Pregi e difetti di And Just Like That tra tematiche woke e LGBTQIA+: un pastrocchio di buone intenzioni?
Pregi e difetti di And Just Like That tra tematiche woke e LGBTQIA+: un pastrocchio di buone intenzioni?
All’inizio mi sono rifiutata di vedere lo spin-off di And Just Like That perché lo pensavo scontato e stantio (come avevo scritto in questo post). I motivi per cui pensavo non mi piacesse è perché i due film degli anni scorsi sono stati orribili, brutti e non hanno raccontato bene le protagoniste come la serie degli anni Novanta. Questo spin-off ha dimostrato che la storia di Carrie Bradshaw,…
The image depicts the human civilisation wich is concentrated on trends and being a customer. The smoke is a result of explodion in every hot point on the Earth where people are dying every day. The mallow flowers are very common in my homeland Ukraine where one of a hot point is located. Bones depict a death which we bring everywhere with our steps. Rooster feathers were used in many cultures to decorate hair-dos and clothing which is a metaphor of our desire to cover problems and crimes.
Many of us have grown accustomed to getting what we want, when we want, and the clothes we wear are no exception – the latest fashions are usually easily accessible and readily available in the developed world, for the right price.
Now more than ever, customers look for sustainability when shopping, despite the increase of damaging industries such as fast fashion, which are overproducing and polluting. This is because of the many benefits that sustainable shopping offers, including the lack of slave labour, fewer pollutants and of course, the use of organic and renewable materials.
The reputations of most high street fashion retailers are tainted by the staggering human costs of making the products they sell. How has Marks & Spencer managed to be a gentle giant?
A garment worker takes part in M&S’ ‘Labour Link’ mobile phone survey | Photo: Courtesy Marks & Spencer
LONDON, United Kingdom — A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. In fashion’s global supply chain, that link is the unethical state of its garment factories.
“In Cambodia I met with workers who are fainting in their workplaces due to malnutrition and exhaustion, sometimes over a hundred at a time… I went to Sri Lanka last year and met 70 factory workers who had all been fired for joining a union, after they asked for their annual pay increment to be paid.” Anna McMullen is the policy director at Labour Behind the Label, a co-operative that campaigns for garment workers’ rights. She reels off the problems like a round of gunshots: “Poverty pay; excessive working hours; repeat short-term contracts and casualisation of the labour market; systematic and violent undermining of freedom of association; dangerous workplaces.”
Since the late 1980s, western fashion brands have taken their production on a tour of the globe — first to China and, then, to poorer countries, such as Cambodia and Bangladesh. The geographical trail went from West to East, but the real journey was a race to the bottom, in search of factories that could offer the lowest costs. The brands created ripples of new jobs in the markets where they established production contracts. But media reports of unethical working conditions crashed in waves upon the shores they had left behind.
In the UK, Marks & Spencer is not only a household name but something of a cultural institution. ‘Marks and Sparks’ is where much of the nation buys its school shirts, first suits and, famously, its underwear. In addition to its 798 stores in the UK, M&S has also opened 455 stores in international markets, including Western Europe, India, Russia, China and the Middle East.
But like most high street clothing brands, Marks & Spencer’s 2,000 third-party suppliers are largely based in the developing world: 50 percent of its production is based in the Far East; 30 to 40 percent on the Indian subcontinent (the remaining 10 to 15 percent is made in Europe). And yet, M&S is confident that its supply chain is ethically sound. How?
In 2014, Ethical Consumer magazine named Marks & Spencer the most ethical high street fashion retailer. It was one of only four clothing companies included in Ethisphere’s 2015 Most Ethical Companies list.
“When Rana Plaza happened, there was a big panic from lots of retailers,” said Krishan Hundal, who is responsible for ethical sourcing at Marks & Spencer. “We didn’t panic. We’ve been dealing with some of our factories in Bangladesh for 15 years. We know every factory, when it was last visited, who was there and what the standard is. It sounds obvious but it’s still quite unique!” According to Hundal, M&S has 60 factories in Bangladesh, which a local team visits twice a week.
Through long-term relationships with suppliers, closely monitored by local teams, M&S has made the prevailing system of garment manufacturing march to its own ethical tune. Take subcontracting, often cited as a core cause of human suffering in the supply chain. When vendors sub-contract production to other facilities, the brand that placed the original order is often left with little clue as to where — and under what conditions — its products are made.
“That was the problem at Rana Plaza,” said Fiona Sadler, head of ethical trading at Marks & Spencer. “Most of the people that were sourcing actually didn’t know they were in there.” Factories working for M&S can use sub-contractors — but only if M&S has inspected, audited and approved that sub-contracting facility first.
