Fighting Fashionista

As I’ve mentioned, I’m obsessed with ShopStyle and becoming increasingly so the more I use it. Some of the women I’ve encountered there have amazing eyes for style. For example, I recently had the pleasure of stumbling upon (hey, good name for a website) Ereis’ stylebook, which had a link to her blog (called Rhapsody in Boots, which is a nom tres adorable imho), where she had a link to her favorite designers, which included Lorick. Amazing! Somehow they manage to incorporate nature motifs without being boho, along with proper, waist-cinching cocktail dresses that don’t look like Mad Men Costumes, alongside awesome silver and black rock and roll leggings. I particularly loved the birdie fabrick of this top. Also check out the tree fabric and the rest of the fall 2008 line here. Thanks Ereis!

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about slow fashion. If you’re familiar with the slow food movement then you probably know what I’m talking about. Fewer items, higher quality. Less H&M, more couture. There are lots of benefits to this sartorial approach: in the long run you spend less money, you’re consuming less so you’re kinder to the earth, and my favorite part is you choose your clothing more wisely, and therefore fine tune your look. You get more creative with combinations and accessories because you have to repurpose items more often.

But let’s be honest, the term “retail therapy” exists for a reason. We like the hunt and the satisfaction of bringing home pretty bags filled with lovely garments. On Saturday, I found a place where you can get a little of both worlds: Thread Lounge, a permanent sample sale. The owner, Colleen Schmidt, has two permanent stores in San Francisco and Palo Alto in California. She also has an amazing traveling sample sale that sets up shop all over the country. The store carries some of my favorite brands, like Mint by Jodi Arnold, Vivienne Westwood and Alice and Olivia. And they have a fantastic selection of $99 jeans. On Saturday they had gorgeous chashmere blanket-style sweaters very similar to the one I ordered from ShopBop with my $500 in prize winnings, but they were more than half off that price at $240. Hm, do I return the one I ordered, buy the less expensive sweater and get something else (like maybe these awesome boots) with my $500? Quel dilemma.

But I digress. My point is, you won’t find cheaply made bargains a la Forever 21 at Thread Lounge. But you will find high-end, sturdily-made indy brands, and maybe instead of just one item, you can afford two. You get your retail therapy without feeling dirty later.

So I know everyone is obsessed with the election today (as am I, I’ve refreshed Huffington Post 100 times in the past 20 minutes) so forgive me for also been obsessed with ShopStyle/ShopBop’s “Play Dress Up” contest. Apparently all that obsessing paid off because I won week number two for the “Folk Tales” theme, which came with a $500 gift certificate for ShopBop! So now I have a new obsession: in between updating HuffPost I’m purusing ShopBop and trying to decide what to buy. At the moment I’m leaning towards this lovely sweater. What do you think? When else would I ever spend $500 on a sweater? And it would be the ultimate irony (read: digusting display of excess) to be posting blog entries that no one will read wrapped in a $500 cashmere sweater, no?

I love this hodgepodge of stacked rings. Found originally it on This Is Glamorous. Now I’m inspired to build on my sapphire and platinum engagement ring and not get too matchy-matchy about it. An elegant mix of the right stones and metals can be so glamorous and so unique. Ready made stacks available from Iosselliani.

Fall is nearly upon us, and I cannot wait to don my cozy brown corduroys, retro orange cowl-neck sweater, and olive green shirt-dress. The hues are some comfort as we’re forced to say goodbye to summer. But history has shown via orange shag rugs and that very special green couch that my mother once owned that we can take earth tones too far. So what attracts us to these colors, and what’s makes them hip one decade but hideous the next?

Blame evolutionary history, not bohemian bad taste. Fall colors trigger feelings of intimacy and authenticity in our brains—something scientists say we crave in the face of this modern world’s mass production of everything from food to art.

Our attraction is evident each autumn when people spend billions to fly from China and beyond just to look at leaves. Growing on trees. Actually, dying on trees—as chlorophyll drains from the leaves of deciduous oaks and maples, their foliage turns shades of yellow, orange, and red before dying and falling to the ground. Scientists disagree on why a tree would use precious energy to produce such a spectacle—is it to deter aphids, which are repelled by red? Or do the colors provide sunscreen while trees fortify themselves for a long, cold winter? Whatever the tree’s motives, we regard autumn colors in American’s Northeast as brilliant, vivid, amazing. But compare the tones to today’s super-saturated digital photography and video, and nature pales in comparison. Still, we’re transfixed.

