Thinking About Summer Dresses

We had such a cold and rainy weekend that it hardly feels like the time to think about summer dresses, but that's still the wardrobe category that's been on my mind recently. NYC tends to be hot and humid in summer, and it doesn't cool down much at night. Outside of days when I'm adhering to a more formal dress code for work, I generally wear very light dresses throughout the season, often somewhat flowy and relaxed-fit, in summer-friendly fabrics: typically linen, cotton, silk, rayon, and blends thereof. (If it's a casual dress, the lining also needs to be made of one of those summer-friendly fabrics, I've become a stickler about that detail.)

I find these casual summer dresses are generally the most fragile items in my closet. Out of any other category of things I've added to my wardrobe since I started documenting all my purchases in January 2015, my summer dresses are the most likely to have experienced significant wear and tear. 

Probably unsurprisingly, given the nature of the material, silk and silk-blends are particularly fragile. My casual dresses in silk that have a front center seam have an unfortunate tendency to start tearing at the bust, away from that seam (perhaps because my top-heavy figure causes a bit of strain to the fabric there; cross-body bag straps may also be a factor). I gave away my Everlane short sleeve silk dress from April 2016 to my younger sister around 2018, before the tear could really develop. In 2019, I clumsily sewed up the tear in my Grana slip dress from November 2017, though I'm not sure how much longer that dress has. I also have another Club Monaco silk dress from before 2015 that I've mostly retired due to similar issues. It's enough that I should probably have learned by now that unlined silk or mostly silk dresses with a center seam are just not a good idea for me! Oh, and there are also little rips in the embroidery at the hem of my Madewell silk-cotton dress, which I bought used back in May 2017, just because I wear it so much. Though that's a more superficial bit of wear and tear that's easier to live with. 

I generally don't have great luck with laundering rayon, so with summer dresses in that category, the wear and tear is mostly from laundry mishaps. I machine-wash most of my clothes in cold water in a mesh washing bag to protect it - and then line-dry it all on a drying rack - but some rayon items still mysteriously and randomly shrink up from that gentle treatment, sometimes after months or years of previously being washed that way with no ill effect. I lost two H&M rayon jersey dresses that way, and also an Old Navy dress in "smooth" rayon, they all shrank up so much they became indecent to wear outside. I do my best to avoid 100% rayon clothes as a result of these experiences, but I can't guarantee I'll be able to stay away from all rayon blends, now that they're so common at various retailers. 

Resoling my L.L. Bean Boots, Round Two (with Before and After)

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My previous post about getting my L.L. Bean duck boots (I wear the 8'' style with Gore-Tex and Thinsulate lining) resoled currently happens to be my single most popular post of all time. I'm a little surprised that my post performs so well in the Google search results about getting Bean boots resoled, but I suppose it's because relatively few people out there spend that much time thinking about - or, more importantly, writing about - this mundane bit of routine wardrobe maintenance! 

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When last I sent in my beloved L.L. Bean boots for resoling, it was after I had worn them frequently - almost every day of the week from December through March or April - for two years. Strictly speaking, because I grind down the heels of all my boots so quickly, I could have made a case for sending them in at the end of the first year. By the end of the first winter, the textured rubber on the heels of my boots had already been worn down so much that almost half of it along the outer edges - the part that hits the ground most heavily when I'm walking, I assume - was completely smoothed out, enough that my foot could slip and slide a bit on damp tile or marble, or if the sidewalk is icy. Nevertheless, I held on until the end of the second winter, after which the yellow rubber at the heels was completely worn through, and the dark brown rubber under the soles was visible, and also starting to get worn down. In short, it was clearly past time to send them in for resoling. 

Please follow the link below for "before" and "after" photos, and a quick note about the current price for resoling the Gore-Tex/Thinsulate Bean boots:

Laundry Tales

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Although I have strong opinions about my laundry and how my clothes should be washed - I can't envision a scenario in which I would entrust the task of washing my clothes to anyone else; and now that K and I have experienced the profound luxury of having in-unit laundry in our NYC apartment, it's something I'll never want to give up so long as our budget allows - I don't actually write about laundry or "clothing care" that often. Admittedly, even with all my strong opinions and somewhat quirky preferences, there's not actually that much to say. Laundry is simply not that complicated!

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Plus, it's not like I'm an expert on laundry anyway. I can't fully vouch for the necessity of many of my preferences about what should be hand-washed, versus what can go in the machine. Fabrics that other people generally have no trouble with in the machine - provided that items are washed carefully, most likely in cold water,  preferably in a mesh baggie, and then line-dried, in my case on a drying rack drying rack (exact) indoors - have a history of shrinking in the wash on me. By this, I'm referring mainly to merino wool sweaters. (Over the years, I've had the most heinous luck with merino wool sweaters from the J.Crew or Madewell-ish price point.) Furthermore, I still have not the faintest idea about how to get stains out of silk without damaging it.