“Many companies will go round to audit a factory and point out everything that’s wrong and then just walk away and say, ‘See you in six months’ time!’ And the poor factory’s left thinking, ‘What do I do now?’” said Hundal. After an audit, M&S sends in one of the 27 full-time compliance managers in its regional teams, who draws up a corrective action plan and supports the factory to act on it.
When we have a very good factory on ethics, they also deliver outstanding quality: they have less returns, less rejects, less issues from our customers.
Back in 1999, M&S was one of the first companies to publish global sourcing principles, outlining standards on ethical issues, from protecting workers’ unions, to working hours, wages and safety, signed by then-CEO Peter Salsbury.
In 2007, M&S launched ‘Plan A’, an ambitious initiative that now includes over 180 commitments on social and environmental issues and reports its progress each year. Under Plan A, M&S has trained half a million workers on employment rights, healthcare and financial literacy since 2010 and every supplier factory has had its building structure independently assessed. The company also carries out anonymous mobile phone surveys of workers to unearth any issues not visible in audits. In 2014, 75,000 workers in 40 factories participated in this scheme.
According to Claudia Coenjaerts, president of the Fair Labor Association, publicly traded companies like M&S often struggle to invest in ethical policies: “It seems easier for privately held companies to make decisions that come at a cost.” But even though M&S has had a tough few years — in January, the company reported its 14th consecutive quarterly drop in clothing sales — its CEOs (formerly Stuart Rose, currently Marc Bolland) have stuck by Plan A as a non-negotiable part of the business.
“Plan A proves that an effective sustainable business plan ultimately delivers value for shareholders,” argued Mike Barry, director of Plan A. “Last financial year, it delivered a net benefit of £145 million.” When it launched, Plan A was predicted to cost the company £200 million over five years. By 2013, M&S reported that it had saved the company £320 million.
“When we have a very good factory on ethics, they also deliver outstanding quality: they have less returns, less rejects, less issues from our customers,” said Hundal. When M&S grades the performance of its suppliers, it gives equal merit to sustainability as to commercial and technical improvements. “It’s very difficult now to keep your staff in some countries where there are becoming potential labour or skills shortages. The only way you’re going to protect those garment workers is if you treat them really well.”
This begins with a ‘living wage,’ generally defined as that which enables a worker to cover basic costs of living. According to Anna McMullen, legal minimum wages in Bangladesh are around a quarter of what would be considered a living wage.
M&S has created a buying tool that calculates a living wage, which has been factored into the prices it pays to factories in Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka. M&S’s Ethical Model Factory programme in Bangladesh also aims to “ensure the cost price benefits are paid to workers.” In the first three pilot factories, worker absenteeism dropped by 85 percent, while staff turnover fell by 65 percent. As a result, productivity increased, leading to a rise in salaries between 12 and 42 percent.
While Labour Behind the Label ranked M&S in its highest tier of companies taking action on implementing living wages, questions remain about how M&S factors these wages into pricing. In 2014, the company’s sales of general merchandise — mainly clothing — were £6.1 billion. M&S clothing generally costs more than retailers such as H&M and Primark, but on items such as knitwear the company has similar price points to brands such as Uniqlo and Gap, which have been the subject of labour scandals on poor pay.
“Without worker involvement in holding suppliers to paying this, or scrutiny over the calculation, how can we know that these aren’t empty promises?” asked McMullen, who challenged the company to publish the actual wage figures that are paid by its suppliers.
In response to prolonged financial woes, Marks & Spencer is now increasing the direct sourcing of its products in a bid to keep up with its competitors. Though M&S targets an older consumer than most high street chains, the discrepancy in speed is clear: M&S adds new products to shop floors every four to six weeks; H&M and Topshop do so at least once a week.
“We set up our supply chain for our brand values,” said Hundal, noting that operating without clear forward planning can make things “difficult” for suppliers. “Obviously some businesses are much more ‘fast fashion’ than we would be.”
Indeed, fast fashion’s practice of buying in irregular orders with quick deadlines to respond to fluctuating demand and keep up with changing trends exacerbates problems like excessive overtime and replacing full-time staff with casual workers (to whom employers pay less benefits). Will speeding up production require that M&S reshape its ethical policies?
“We’ve just said, our approach to ethics is our approach to ethics,” said Krishan Hundal. “We can’t deviate from that.”
I’ve got this ramie dress that doesn’t really suit me. It fits, but the shouldersare too wide and the skirtpart looks weird on me. I usually wear skirts with a lot of volume because skirts without it look wonky because of my scoliosis.
The fabric’s lovely though, so I decided to rework it into a shirt.
