In reading this it makes me think about people who (claim to) dress for themselves, or who cart around branded totes because "oh it makes me feel good about myself".
It's not out of the question, but whose eyes is it really for?
It reminds me of Milan Kundera's "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" and how he talks about the different categories of people, depending on whose eyes they want to be looked at or seen through:
Their small circle (of friends or that community or a particular sector)
The wider public (typified by the politicians who pander or the celebrities who parade)
Their one and only (significant other)
Or the ones who aren't there (who have either passed away or never quite existed)
In fact, every category tends itself to the kind of imagining that characterizes the last group. That is, we imagine what others are seeing and thinking (absent constant direct and/or explicit feedback), and that's a big part of how we judge ourselves.
And that's the crazy thing, that very few of us get direct and/or explicit feedback from very few others; and even with such feedback echoing in our minds, people change what they say all the time, so our images of them are very flawed and yet it is based on these images that we judge ourselves.
So why, why, why. Why not have our own opinions mean the most. For even when our opinions are influenced by others, they're the ones we can be most certain are based on reality.