when to wear: March 2012

Holly cow I have not had a new post in forever!!! Sorry guys I have been in this kind of, I don't know, it's hard to explain, I just have been contemplating why I started this blog and needed a break which is pretty sad because I am so new to blogging. When I first started this blog it was basically just about the etsy store I was starting and networking for the store . But after less then two months of blogging I am feeling really unsatisfied with just promoting my own store, and not really opening up or being real and honest. Which seams to me to be a strange concept: to be honest and open to a bunch of strangers on the internet. Nonetheless that is what I want to aim for here for the time being; the store is not a main priority until we move and have more space and better internet. So for now I want to spend this time on my blog focusing on other things then just my store. That doesn't mean I won't still wear lots of clothes that are on my store because I feel that is an accurate representation of how I really dress everyday. So here goes these pics are not great but I took them ages ago as a response to Madeline's blog post about the ethics of shopping. I chose this outfit because the entire outfit was thrifted.

Wearing: Everything Thrifted (Total: ~$10)

Okay so we tried taking night time pictures, which my little camera did not like one bit! So then we tried taking pictures in our hallway that leads down to our basement apartment, and they did not turn out to well, but I thought that one that I put on here looked kinda cool. Finally we gave up on cool pictures and just took some inside but my camera was not focusing for some unknown reason so ignore the poor photo quality and focus on how amazing this shirt is! Black faded denim button-up with super faux fur leopard print collar and on the end of the sleeves?!?! Yes please! I'm thinking of dip bleach dying the bottom of the shirt, but I'm scared to destroy it because I love it so much. Anyway the whole point of this outfit was to talk about the ethics of shopping. So if you have not read it yet then you should really check out Madelin's post it was amazing! Check it out here!

So here are my thoughts on the ethics of shopping. I apologize in advance for talking to you like you're an idiot, but after reading some of the comments on Madelin's post I was shocked to learn that there are people out there that do not understand that it is a good thing to recycle clothing!!!

I: Second Hand Shopping

A:Why I Thrift

I do a LOT of thrift store shopping, like for serious, if you are ever in Utah or even in Vegas come drive down and we will go thrifting at some of the best thrift stores I have ever been to! There are a lot of reasons that I shop second hand the most obvious is probably that it is so much cheaper. At the right thrift store on an end of season sale I can get four trash bags full of vintage clothes for $50! That's less then one new item from most popular mainstream stores! Anyways, I have always done a lot of shopping at thrift stores it's just how I grew up but this past few years I have been shopping second hand more then ever. I guess this started about four years ago when I did a research paper about freegans for my English 102 class. If you have not heard of freeganism then I'll give a brief introduction "Freeganism is an anti-consumerist movement. It takes issue with society's focus on buying new and throwing away old (but still useful) items. In the simplest terms, freeganism is a reaction against the waste of resources. Participants, known as "freegans," have two main goals: to buy as little as possible and to use only what they need." ( source ) The ideals of freeganism really resonated with me and still do, I wouldn't call my self a freegan but I do dumpster dive on occasion and actively try to buy used items before I buy a new item. I was shocked to learn about how much Americans through away everyday! For the purpose of this blog I won't even touch on all the food waste and other items we throw away everyday but will focus on just talking about the clothes! Did you know that the US alone produces about 9 Billion pounds of used clothing each year, and only a small fraction of that is recycled. All the clothes that are not recycled end up in landfills, destroying our planet! It does not matter how damaged a piece of clothing is, it can, and should, be recycled.