The project:
The dress is made out of a woven fabric. It has no closures and is meant to slip over your head. The short sleevesand rounded collarhave been shaped with pleats. It came with a sashto be worn around the hips, which I forgot to photograph.
[ID: a light brown ramie dress hanging from a wooden hanger in front of a white background. The dress has short sleeves and a round pleated collar.]
I indicated my waistandhipson the dress with a chalk line, then drew a third line about 5cm below the hips to serve as seam allowance.
Icut off the bottom of the dress at the third line.
[ID: a light brown dress lying on a black and white chequered floor. Three horizontal pink lines have been drawn on it with chalk: one at the waist, one at the hips, and one 5cm below the hips.]
Theshoulderswere slightly too wide for me, so I used a small pleatsimilar to the ones used at the neckline and sleeves to make them smaller. This made the top much more flattering on me. I also hemmed the bottom edge.
[ID: a light brown dress lying on a black and white chequered floor. The skirt part has been cut off right below the hips.]
I put the project aside for a while to think about embellishmentsas the top was rather plain, and ended up settling for a lace trim at the neckline.
I recently received a parcel of leftover lace from a fellow sewist who was clearing out their stash, and found the perfect beige lace trim. The colourwas lighter than the original fabric, but complimentedit well. I had just the right amount for this project.
If you’re looking for cheap/free notions, do as I do and look around in buy-nothing groups and on second-hand sites. You’d be surprised what you’d find. This particular parcel cost me €15 and contained almost a kilo of high quality lace. It’s a win-win situation: the seller got some of their money back, I have enough lace to last me ages, and these trims actually get used instead of thrown away.
[ID: a light brown shirt lying on a wooden floor. The bottom edge has been hemmed, and beige pointy lace has been sewn around the rounded collar.]
I still had the original sash from the dress. I was considering sewing it onto the top at fist, but I decided to keep it separate. That way, I can both cinch the top at the waist or keep it loose and tuck it into high-waisted pants or a skirt.
[ID: a light brown shirt lying on a wooden floor. The bottom edge has been hemmed, and beige pointy lace has been sewn around the rounded collar. A sash lies on top of the waist of the top and has been tucked underneath the top.]
All done! All it needs now is a good washto get rid of the chalk lines.
Theexcess fabric is now in my sewing stash: it’s great quality, so I’m sure I’ll find some use for it.
Conclusion:
There was nothing wrong with the original dress, but I just didn’t wear it because I didn’t like how it looked on me. Instead, I now have a topthat flatters me and goes well with the rest of my wardrobe. It’ll get much more use this way.
Fibre crafts are very labour-intensive. This is why crocheted/hand-knitted items by indie designers are priced the way they are: you’re notjust paying forthe materials. You’re also paying for the hours that were needed to design and make the item. Even if the designer were to price those hours at minimum wage, they still add up.
Fast fashion strives to manufacture items as cheaply as possible. A lot of different things make up the final priceyou pay at a shop, such as design, materials, shipping, packaging, marketing,… Labouris only a fraction of that price, and garment workers rarely get paid a living wage as to keep the prices down.
Take this seven part TikTok breakdown of a crocheted Target bikini top by Drea’s Hook, for example. After replicating part of the top, she estimates it would take about 3 hours to crochet the full item by hand (and it was crocheted by hand). That doesn’t even account for the materials, the labour needed to sew the lining and the tag, the design, shipping, stock photos,… Yet it only costs $22. If the person who crocheted the top was paidat all, it can hardly have been more than a few cents.
Stolen designs:
On top of labour exploitation, there’s been multiple scandals regarding fast fashion brands stealing designs by independent crochet artists such as Knots & VibesorLoupystudio, among others.
Design theft not only profits off the work done by the original designer withoutany form of compensation in return, it also devaluesthe work needed to make an item.
Theaverage person doesn’t know how much work goes into making clothes. When fast fashion brands knock off original designs and sell them for a fraction of the price, it propagates the idea that the original item was priced unfairly. After all, why would someone charge €250 for a sweater when you can buy a similar one for €15 at H&M? This way, the industrykeeps getting away with exploitingits workers while indie designers struggle to get by.
Caneveryoneafford to pay that €250? No, of course not. Even that €15 sweater can be a big financial hit if you’re on a budget, and we all need clothes to keep us warm in winter. But practical issues aside, I think we can all agree that everyone deserves fair compensation for their work.
Conclusion:
People often assumetheir clothes have been made by machines. This is a logical assumption given the average fast fashion price tag, but unfortunately it’s a wrongone.
