As in
When you think that it’s 10 years from the Rana Plaza collapse of a garment factory building that left 1134 people without life in the name of clothing. Not Fashion, but clothing.
What shall we do?
Do anything: ignoring it is no longer ethically, or socially accepted.
Stop buying shit.
Pledge to reduce your carbon footprint. There are many ways: from air drying your laundry to buying second-hand/Vintage/pre-loved; from refusing to buy anything with polyester in it to wearing and re-wearing, mending, fixing, upcycling, and altering what you have in your closet; from switching wardrobes seasonally to working with a personal stylist.
Do a beach clean up, a closet cleanup, dig in your own trash.
It starts with one, the only wrong move is the one that you don’t take. My most difficult step was pledging not to buy anything for three months. It’s like when you take antibiotics and cannot have that end-of-the-day glass of wine, it sucks but then it’s over and you’ll feel better.
Wide leg denim
and no you don’t need a LV bag to make it look good
WHAT I AM THINKING OF BUYING THIS WEEK
My make-believe shopping cart this week had socks for open-toe sandals and baggy wide-leg jeans.
FIRST
Mid-calf socks for open-toe flatform sandals. They need to be thin, as in high-thread fiber, sheer, not sparkly, they can be fluo-colored or greige. The look is as specific as it can be, an aesthetic: an A-line skirt or culottes or a shirt-dress, it needs the perfect balance of tailored and girly or it’s a batshit hot mess.
Falke (of course) is the OG and Gallo if you are in Italy. I discovered these smooth silk socks from Artemesia though and they seem promising.
I still don’t have the sandals, I probably will be settling for Marni flatforms. TBC.
SECOND
It’s another aesthetic: these jeans that are baggy, wide-leg, and voluminous, high-waisted, and barrel cut or sitting on your hip bones.
For now, I am in love with Haikure a brand I didn’t know of and discovered thanks to an IG friend who has the most exquisite taste, a fantastic wardrobe, and knows more than me about all things fashion, brands, designers, and showrooms.
THIRD
Disclaimer: I am a member of a selected R&D group for DEHIYA, plant-based skincare Imagined in Morocco, Made in California. Their lip & cheeks tint in Nymph and CBD-infused Biru balm are my lifesavers. Now that the secret is out, go out and buy both of them profusely. They are committed to sustainability, no BS allowed, their natural ingredients are ethically sourced, their packaging and shipping are biodegradable. You know that I am not big on makeup, yet the gals at DEHIYA revolutionized my relationship with skincare. More so, the experiment of wearing colors that I’d never dare wear, made me realize that I had a snobbish approach to makeup. “We don’t wear makeup” is one of the chapters of the book and it’s as inaccurate and insincere as people saying “I don’t follow fashion” or “Fashion is frivolous”. We all make a statement with what we wear and how we care for our skin and hair. So in a week from hell, when my menopause went haywire, this was the opportunity for a great breakthrough.
Sandals
+ socks, not any socks though
I lovE
Pigmented lip and cheeks tint. Spaghettini al dente. Classical music while driving calms me down and averts road rage. Asking questions. Getting dressed. Netflix The Diplomat specifically the script.
I hate
Panic attacks. Absence of empathy. The concept of dressing up, because from dressing up for an occasion it has become dressing up to pose for your fake life on IG and then you can go back to being lazy with your sweatpants. Sweatpants. Influencer models that pose laying down porn like à la Kardashians (yep, I said it).
Italian waters
Catch of the Day
La torta coi bischeri is Tuscan torta that everybody claims was born in their city, which means a civic war. The thing is it’s delicious, it has cocoa powder and rice and pinoli and I like seedless raisins in it pre-softened in rum or sweet wine. So when you travel through Tuscany and find it in a dessert cart, try it, but wholeheartedly avoid engaging in the conversation about its provenance and say YES or Mmmmhhhh like you would with your stubborn right-wing uncle at Thanksgiving dinner. You are welcome.