they'll huff and they'll puff and they'll blow the house of ignorance down!
Caring about myself – whether that be my health, my job or, most relevantly here, my style – and caring about the planet that supports me should be one and the same sentiment. That I as a First-Worlder should be concerned with how I look but not give due consideration to the larger context at work is, in this day and age, willfully ignorant.
Unawareness to and complacency in the world around me is something I want nothing of. To be unaware of the world is to be unaware of myself, for I am irrevocably a product of my environs and humanity as a whole. In striving to know myself through and through, I also strive to learn about the rest of the world so that I may make informed, proactive choices. Fortunately, the illusive division between fashion and championing Earth's people and resources is crumbling faster and faster. Buying clothes isn't always an either/or situation any more. I love the leaps and bounds sustainable fashion is making; the attention to detail and construction, sometimes even the presence of drama, push such work into a realm both ethically and aesthetically desirable.
Browsing through the family-run Beklina, purveyor of increasingly distinctive and sustainable fashion, I gaped when I saw this ruched neck hoodie by Prairie Underground. Never mind the fact that my thermometer is currently registering over 100 deg Fahrenheit here in Boston (i.e., 38 deg Celsius) and I've only a fan to keep me from passing out, this hoodie would get my palms sweating no matter what the weather. Constructed from organic fleece, the sweater's face-framing puffy hood reminded me of my French Coat windbreaker that all y'all were so intrigued by.
Further digging into the Prairie Underground stock and website yields equally thoughtful articles like the youthful Funnel Neck Dress and the slouchy Moth Coat. With clothes like these as one of many growing solutions to the ethical/aesthetic dilemma, now all I need to do is figure out how to stay cool in the blazing heat....while continuing to develop awareness of myself and life.
12 comments:
K: I love these. I'm practically ready to shell out the bucks, though I should really stick to this season, non? The ruched jacket is stunning and I love that funnel neck dress too. Thanks for profiling this brand. I will have to pay attention to it going forward. K
Wow! Nice finds! (And nicely written, as always.) I'm starting to feel the same way about clothing as well as with what I eat. It's frightening to think about the path the stuff we wear or eat every day takes before we throw it out three months later or slap it on our nachos...
That's it. I'm going to put a moratorium on buying anything until I save up for that Moth Coat.
What gorgeous pieces. & given that it's not going to warm up here until mid-July, I might contemplate getting one...
I would snatch up that ruche-necked hoodie in a heartbeat if I could..cause I love hoods. There's just something so inherently dramatic in the idea of putting one up and then lowering it(not the sweatshirt kind, though). Or even in its mere presence (as in this case).
Damn, I'll take one of each from Beklina's site! Gorgeous pieces, all. Ashley Watson's recycled leather bags are positively drool-inducing ... thanks for alerting us to this great resource.
The loosely draped ruffles are beautiful!
As much as I appreciate these sentiments I fear that the world market, sustainable cloth not withstanding, is earth-destroying in nature. Most organic cottons are grown far from the factory where the clothes will be made, which is further still from the final destination.
The fact is this - as long as we demand all the clothing of the world all the time, as well as mangoes out of season and battery-powered cars (that have a larger carbon footprint as a static product than gas-powered ones), we are on a path to destroy what we have.
Lately I've had a problem buying anything new. I am by no means a saint. I recently bought a computer that travelled from China to California to me.
I guess what I'm saying is - there are no easy solutions.
K.Line: Hmmm...I say, if you know in your heart it's something you love, then seasons be damned! You'll still love it come fall, come spring, come fall again.
Marissa: Thanks! I wonder about the same things myself; I'm glad you touched on path the goods have to travel to reach us. Then there's the origin as well. With food, things like pesticides and growth hormones are no light matter. But good luck on saving... ;)
Blue Floppy Hat: The drama of the hood...where at one moment we can cloak our faces in shadow and at another be visible to all the world.
Sal: No problem!
TheSundayBest: I appreciate your comment; what you say is true. I presented the situation in a rather simplified limelight, one that by no means covered the economic, political, ecological, or social spectrums. One thing I've been feeling funny about lately is eBay being touted for vintage/2nd hand clothes, where used clothes, of course, are touted for their "green" factor. Yet we get our ebay items shipped to us, thereby using fuel for the planes and ground vehicles. Not very green, I should think. Incidentally, what is this about the carbon footprint of battery-powered cars? I don't know otherwise, but could you send a link?
It's in the latest issue of Wired. Not to be taken too literally, but more as a warning that simply replacing one consumer good with another consumer good does not the world save.
i hate to be contrary--but we stock prairie underground in the shop i work at and it's a bit bleh. :x the long hoodie is quite old lady-ish and the moth coat is incredibly awkward! again, sorry to burst the bubble but for the price point, you could do better.
Thanks, Thomas.
Taylor, it's fine to be contrary; thank you. I want to know all sides/experiences. I know photos can be misleading, though my wardrobe is actually characterized by old-lady frumpyness and awkward, strange fitting clothing. Maybe we have different definitions? One thing I could believe is that the photos render the clothes more luxe looking than they actually are.
great blog! hmm i saw a similar piece to the 1st pic on this post at h&m. i fell in love with the puffy collar but the jacket was too short to my liking ;/
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