Sure, we’ve got sewing and knitting machines and all other kinds of mechanical helps, but someone still has to work those machines. When an item has to be made by hand, like crochet, it will take longer. If the price tag doesn’t reflect this extra labour, then neither will the worker’s wage.
This blog will never shame anyone for buying fast fashion. Even if you’re aware of the problems within the industry, there’s plenty of valid reasons why quitting just isn’t an option for most of us. We’re stuck in a broken system that we cannot change overnight, and not everyone has access to alternatives.
That doesn’t mean we can’t chip away at it.Educating yourself about these issues is a big first step. It makes us more conscious about the clothes we wear and the labour and resources that went into making them, which in turn motivates us to take action. If more people were aware of these problems, the industry would be much less likely to get away with them.
I’ve had this old pair of high-waisted shorts for years. While I love them, I don’t nearly wear them as much as I’d like because they’re rather plaincompared to the rest of my wardrobe.
My closet has a lot of frilly lacy things these days, so I figured it was time to update these shorts to make them match the rest of my clothes better.
The project:
This project was simple: I just looked through my lace stash for a trim that would be a good match to my shorts, decided on the placement, and sewedit on.
[ID: a pair of beige high-waisted shorts lying on a wooden floor.]
[ID: an end of off-white cotton lace lying on top of beige fabric.]
[ID: a pair of beige high-waisted shorts lying on a wooden floor. Off-white lace has been sewn along the pockets, the edges of the legs, and the sides near the shirred parts of the waistband.]
Conclusion:
If you’ve got clothes you love but never wear, ask yourself why. Sometimes the solution can be as simple as embellishingthe item to fit your styleagain.
All I did was add some lace to these shorts to make them feel brand new and to make them easier to combine with the rest of my wardrobe.
Projects like these are why I never throw out lace. Aesthetically speaking, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. But if you like it, it makes for a veryversatile tool to update clothesandhide imperfectionswith.
Knowing how to knit buttonholes always comes in handy.
This article by Lovecrafts will show you five different ways to knit a buttonhole, including the yarn-over buttonhole, the double yarn-over buttonhole, the single row buttonhole, the no-buttonhole buttonhole, and the afterthought buttonhole.
i am so tired of ppl not watching the video and rbing with their ignorant opinions going on abt “dress for your body type” and shit like…. that’s not the point. the point is that almost everything deemed trendy and attractive is awarded these qualities BECAUSE they are worn by tall, skinny and usually white bodies.
if y’all had bothered to watch the video, you would’ve seen the comparison between gigi hadid wearing denim shorts and a regular ass shirt and a normal fat woman wearing the exact same fit, and how drastic the reception was for the latter. it’s the exact same outfit, nothing revolutionary or new, i can’t even call it fashion—denim shorts and a t-shirt. yet the fat woman was mocked relentlessly online and said she looked like a racist, while miss hadid was praised for being a trendsetter and a fashion icon.
and not for nothing but y’all have to shut the fuck up abt dressing for body types. it’s bullshit. women should be able to wear whatever the fuck we desire without needing others’ approval for whether or not our bodies are attractive enough for you to let us get out of the house or post pictures online. the most important thing is that YOU like what you’re wearing and YOU feel confident and comfortable in your outfits and your expression of yourself. wear a long skirt “even if” you’re short. wear 6 inch heels “even if” you’re 6 feet tall. wear crop tops and hot shorts and backless dresses “even if” you’re fat. cover up and take off whatever you want as long as you like what you’re wearing.
I am so tired of fashion rn, finally someone said it. These trends are for skinny women
If i may throw my 2 cents in. Im no expert but I am a nerd who likes fashion and likes to study it… To whatever that may mean.
So, the irony that the lovely lady who made the video got ripped apart is hilarious and id feel bad for the people who missed the point if i didnt also think they were stupid.
So fashion, in the more modern sense anyway, has kinda always been this horrible size obsessed nightmare. Before standardized sizing, you drafted the patterns yourself, and made your clothes/had them made to your exact measurements. When you go to fashion school, they teach you figure drawing and sewing. In both of these you are creating your garments for thin, tall mannequins and models. Dress forms in fashion school come in one size and one size only. Now this isnt actually the worst thing simply for the fact that its easier to judge and properly grade when you are working with the same thing (same figures and measurements), so i do get why fashion school does this. However, in my very limited understanding as i have never been to fashion school, there is no classes or any kind of education on how to dress or draw “real” (ie an average person) people or how to build garments that suit their body. I have even heard stories about students being told to stop drawing larger figures because thats not how things are done.
Which essentially leads to the point of the video - fashion is made for the tall, thin, super rich and is not made for the average person. The only times you really see people who arent that 1 body shape/type, is when they are put into the box of plus sized and dress in the way that these oppressive jerks expect them to dress (loose, flowy, boxy garments that hide everything because god forbid you have even a little back fat roll peeking out from under your top).
