celebrity trends – such as those set by Paris Hilton – are now seen as an unaffordable luxury

No respectable star, especially if we’re talking a trendy female fashionista, would ever be seen in public without certain items, such as a well accessorized accessory pet, a bottle of designer vitamin water, or a personal nutritionist nearby, just in case they might have to fight culinary temptation. Still, recession is forcing regular people to put an end to all this flashy and ultimately unnecessary fads, as a new poll conducted by Ask Jeeves and cited by the Daily Mail reveals.

During the economic boom of a couple of years ago, celebrities set the trend in everything, from the kind of clothes we must dress our pets with, to the water we drank, the type of exercise we chose, and how we arranged furniture in our house. Whatever a celebrity did was picked up by the media and then spread to the four corners of the universe, becoming a must for the most fashion conscious of us. Now, the Ask Jeeves survey reveals, we’re no longer financially able to do so and we’re starting to ditch all these trends in favor of comfort, functionality and, most important, smaller expenses.

“Search engines are great social barometers and the shift in queries shows many are glad to see the back of fashionable fads. The fashion has gone from fads to function. What people want to know now is how to cook more cheaply, how to dress for less, and how to holiday on a budget.” Ask Jeeves spokesman Nadia Kelly says for the Mail, after analyzing the findings of the 1,000-respondent survey. Specific numbers also indicate that, indeed, the fads celebrities once established are now slowly but surely dying, with hopes they’ll be out of the picture shortly.

The poll also revealed that one in three Britons are now thinking of holidaying in the UK instead of going abroad, also in a bid to save money. Others, an overwhelming 64 percent for that matter, are more practical in their approach, choosing to turn down the thermostat to minimize expenses. On the same note, the survey shows that more people are now turning to the Internet for advice and counseling they would have once gotten from friends and family – more than three in four people believe the Internet holds the solution to their problem, while only 43 percent still reach out to someone else for a helping hand or a word of advice.

The top ten fads that we should already start saying our good-byes to are as follows: bottled water (90 percent), personal horoscope reading (89 percent), accessories for pet dogs (88 percent), signed football shirts (84 percent), Feng shui (83 percent), children’s spa days (82 percent), life coaching classes (78 percent), personal nutritionist (76 percent), spinning classes (74 percent) and colonic irrigation (73 percent).