Oscar and Shopping

"We live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities"
- Oscar Wilde

I have been thinking today about something my friend Jillian (an incredible yet highly unexpected source of insight) said about, well, consumerism: "I feel happier when I have pretty things" (this is possibly a female conclusion, the other half of the population may have to bear with me here), "and I get sad when I lose them. They just make me happy."

This is not a difficult concept for me to relate to; one only has to look my closet, jewelry box, or CD collection to know that this is very much the truth. But, does this necessarily make me vain? Does it make me an incurable consumer? Or, am I just trying to have the things I think will make me feel more like myself and appear more like myself to those who see me. All of this deep and philosophical thought was brought on by today's attempt to purchase a new pair of glasses. I wear glasses. I wear glasses everyday (not all day, but for quite a bit of it). Is it purely vanity that I want a new pair of glasses simply because I think they will look better than the ones I have (which, by the way, still work and fit fine), or, will having red glasses actually make me happier? I think that they will. This may be a specious conclusion based on Jillian's VERY vague evidence, but hey, I know what I'm trying to convince myself of. I think that every morning when I woke up and put on my new red glasses I would have a little flash of happiness. But, is that happiness enough to justify an entirely frivolous purchase of over $300? This is where my dear friend Oscar comes in. Mr. Wilde has written the above quote to persuade people like me that there is nothing wrong with being frivolous. In fact, I don't think there is a bit of dialogue in any of his plays that is NOT completely frivolous (however they do contain a lot more social insight than I really feel like writing about right now, as this is about ME, not Oscar). So, if we believe that I will actually be a happier person if I spend money and fill my life with things that I like, I should feel no buyers remorse and proceed to buy gas drive back to Moncton and buy my very sexy red glasses. However if we disagree, I should shut my mouth, save my money, and think more along the lines of my hero Friedrich Engels.
Am I simply perpetuating a fruitless capitalist glasses-buying cycle?