Im not plus sized (maybe in sewing patterns but those are way more fucked then standard sizing), but i am curvy with a smaller chest and wider hips, the pear shape if you will. Im also short. I have some rolls, stretch marks, and scars all over from like living. My body, because genes, has a decently even weight distribution (meaning and extra fat is distributed all over rather then just in the stomach or legs or whatever). My waist is only 30 inches, im not that big, and i could not wear and look “good” in the outfits shown in the thumbnail.
Now i use and think the whole body shapes/types and dressing for your body is a good guideline. But thats just it, they are guidelines. Guidelines that are sold to us as absolutes because fashion is made for the tall and thin. The sucky thing there is anyone who isnt that feels shamed, and anyone who IS that is shamed. The fashion industry is a producer of shame in all sense. Trends exist to keep the cycle going so that no one feels quite ok when shopping, so that the shame can continue and the industry can continue to make money off you. Because trends will always exclude one or more groups of people, who will be shamed for being off trend and thus will try to be trendy, only to be shamed for not looking right.
Fashion brands and retailers profit from our shame and purposefully teaches its professionals and students to not be inclusive. Plus sized people need their clothes built differently, i need my clothes built differently, but they dont know how. Because to make clothes that actually fit people and fit them properly, would stop the shame and stop their cash flow.
Wear whatever you want. Learn to sew so that you can alter your garments to fit YOU and make YOU happy. You are more then deserving of feeling good about yourself and what you wear, do not let this bs industry hurt you.
I’m getting slightly off topic, but during my costuming program, I was one of the few people who didn’t do a fashion design undergrad. The difference in skill level was very telling.
I was behind the curve when it came to actually constructing garments. The other students had three continuous years of sewing under their belts, and I could barely keep up.
But pattern drafting/fitting? I was not only on-par with them, in some ways I was even ahead. Because the costuming world makes clothing for individuals, not set sizes. You need to be able to work with many different body types. The fashion students were basically re-learning everything from scratch. The process is THAT different.
Prior to mass production, clothes were made to fit our body. Nowadays we’re expected to make our bodies fit the clothes.
I love online shopping. I am extremely introverted, so I’m thrilled any time I can get something done without leaving my house. I buy pretty much everything, from food to books to school supplies, on Amazon.
I also really like clothes. I especially like cute, unique clothes that I know won’t look like what everyone else is wearing. I would describe my personal style as something along the lines of “vintage femme meets storybook witch,” so as you can imagine it’s rare for me to find clothes I would actually wear in my local TJ Max. Online shopping is amazing for finding that perfect piece to complete your outfit, especially if you have a more “eccentric” style. For several years now, I’ve been getting almost all of my clothes from Amazon or other online retailers (but mostly Amazon).
… And then, a few months ago, I read an article about the 2013 Savar Building Collapse. A clothing factory in Bangladesh collapsed and killed over 1,000 people, including children who were employed there.
Buy less - fashion is the world’s second most polluting industry and the world consumes 80 billion pieces of clothing each year.
Choose well - second hand or ethical and sustainable fashion are good alternatives to the largest employer of women globally (80% of the world’s garment workers are women), where less than 2% of women workers in Colombian mines, Bangladeshi factories, or Vietnam textile mills earn a living wage.
Make it last - Doubling the useful life of clothing from one year to two years reduces emissions over the year by 24%.
Is it just me or are fashion trends hyper-exaggerating gendered traits again, especially in women’s fashion?
I find it frustrating because I’m transfeminine and I just don’t do well with clothing that emphasizes narrow waists and broad hips, because I don’t have them, and a lot of the clothing doesn’t fit me. With high-waisted shorts or pants they’re either too tight on the waist or too loose on the thighs. Give me 2000′s fashion with low-to-mid-rise stuff that is a bit more boxy looking. I only need to fit it on the hips and it doesn’t go up much higher than that so it doesn’t matter what size my waist is. With that style, at least I have a chance of finding a pair of shorts or jeans that I can actually fit into and maybe I’ll even look good in them. If the shorts have a tendency to ride down, a common problem with that type of clothing, I can just wear a belt. Also, I just like the look and feel of this era of clothing better.
Nothing against people who legitimately prefer the clothing of today, either for aesthetic reasons, or because they find it fits their body type better. That’s great for you. And I get that for many people, because of their body shape, the clothing of today with all the high-waisted stuff legitimately does fit better.
I just have a huge problem with a fashion industry that fixates on a single, narrow range of “trends” at a given point in time. And of course it sucked in the 2000′s for the people who really wanted high-wasted stuff and it wasn’t available.