And if at all in doubt about whether I can wash something at home without causing damage, I'll send it out to the dry cleaner. More structured, expensive items like my suits, my wool-blend coats, and my cotton twill Everlane trench coat (current version) all go to the dry cleaner as a matter of course. I'll probably also send my cotton, polyester, and merino wool-blend J.Crew Sophie and Juliette sweater blazers to the dry cleaner as well, as I don't know if they'll hold their shape well if hand-washed. (Though, after wearing those frequently last fall/winter, none of them have needed cleaning yet.) I don't end up at the dry cleaner that often, mainly because none of these items need laundering that much, but I also don't see any likely alternative solutions for those items.

Today's post is all about laundry, a chore I quite enjoy. I even enjoy hand-washing things, though it can be a bit time-consuming, especially if I've let a backlog of items accumulate. (I hand-wash clothes in a Rubbermaid dishpan in the bathtub or the bathroom sink. I bought a bottle of Laundress Wool and Cashmere Shampoo for sweaters and Laundress Delicate Wash for everything else while I was still in law school, and am still using those bottles today, even though it feels like I hand-wash things frequently. I often put a capful or two of white vinegar in with the detergent as well.)

In particular, this post is about a few laundry-related questions that were giving me some trepidation, some of which I now have answers for, some of which I still don't: How do I wash my down coat? Does that secondhand Tory Burch stretch cotton poplin dress I bought last year actually need to be dry-cleaned? Why is some viscose or rayon so poorly behaved and unpredictable in the wash? Spoiler alert, I don't have an answer for that last question.

A Year Later: The Shoes of Spring/Summer

Outside of my trusty FitFlops, the vast majority of the shoes I currently wear in the warmer seasons are approximately a year old. I bought my trusty Sam Edelman Loraine loafers in black leather (now on sale in limited sizes) last May, the same month I bought my somewhat impractical Soludos llama slip-on sneakers in pale pink canvas (discontinued, but discounted in navy blue or burgundy velvet). I'd bought my M.Gemi Felize in gold shimmer-effect leather that March (discontinued, similar gold leather). I also bought a pair of Rothy's Points last June, and was really hoping they'd be as durable for me as they are for many of my colleagues, such that I'd still be wearing them now. But alas, that was not to be, and I got barely a few months of heavy use from them before they started developing holes in the outer edges, the way all other ballet flats also tend to do on me.

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That was a lot of shoe shopping in just a few short months last year, but part of my rationale was that I wanted enough pairs that I wouldn't need to wear the same ones two days or more in a row, in hopes of getting more longevity from my shoes than I did before. Now that I've had most of my spring/summer shoes for a year (the Sam Edelman loafers also get worn in fall/winter, but not the rest), I thought it was a good time for an update on how these shoes were doing, whether I was actually getting a longer lifespan from them than before. Unfortunately, perhaps because of the styles I choose, or my wide feet and my manner of walking, or because I don't yet do much work to maintain my shoes, this update won't sound too impressive or exciting. While I don't think I'll need any new shoes for spring/summer this year, I don't expect that the shoes I currently have for those seasons will last too much longer into next year, particularly if I need my shoes to be presentable-looking at work.

Sam Edelman Loraine loafers, black leather: These have gotten the most wear by far, as I also use them frequently in fall-winter, so long as there's not too much slush and ice on the ground. I've gotten them reheeled once, within the first three months, but they haven't needed another visit to the cobbler since, though they'll need another trip there soon. In terms of physical condition and sturdiness, these loafers are holding up fairly well, having only accumulated a few small scuffs, just normal wear and tear. As I observed when I bought them, they're made of a very soft, pliable leather which makes them fairly comfortable if they fit your feet well, but likely isn't as good for their durability. In terms of aesthetics though, the leather is starting to look quite worn-in and dull because I haven't done anything to maintain them, outside of the one time I got them reheeled. (Not sure if this is the type of thing shoe polish is good for, as I'm completely clueless about shoe care and maintenance!) 

If I'm not able to learn how to maintain these loafers better, then I'm not sure how much longer they'd stay presentable-looking for work. It'd be a pity if I couldn't spiff up the leather a bit and get them looking better, since they've otherwise proven to be comfortable and sturdy. One additional note: From my experience with the gold glitter version, which are made of fabric rather than leather, the fabric ones are not as durable. A rip developed last month long one of the seams on one of my gold glitter loafers, and I'd generally only been wearing them once a week since I got them, so they hadn't seen anywhere near as much heavy use as my leather ones, which have not had this problem. 