B: Ethics of Animal Products

Some people think that it is wrong to wear anything that came from an animal. Personally I try to limit the amount of new animal products I purchase because I don't want to support killing animals but I have no problem with vintage/used animal furs, leather, suede, ect. In fact I go so far as to say that I feel bad if I don't buy a vintage animal product when I see it in a thrift store. Feel free to disagree but here me at first... That animal already died, I had no part in that, and can not change it. In choosing to buy this item used it in no way contributing to the demand of new animal products being produced. In counterpoint you might argue that in wearing said items on my blog I am creating a demand for my readers to go buy new animal products but I would have to disagree, if I were to wear, say, a leather jacket on my blog, I would indicate that it was used and would encourage my readers to buy similar items used or to buy faux versions, and I would never promote going and buying a new leather or fur jacket. So the reason I feel bad about not buying an animal item at thrift stores is because I feel like that if no one uses that garment then the animal died in vain. Maybe that won't make sense to anyone else but it's how I feel about used vintage and animal products. Also if you want to go the extra mile many stores such at Buffalo Exchange have great programs were you can donate your used real fur garments to be used as bedding for orphaned and injured wild life.

C: Purchasing Used Clothes That Came From Mainstream Stores

Okay, so this section is a response to some of the most idiotic things I have ever read on the internet. I can't believe I even have to talk about this but there was a comment on Madelin's post that she rightfully deleted. Anyhow, one of the things the comment talked about was how it's just as bad to buy something from the original store as it is to buy the item used. I would whole heartily disagree with that. First of all when you buy something second-hand none of that money goes to the store that originally produced that item. The money that I spend on a second hand item, depending on the store I buy it from, goes to one of the following three things. One, overhead: even thrift stores have electric bills. Two, paychecks: thrift stores create a lot of jobs and often try to help the community by giving those jobs to disadvantage people that would have a hard time getting other jobs. Third, to charity: many non-profit thrift stores give all of there profits back to the community. When you buy a used item, even if that item originally came from a store that you know was produced with unfair labor, produced in an environment that produces a lot of toxic wast, or used a lot of fossil fuels to get to the store it was sold at, it doesn't matter. You are not supporting that store, you are not giving that store any money, and you are in no way contributing to the production of new goods from said store. I think the same argument I mentioned about fur could be made about how wearing these items on a fashion blog in and of itself is promoting those stores and creating a demand for more of those items to be produced. Unfortunately I think this is a reasonable point and could happen. The best way, as a fashion blogger, to avoid this is to be cautious of what we are listing in our "what we are wearing" section on our blogs. Yes this item might be from a popular store, but if we got it at a thrift store, or in my case often an apartment dumpster, then why would we list the brand of the item? We should list all thrifted items as such. I don't see the need to list the brand of a garment if I did not buy it from that store.

II: New Store Shopping

Basically I do very little shopping at new clothing stores but here are my thoughts on this. To each their own, if you want to buy all of your clothes at cheap, mass produced, new clothing stores then that's fine, I just hope when you're done with them you recycle them by either donating to a thrift store or selling to a second hand store like Buffalo Exchange, but it's not for me. Don't get me wrong I would love to say I never buy clothes or accessories from these stores, but I do. Maybe one day I will be able to say that, but for now I have a few guidelines I try to stick to. Above all I ask myself how often will I wear this item? If the answer is at least once a week or every freaking day, then if it is reasonably priced ( to me that means $30 or less) I'll probably buy it. Buying things this way makes me feel a tad better about me contributing to the production of new goods because I am going to get a lot of use out of it and I know that if I ever stop wearing it then I will donate that item to avoid it ending up in a landfill. Another thing I try to think about is where was this item produced? I feel a lot more comfortable buying locally made things mainly because it's a safe bet that it was made humanly and if nothing else it definitely did not produce as much pollution to get to my doorstep. That's why I love American Apparel so much because all of there products are made in the USA. That's pretty much all I have to say, I am actively trying to buy less new products but I'm only human, sometimes I even give in and buy $1 clearance earrings from Wall-Mart ( in my defense it had a bird on it! And if this did not make you laugh then you should get on Netflix and watch Portlandia immediately!).

So this is a lot of words and my brain is starting to melt so I'll just leave you with this song that basically sums up everything you need to know about shopping at new stores...