Like why can’t companies just make a range of fashions available all the time? It makes me so angry. It’s like the same shit of like how there is something that I like all the time (like narrow-wail corduroy pants) and some years I can find them in stores and other years I can’t, because they’re “in” some years and “out” other years.
I hate it so much. I wish I could do something to stop it, I wish I could wave a magic wand and make all the people who are forcing these trends on society and then getting rich off them, to lose their jobs.
And yes, I also am a bit puzzled at the “sheep” (no offence to actual sheep I love sheep) who just fall prey to the marketing and who don’t actually have any opinions about what clothes they actually like. Like in the 2000′s everyone was buying low-rise shorts and jeans and thinking they were the coolest thing ever, and the past 10 years everyone has been buying high-waisted shorts thinking they are the coolest thing ever and I just don’t get it. Like…we still have the same range of body types that we’ve had all along, there is no rational reason to like one style in one decade and another style in another decade.
And it’s frustrating to me, because seeing all these people around me buying into trends that I don’t like, and that don’t work for my body type, kinda pits me against others around me, even my friends. Like over the past 10 years I’ve been basically hammered with women raving about how high waisted shorts are so wonderful, they love them, they love how they look, blah blah blah. And it’s hurtful to hear that because I lived through the 2000′s and I heard everyone talking back then about how high-waisted stuff looked frumpy and they hated it and I saw everyone buying and wearing the low-waisted stuff and loving it and thinking it was the hottes thing ever, so I know that these people aren’t really forming their own opinions. Yet by everyone buying all the same stuff, in a sort of mass groupthink, it hurts me during the times when the things I want go out of style. The stores stop stocking and selling the stuff that I want to buy, the stuff that I can wear and that works better with my body type.
Does this have something to do with me being neurodivergent, the fact that I notice this stuff and it bothers me and 99% of the other people don’t seem to notice it?
I don’t know. I hate it though and I really wish I could get more empathy and support for feeling the way I do about this. And I wish people would be more resistant to the fashion marketing and other social phenomena that create trends. Trends are not just harmless phenomena. They hurt. And they can be especially hard on trans people when a particular trend comes into being that doesn’t work as well on trans people’s bodies.
Disclaimer: This post is long. I couldn’t make it any shorter–I tried. And it didn’t make sense to break up into a series. Apologies in advance. :)
If you’ve been reading The Evangelista since its beginning last August, you’ve probably noticed a not-so-subtle shift in content, especially during these past few months. Lately, instead of outfit posts or personal shopper posts or “pinspiration” posts, I’ve been writing about emotional and psychological health,learning to trust in God’s love,paying attention to reality in dating relationships, and other such “serious” subjects. Not exactly typical fashion blog fare. When I started The Evangelista, I fully intended to keep my posts light and fun and pretty much only about style and shopping, but the Lord had other plans (as He so often does).
Some of you may have asked if this is just a temporary hiatus or a permanent change, so I thought a post was in order to explain just what the Lord has been doing in my heart regarding clothes and shopping for them, especially this past year.
As I’ve said before, this year has been a year of Revelation for me: God has revealed His love to me in a new way, and in so doing has revealed more of me to myself…if that makes sense. One of the major revelations was that I was holding certain elements of my life back from him because I didn’t trust in his love. The first area that I finally handed over to Him was my vocation and my desire for marriage. When that finally happened, I thought I was in the clear. Surely there wasn’t anything else I was trying to control in my life? (Ha.) Wrong. Slowly but surely, Jesus began to show me a sphere of life that I had never ever EVER surrendered to him, primarily out of fear but also out of sheer selfishness and vanity: my money and the way that I used it.
I’ve long thought it providential that God called me to be a teacher in part because the limits of my salary have kept me from buying as much as I would probably have bought had I been rolling in the dough. I grew up in a fairly wealthy family where I never lacked for anything that I really wanted; my parents didn’t satisfy our every whim by any means, but I always had more than enough cute clothes. I see now that for the majority of my life, I associated wealth with security and even–to a degree–with happiness. When I was an unhappy child and teenager, one of the surest ways to put a little pep in my step was a new dress or pair of shoes. Not surprisingly, this bled over into adulthood.
When I became a teacher seven (!) years ago and got lots of compliments from my students on my cute clothes, I justified filling my closet with more and more stuff, all the while not saving any money and tithing the bare minimum. After all, I rationalized, I HAD to look cute or my students wouldn’t pay attention to me! My focus was on quantity, not quality, and on being able to wear something different every day, and on being the “best dressed” at school, among my friends, etc. Of course I NEVER would have said that out loud, or even thought about it consciously, but now I realize that this is what I was doing. And it was out of insecurity: I was living as if I didn’t have anything else to offer to my students and friends and potential suitors but my fashion sense.
