Time for a keep-me-accountable shopping check-in. My goal this year is to shop secondhand more when I do shop. Specifically, I’m aiming for 50% of my acquisitions to be secondhand. So far, I’m meeting that goal.
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Wardrobe Buys
Laude the Label Everyday Top in Carob – This was admittedly an impulse buy from an ethical brand I’ve been curious about. Not sure how I ended up on their site. (The likely culprit: Instagram). But I saw that this top was on deep discount, and decided to take a chance, as it was final sale. The texture was not quite what I was expecting. From the product photos, I thought it would be smoother. The fabric reminds me of Pact’s gauzy pieces. So it’s not a dealbreaker, just more casual than I thought it’d be.
Laude the Label Everyday Top. What the model wore versus what I got, which was more texture-y than I expected.
Gap Shaker-Stitch Cardigan – This is another instance of buying fast fashion even when you’re an ethical shopper. I had not been in a Gap since the pandemic began and was passing one by so I stopped in. Honestly, it it felt a little sad in there, like they’d gone down market a notch or two. But then I spotted this cotton cardigan and noted how cropped and petite-friendly it seemed. Looking it up online later, I saw it came in petite sizing — and that it was on sale. (It comes in tall too.) Can I tell you how hard it is to find sweaters with sleeves that fit when you’re petite? Dear reader, I bought it without hesitation. I’ve already worn it a bunch.
Vintage Maxi Skirt – Thrifted a rayon skirt at Goodwill for $8. Based on the tag, I’m guessing it’s from the ’90s. Because I didn’t want to wait for a fitting room, I just shimmied it on under the skirt I was already wearing. I spotted a woman waiting in line for the dressing room with the matching shirt in her try-on stack. So tempted to stay and see if she’d discard it! But it looked way big, so I let that idea go. Now I’m playing around with this skirt, figuring out how to style this to feel like me.
Made a little Reel about thrifting the skirt.
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I think I’m going to take a pause from shopping for clothes now, though. Really, I should get reacquainted with what I already own. The one exception is if I happen to come across a specific item that’s already on my wardrobe wish list.
Welcome Objects 2023 Wardrobe Count To Date
Additions: 8
Number of Additions That Are Secondhand: 4
Subtractions: 4
Wearing two of my new finds: Cardigan and vintage skirt. Also wearing: Lo & Sons Bag // Boots from Japan [similar]. Is this outfit too ’90s teacher?
What I Read in Shopping & Sustainability
Why does fast fashion fall apart so quickly? I think we all know the answer. Clothes are generally more crappily made these days. This article quotes a few Gen Z consumers who are raiding their moms’ closets and otherwise trying to find older, better-made clothes. A telling quote: “Clothing is the single category that has declined in price since 2000 in spite of egregious inflation elsewhere.”
A plastic bag’s 2,000-mile journey shows the messy truth about recycling. Soft plastics are notoriously hard to recycle. What really happens to the plastic bags you drop off at the grocery store? Bloomberg put tiny trackers on three plastic items to find out. Some may get recycled. But a lot end up being incinerated — and in some cases to power cement factories. “The cement industry is the final solution for the rest of the waste that’s not possible to use in the recycling industry.”
Whoa, that Laude the Label top looks like a completely different shirt than the one on the model (even the proportions look a little different to me). It’s still lovely, but so, so different!
It’s more like a sleeveless shirt on me, probably because my usual size was sold out, so I sized down. But yes, different