-hey, all, thanks for chiming in last week with your suggestions for smart fashion blogs! you rock. one of my favorite suggestions of the bunch (and wow, they were ALL so good!) is the oh-so relevant retail recovery. i love how it's author asks thought-provoking questions at the end of each of her entries. fashion mission astutely describes said blog, saying this (which seems to be right on):
retail recovery [is] a blog about slowing down and thinking about personal style, what inspires you, identifying style and taste and preferences, recognizing when you're manipulated, challenged and stimulated by fashion.
if only EVEN MORE blogs that dealt with fashion did the same or similar...wow!
style *can* (and should, imo) have substance.
-will fast fashion retailers, with their low-prices and high-style-turnover, ultimately be the ones to benefit from the current economic downturn? writer diana zlomislic of the star thinks so.
how does this need for and continued demand for cheaper threads from consumers in the west mesh/face off against the increased awareness of and call for ethics in the world of fashion (referring to sustainability, ethical treatment and pay of workers in the developing nations where much of this 'fast fashion' is produced)?
on a related note, did you know that, overall, clothing is cheaper now than it used to be (accounting, of course, for inflation)? (via the new york times)
-seems sort of like old news to me...but apparently more and more folks are choosing to buy their fashion online. so says the indepentent, anyway. i've been shopping online for years and years...it's just so easy, especially for hard to find items. i started doing so when i lived in the cultural and retail wasteland of north florida many, many years ago, in order to find interesting clothing and accessories, and haven't stopped. and it's great, because there's so much more out there now to be had via the web. there are cons, but overall, it's one of my preferred ways of shopping, given a choice.
how much would you say you shop online? more than you used to, or less than you used to? or, do you prefer to do your shopping in person, so you can see, touch, and sense the quality of the goods?
what would you say are the advantages and/or disadvantages of each style of shopping?
do you think that more online shopping by more people is the wave of the future? will we eventually do all or most of our shopping via the web?
-you know i like to often bring up the notion of living with less (for no other reason, maybe, than to remind *myself* to do so!)...
on that note, see this article from time: how to live with just 100 things.
how do you corral and organize your stuff? or, conversely, do you just let it all be clutter? be honest!
do you try to consciously curb what you buy? if so, how? or do you just spend with abandon and cull out stuff later when it all gets to be too much? (this isn't really about the fact that you can't spend...but that you're choosing not to spend or spending more carefully...)
has all this talk in the media and the rising trend of people claiming and showing that they are trying to live with less impacted or inspired you in any way?
since we're talking about stuff...and you:
do check out nubby twiglet's recent treatise, does your stuff define who you are?
well, does it? what say ye?
the quick and dirty:
-remember me mentioning in last week's quick and dirty that it might be cool to make a mini god's eye and wear it as jewelry? apparently i was psychic! readymade magazine posted a DIY how-to last friday in their blog on how to make mini god's eye jewelry! ha.
-check out this etsy video covering the in's and out's of stencil printing, featuring printmaker/designer lotta jansdotter. (via craft:)
-do you like african wax print fabrics, too? find more here, @ ananse village.
-make some eyeglass pins! (via indie fixx)
-more from indie fixx: their guest blogger jessica gonacha covers the subject of greener screenprinting.
-i still have berets on the brain! check out THIS super cute puff stitch crocheted beret pattern from her name was greta.
-lemon tree tales has a fab post on sewing room ergonomics. lesson: you don't have to break your back to make your duds (and other goodies)! i'm looking at you, people who cut out patterns on the floor! it's bad, bad, BAD (for you!)!