He does dress better than I do…what would I bring to the relationship?
Fast forward about a decade to last August. When I started The Evangelista, I was no longer an insecure post-graduate in her early twenties, but I still had some very bad shopping habits and a consumeristic mentality that needed to be broken. As you can imagine, starting a style blog didn’t really help in the short term. I put a lot of (completely unnecessary) pressure on myself to keep up (insofar as my teacher’s salary would let me) with secular style bloggers in terms of having new clothes on a regular basis. I signed up for emails from countless stores, checked Pinterest with almost obsessive consistency, and read dozens of style blogs a day. All of this simply fueled my consumeristic tendencies, and I was shopping more than I ever had before. Each time one of those boxes full of goodies arrived in the mail, I got that same old feeling of security and pleasure.
In March of this year, something happened. Or rather, a lot of things happened at once (as is usually the case when we’re talking about Divine Providence). I’ll only name the two most important. First,Pope Franciswaselected as the 266th successor of St. Peter.My undying loyalty to Papa Benny notwithstanding, Francis immediately won my heart and my allegiance as his spiritual daughter and, true to form, I read everything he wrote or said or whispered. And he said (and continues to say) a LOT of things about being poor. And about being a good steward of one’s money. And about living simply. And, because he’s the Pope, I listened (note: Pope Benedict said the same things, but for some reason it has been harder for me to ignore Francis…probably because my heart was ripe for this conversion).
Wait a second, you might be thinking, Jesus said a lot of things about being detached from material things and selling what you have and giving it to the poor–why wasn’t that enough for you?! Great question. It should have been. But I’m weak, as are we all, and thankfully Jesus knew that when he appointed Peter to be the rock upon whom He would build his Church and through whom He would continue to “feed his sheep” when He was no longer on earth. Francis is the successor of Peter, so he reminds us of what Jesus taught while placing it within the context of the place and time in which we live, in such a way that makes it more difficult for me to rationalize my way into a different interpretation of Jesus’ words that gets me off the hook. All of this is to say: Pope Francis’ election was the beginning of the end of my shopping addiction.
The second big thing that happened is that the Holy Spirit convicted me in a profound way that I couldn’t ignore. It was Corpus Christi Sunday and I was praying before Mass, meditating simultaneously on Pope Francis’ witness and the really cute skirt I had just purchased, when suddenly I was filled with an overwhelming sense of guilt. Guilt for all of the money I’d wasted on myself, on things I didn’t need–money that I could/should have spent on others whom I love or on the poor or given to the Church. Guilt about the conditions of the workers who made my clothes and the fact that I had been blithely participating in a wildly consumeristic culture–and encouraging others to do so!
Being the sanguine I am, this kind of conviction rarely happens, so when it does, I pay attention. The worst part was, I knew that I had known ALL of this on a deep level for a long time but had been ignoring my conscience. It was horrible. I felt sick. Fortunately, one of my favorite priests was available for Confession immediately following Mass. I left the Sacrament feeling so free. Free to use my money and my material gifts for God’s greater glory, not simply for my pleasure. Free fromthe hold that, unbeknownst to me, my incessant need for “stuff” had on my life.
Here I am wearing the Dress of the Summer. I’ve worn it at least once a week for three months. It’s been wonderful.
As soon as I got home that afternoon, being the choleric that I am, I went through my closet and filled five, count ‘em five, garbage bags full of clothes, shoes, and accessories. A few days later, I drove them to a local crisis pregnancy center, and the look on the volunteer’s face when she saw everything only served to deepen that sense of freedom.
Since then (that was the end of May), I’ve removed myself from all retail email lists, unfollowed quite a few folks on Pinterest, deleted all but three style blogs from my Feedly, and haven’t shopped. At all. And the craziest thing is that I don’t miss it. I haven’t even had the desire to shop. (If any of my good friends or family members who know me well are reading this, you know that this is a HUGE deal.)
This outfit will definitely be on repeat this fall.
I recognize that this is a major period of grace in my life and that once fall rolls around, I will miss shopping a bit more than I do currently, but for now I am enjoying the freedom that comes with not worrying about buying anything new because I already have everything I need.I have all of the basics for a professional wardrobe, have plenty of outerwear and casual clothing, and that is AFTER getting rid of five bags of clothing. When I need something new, I’ll buy it, but in the future I’m going to try to stick to the following shopping “rules”:
1) I will pray for three days before purchasing any item of clothing, in order to discern whether or not I can justify buying it.