That’s because we see our own evolution reflected in autumn’s show, says neuroscientist and artist Bevil Conway. Sixty million or so years ago, primates evolved a third vision cone that allowed them—and allows humans—to distinguish yellow from red and green (other mammals like cats and horses have just two cone types that distinguish blue from yellow but not yellow from red and green. They don’t care about fall foliage.). The new cone was handy for distinguishing ripe fruit from the green leaves surrounding it. The third cone also helps us interpret non-verbal communications like a face red with anger, the yellow pallor of jaundice, or the red genitals of a monkey in estrus.
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Austin, Texas — My favorite show of SXSW was Kid Sister — the Kanye-approved phenom I’d never heard of who it seemed everyone else already knew all about. So I checked out her MySpace page and it turns out her song Control accompanied the Spring/Summer 2008 Marc Jacobs show. Her caption: “Dude has some cute stuff.” Indeed!

I feel kind of like an alcoholic who constantly finds herself in a bar. You might notice I used passive voice there. That’s to avoid taking responsibility for myself.

I’m in beautiful Pennsylvania as usual for the holidays, where we all have a friend. I flew into JFK, then drove to the little PA town where I grew up. On the way, I passed by a seductive collection of outlets called The Crossings in the Poconos. The prices amazing, and on top of that there is NO TAX ON CLOTHING in Pennsylvania. I just wanted Christmas presents for my mom and grandmother. An innocent endeavor! But soon I am faced with JCrew, Cole Haan, Burburry, Adidas and all manner of stores that make me wanty. I went to JCrew for a gift for my husband, but ended up getting one or five other things for myself. They had this here silk dress i coveted in the summer catalog, and yellow pants that will be fantastic on my next vacation! But everything is made in China and they don’t use organic cotton. I’m not even beating myself up as much as I should, because I really like the stuff I got. I’m just sayin, it’s not easy trying to be green when you are: 1. female, 2. in close proximity to very cheap eco-enemy clothing, 3. in a state that does not tax clothing.

That’s what I keep telling myself, because 20 percent of my purchase went towards rebuilding the West Side Elementary school in Healdsburg, California, which caught fire on October 7 causing major damage. And the rest of my money went to Arboretum (above), a gorgeous new store there that uses the tagline: Fashion. Conscious. Do you love it? I love it. But, the place is not cheap. I was not quite prepared for the grand total presented at the register. I mean, I could have bought a new iPhone. Yikes.

Nevertheless, I got pretty things that I of course above all NEEDED. I will love them and pet them and … o.k. here they are:

1. A pair of silvery-gray Edun jeans, which are made in Africa out of organic cotton. I love the one-pocket pattern (the other one is plain). They’re straight-legged and soft but sturdy enough to hold their shape and be really flattering. Check out how good these do-gooders are in this video.

2. A NatureVsFuture dress made out of organic cotton. I can’t find a picture of the specific dress, but it’s similar to this one, just not asymmetrical, (though I would not have minded that, and I love the obi!). It’s brown, cute, and really soft.

3. Another pair of jeans. These are dark blue Loomstate wide-leg trouser jeans. Also very flattering, although I’m not sure that picture does them justice. They’re super-soft and comfy. Definitely my new airplane jeans.

An epiphany I had on this shopping trip: big pockets work with more substantial backends, and small pockets flatter, well, flatter butts I fall into the former category, no doubt, and both of these jeans fall into the larger pocket category.

Last night, I learned about Linda Loudermilk. Why was I not informed of this designer sooner? Now I know how that kid felt when he learned about Bruce Lee. Love this jacket and wish to know what it’s made of. All of her designs are nice to the Earth. But she’s no tree-hugging hippie, check her out:

She channels nature’s punk energy into clothes of grace and volatility. But nature is less Loudermilk’s muse than her major mind-freak. When she patterns a jacket after a waterfall, it’s not about making something pretty to wear; it’s about holy fearsome awe.

Whoa. I like her.

So I have a confession. When I started Fighting Fashionista a couple years ago, (this is why the archives don’t go back that far, but here’s proof!) I wanted to fight for, by way of blogging, clothing (and maybe furniture and other stuff) that was not only awesome looking, but that also did not come into existence by way of human suffering, formaldahyde, or pointless animal killing. I was inspired by the now-defunct magazine Organic Style. But then I discovered it was actually really fricking hard to find hot fashion tht was also eco-friendly. Google searches didn’t turn up much, and I had, like, a full time job! So basically I got lazy and blogged about whatever the hell I felt like.

Fast forward to last night when I met Amy, who happens to have just completed a business plan for an eco-friendly clothing and furniture retail store. Now, the Fighting Fashionista is back on target, and ready fighting the good fight for real this time.