Buying Identity

"To put it another way, consumption is a quest for identity through sensual means.  We buy what we think we see in a object, grasping at the physical to get at the intangible, buying the commodity to obtain the unsaleable quality." Dell Upton, An American Icon," in Architecture in the United States.

No, that is not me, but . . .maybe if  . .

This is the best definition of consumption, or consumerism, that I have read.  Upton makes visible the illusive desire that drives us when we buy stuff, but are really searching for what stuff can not provide.  By doing this Upton also allows the reality that we do need, or at least make use of, some of that stuff for practical purposes.  I need a coat to keep me warm and footwear to keep my feet dry.  The utility of those items is one crucial aspect of why I select this coat, not that one; these boots, not those boots.  Like a building, both coat and boots also have "firmness" that makes them suitable to this climate and durable through the whole winter season, even into the next and the ones after.  Third, winter gear might also have "beauty."  But here is where we get out on thin ice.  If I prefer a red coat and leather boots, if the lines of this coat flatter me and those boots suggest my Scandinavian heritage, have I moved beyond the pleasure of beautiful, useful clothing into consumption?  Have my red coat and leather boots become part of my "quest for identity through sensual means" even if they continue to fulfill their tangible, physical task?