There is something so intoxicating about traveling. About how the sound of the airplane engine rumbles, the wheels bounce against the concrete until they lift into the air and you join the ranks of the clouds. I live for that feeling. It’s magical and I’m obsessed. If you’re afraid of flying join me and I’ll make it all better. I recently took a trip to Boston. I grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I attended a private high school in Back Bay Boston and I didn't go much further for college at Boston University. Boston has a special place in my heart and every time I go back it is a very nostalgic trip.
This weeks blog post is featuring this beautiful fuchsia dress I picked up a while back at Crossroads Trading Co. I shot it when I first moved to LA and for some reason decided to keep the photos for a later date. Then when I landed in Boston and set up a time to shoot with my favorite east coast blogger and fashionista, Elizabeth of Royale Diary I felt drawn to shoot it again styled for the Boston coldness. I was then inspired by how styling varies from state to state. In LA, less is more and in Boston more is more especially in the colder months. Layers are crucial to styling in Boston.
This idea of re-styling this Place Nationale dress led me to what I want to talk about in this post, Slow Fashion. But before I dive deep into that I want to talk to you briefly about how I styled the dress two different ways.
As you know LA tends to be a bit warmer. In LA I decided to style this Place Nationale dress on with my Zara lace up booties. As I said in LA, less is more so I decided that the dress was a pop of color and expression enough that a simple booty and a casual bag was enough. In Boston, I decided to take the look in a different direction. For one, Boston is colder and the day I shot with Elizabeth is was snowing. What a beautiful day. I felt so blessed to experience the seasons in one week since I don't get much of that in LA. I got some rain and snow and freezing cold temperatures. Sounds silly but it truly made me feel at home as a north-eastern raised girl. Anyways, before I go more into the styling of the look in Boston I have to preface this with my body is so accustomed to cold weather I can get away with wearing a little bit less on those colder days. In fact for years I wore skirts in the dead of winter and snow and often times without a winter coat. Now I wear coats because my body has adjusted to LA weather and also because, you know, fashion. Like I said it was colder in Boston when I shot this look and snowing so I decided to pair it with this black floppy hat to keep my hair from getting too wet from the snowflakes. Then I threw on my staple Prada boots and American Apparel knee high socks. I’ve found as long as my feet and hands are warm the rest of my body tends to be okay. I completed this look with my faux fur coat that I found the coat at Beacons. Closet in New York. I truly miss that place heavenly designer, vintage thrift shop. What do you think? Do you like the Boston or LA look? What’s more your speed?
The key to slow fashion is falling in love over and over again with pieces in our collection and I find the main way to do that is continue to find new ways to style my go to pieces.
So you may ask, what is Slow Fashion?
Slow Fashion is the alternative to fast fashion, or what I like to think of as the solution to fast fashion. Slow fashion encourages good quality fashion, created in a clean environment and promotes fairness for both the creator and the consumer. The main objective of slow fashion is to promote sustainable, ethical fashion which then translates to sustainable and ethical lifestyle practices. The name comes from the new approach to fashion that slows down consumerism in attempt to reduce waste and respect both the environment and ethics of production of pieces.
Slow fashion encourages the production of pieces using natural, organic or repurposed materials to ensure that their life is as long as possible which innately reduces waste. Because the pieces are made well that reduces the amount of pieces a person consumes and increases the happiness value with the piece because one's relationship with a piece has a much longer shelf life. Slow fashion also encourages companies to have their manufacturing visible to their consumers so they can be accountable for their amount of consumption. Anyways those are some of the amazing perks to slow fashion.
This post mainly focuses on one aspect of slow fashion which is redesigning old clothes and learning to style them in various ways so as to increase their shelf life in your collection.
What are some ways you can become an advocate for or practicer of slow fashion? Well, it's pretty easy and you might already be doing it without knowing it. Examples of slow fashion are thrifting, buying vintage clothing, redesigning old clothing, repurposing old clothing, creating your own pieces, and purchasing pieces of higher quality that last longer.
The way we view one thing translates into every aspect of our life. Adopting a new awareness of my carbon footprint led me to adopting a sustainable fashion approach and then that trickled down to a plant based lifestyle. I believe that part of my souls journey is to love and care for the earth for those to come after me.
Hope you enjoyed this weeks blog post.