2) I will try to buy second-hand or gently used clothing at consignment shops when possible.
3) If I buy something new, I will do my best to purchase from small companies who treat their laborers with respect for their human dignity.
4) I will not allow myself to cut into my tithing budget or my savings to pay for clothing. (Yes, I used to do both of those things.)
This one too.
So, where does that leave The Evangelista? I still love express my desire for beauty through the way I dress and I still care about not looking like I’m stuck in 1995, so that hasn’t changed. But I won’t be primarily blogging about clothes and such anymore. This transition has already begun, thanks to all of you and the feedback I’ve received on my most recent posts. The beautiful thing is that I didn’t decide one day that I was going to stop writing about fashion–the Holy Spirit moved in my life and simultaneously gave me opportunities to write posts like “Stop Guarding Your Heart and Start Paying Attention to Reality”. Gotta love Providence.
In the future, I will only be posting when I am moved to share the Beauty I have encountered in my life while trying to follow Jesus and His Church, failing to do so, and starting again after receiving his forgiveness and mercy…with a healthy dose of “Hey Girl” memes thrown in for good measure. :) I figure that God allowed me to make the mistakes I did and suffer in the ways that I have in order to share the Good News that He can redeem it all and replace the ashes of life with so much beauty. Sometimes that will mean two posts a week, others three, sometimes only the links round-up on Friday (which I can’t quit because I have so much fun putting them together). I’ll still post links to (ethically produced) shops and such on my Facebook page, photos of the occasional outfit on Instagram, and I will happily answer any and all style (and life) questions via email.
Whew. That was probably the toughest post for me to write yet (yep, even tougher than the therapy one)! Thank you so much for reading! Let’s pray for each other: that we can resist the glamor of evil and the false promises of security that the world gives us and cast ourselves completely into the arms of God, trusting that He is all that we need.
Blessings,
Christina Grace
P.S. If you have any questions about this post or want more details (believe it or not, the above is the abridged version of my story), please don’t hesitate to emailme!
I’ve chatted about how the best way to combat the fast fashion industry is to wear what you have…however with more wear comes more tears, and instead of throwing out the garment and getting a new one, its very simple to mend and alter your own clothes (regardless of your ability)
In this way you can very easily increase the longevity of your clothes
Some General Fixes/Alterations that You Can Do
Sewing on a button, fixing a rip or tear, shortening pants, shortening shirt sleeves, cropping shirts, lengthen pants, expand the shoulders of tops, re-size bras, painting or drawing on clothes
General Supplies
Thread
Needle
Buttons
Extra Fabric (you dont necessarily need to buy new fabric, use scraps from old projects, or cloth from old clothing items)
If it is within your means, a great way to help the environment is to support environmentally friendly, ethical brands! Instead of shopping at stores that dont put an emphasis on sustainably sourcing and making their clothing and paying/ treating their employees well, these companies/clothing outlets put a lot of effort into being transparent and eco friendly.
VOCAB (definitions from Wikipedia and Study New York)
Fast Fashion: an approach to the design, creation, and marketing of clothing fashions that emphasizes making fashion trends quickly and cheaply available to consumers
Slow Fashion: designing, creating, and buying garments for quality and longevity
So What?
Many times in fast fashion, corners are cut in order to make sure that the garments remain cheap. This may mean that the fibers used to make cloth are sourced unethically, harmful chemicals may be used, factory workers may not be paid very much, child laborers may be used, and/or one type of clothing may be mass produced to a hugely wasteful extent. This is not healthy for the workers or the environment.
Why is Slow Fashion Better?
Slow fashion is better in the long run because, while you may be paying more money for the garment, the workers will be paid well, the company will focus more on their environmental impact, and you will have a piece of clothing with much better quality and longevity. Having higher quality clothing that lasts longer is good for the environment as well, as it decreases the need for new clothing items.
Stores to Watch Out For
H&M (unethical)
Abercrombie & Fitch (unethical)
The Gap (Old Navy & Banana Republic) (unethical)
Walmart (unethical)
Forever 21 (unethical)
Stores to Look Into/Fast Fashion Alternatives
Everlane, Patagonia and PACT are a few slow fashion clothing brands that I have heard some very good things about!
Since these are price-y, some other alternatives are: reusing clothing you already have, buying off DEPOP, buying from thrift stores, making your own, maintaining a capsule wardrobe (there are lots of great vids on YouTube) and upcycling :)
Overall, it is not yet in my means to shop at ethical stores. Some ways I combat fast fashion are: shopping for clothes infrequently (I usually only buy things I really really love or that I really really need), looking in thrift stores before looking elsewhere, and altering clothes I already have
