Thursday, June 11, 2009

The Fashion Show --girl cooties post

(from squirrel-monkey.livejournal.com)

Wow, our young designers were, as expected, perplexed by the task of designing flattering clothing for average women. James Paul, who I liked up until then, whined that he doesn't do average. ANother one was outraged at the very existence of people with 45 in hips. Thinly veiled contempt abounded, and Isaac Mizrahi awesomely called one designer sizist. Oh, Isaac Mizrahi. I love your Target dresses because they presuppose existence of breasts on people who would wear dresses.

On another note, I wanted to give shoutouts to places that do not despise their customer base -- most of these are independent and women-owned. Quite a few offer environmentally friendly options. These tend to be a little pricier than Forever21 and Target, but I would rather save money for an occasional custom-made high-quality piece by an indie designer. And I do believe in acknowledging people who do a great job.

So, for clothing I like:

Ruche -- indie, woman-owner. Available organic clothing and great affordable accessories. Downside: most clothing have limited size options.

ModCloth -- same as above, with slightly higher prices on average and an occasional vintage item. Great shoes.


Econica
-- one-woman custom made organic clothing. Can be pricey, but oh so worth it. I have one of her wrap shirts in bamboo/cotton jersey, and it is so comfortable and beautiful.


Dinwiddies
-- a female designer, very offbeat, uses a lot of reclaimed fabrics, does custom work. Very quirky, but if you are me, it is also AWESOME.


Ledthread
-- another offbeat designer with a strong esthetic. Her specialty are obi belts and tunic dresses. A little on the pricey side, I only have one belt from her. But it is gorgeous and a statement piece that gets a lot of mileage.

Vintage clothing:

I am partial to Greasy Waitress, Artifactory, The Vintage Closet and Gossamer Wings Studio. But really, there's tons of vintage on Etsy. I really like vintage because it is so environmentally friendly, cheap, and you can get amazing pieces.

Other things: of course I adore Sock Dreams for their excellent selection of socks, gloves and petticoats (yes, really) and their larger-person friendly attitude and free shipping. Can't beat that.

For beauty products, Global Goddess is my newest love -- especially their amla hair treatment. It is a miracle in a bottle. And of course Lush cannot be beat for anything bath-related, and Heaven and Earth Essentials carry and amazing line of artisan soaps.