M.Gemi Felize, gold shimmer-effect leather (similar): I'm very careful with these and never wear them out if there's any chance of rain, so they generally only end up getting used once a week, a little less often this year because we had a rainy start to the summer. I'd never before owned a pair of driving moccasin-style loafers with rubber pegs instead of an actual sole on the bottom, and I was a little concerned these shoes would wear out very quickly, but they haven't been too terrible on that front. It was only towards the end of last summer that some of the rubber pegs near the heel started getting close to being so worn down that the leather on the bottom of the shoe would start rubbing against the ground soon. The outer edge of my right shoe is also starting to rub against the sidewalk a little, thanks to my wide feet and the way I walk, though it isn't too close to developing a hole yet, it's just that some of the gold shimmer-effect on the surface has started to rub off. I think these shoes will last through part of next summer if I continue wearing them once a week-ish, though not too much longer than that.

As someone who doesn't have remotely adventurous tastes in shoes, I continue to find M.Gemi's business model perplexing, because it seems to be so focused on constantly developing trendy new styles, colors, and leather textures, including the shimmer effect on my loafers. They so rarely stock their more classic designs, like this Felize or the similar Pastoso, in neutral shades of leather. (I continue to resolutely avoid suede shoes of all kinds because I think they wouldn't do well on NYC's super-grimy sidewalks.) Even if M.Gemi's bread and butter is weekly releases of limited runs of exciting new styles, I suppose I'd imagine that it should still be a no-brainer to also consistently stock more classic, neutral shoes as well, since I'd have assumed there'd always be a market for those more "boring" designs, the kind that almost never go on sale from other brands either.

Soludos llama slip-on sneakers (navy velvet, burgundy velvet): Similar with the Felizes, I also try not to wear these out if there's even the faintest chance of rain. I'm almost more careful with these than the Felize because the pale pink canvas is so prone to getting dirty! I ended up wearing these about once a week last year, but have only used them once this year because we had such rainy and unpredictable weather for a while. As with the Sam Edelman loafers, when it comes to the physical condition of these slip-ons, they're holding up well. The only flaw they've taken on now is aesthetic, that they're already looking noticeably dingy despite infrequent wear, as can be expected due to their light color. With the llama applique and the cork-looking insole, I doubt these could be machine-washed like some other sneakers.

With slip-on sneakers like these, I'd expect them to be durable enough to last through a good long period of frequent wear, at least if they weren't a color that's prone to showing dirt and dust. I suppose I should have learned from that mostly-white pair of Keds I wore a lot back in 2015 to 2016 that slip-on sneakers in light-colored fabric are just not a very functional choice when one lives in NYC and does a ton of walking! I'd be better off with something like the black leather Vans I wore from 2016 to 2018.

Rothy's Points, gray birdseye: Well, I don't have these anymore because they weren't capable of enduring a full year of frequent use at my hands! It was such a big disappointment too, because they're not cheap, and they do also have some noticeable advantages over most other ballet flats I've ever tried. So many of my women colleagues really love these and have been wearing theirs frequently, including on their commutes, for ages, certainly well over a year. I'd hoped I would have a similar experience. Alas, I think it's just the way I walk, I grind down almost all of my ballet flat-style shoes with remarkable speed, in as little as a month or two of frequent wear. On me, these Rothy's points lasted around three months of 3-4x/week wear before they started developing holes in the outer edges.

I would still recommend Rothy's to other people who don't destroy their ballet flats the way I do. They're remarkably comfortable for a ballet flat, I was able to walk around NYC and stand in them all day most days, which I can no longer do with other ballet flats. I also loved how light and easily packable they are for travel. Being machine-washable (cold water wash and air dry only,  I'm told that any exposure to heat will cause them to shrink) was a huge plus, though because they're made of recycled plastic, they did make my feet sweaty, and the shoes would get quite smelly very quickly between washes. Being plastic and machine-washable, exposure to rain will not cause lasting damage, though I did hate how they felt on my feet when they were damp, so if I got badly rained on during my morning commute, I'd need to switch to other shoes at my desk for the rest of the day. (And they generally wouldn't be fully dry yet by the end of the day, when it was time to head home.)

What does a proper shoe care and maintenance regime, particularly for good leather shoes, look like anyway? I'm eager to learn, and any suggestions would be much appreciated (and of course, the internet provides many easily found and helpful resources for such things, which I'll also look into). Additionally, I'm still daydreaming about someday having a pair of those famous Gucci Jordaan loafers in black leather, after seeing, on another woman while we were both in an elevator, how much sleeker and more chic they looked compared to my well-worn Sam Edelmans. But I wouldn't dare buy a pair of shoes that fancy if I hadn't first learned to take scrupulously good care of them first!

March 2019 Shopping Reflections

Now that the weather's starting to warm up, I've been thinking a lot about summer clothing. As I can't help but emphasize several times every year, I don't particularly enjoy dressing for our long NYC summers. It tends to get hot and humid fast, with barely any days of balmy spring weather, and then I insist on wearing only fabrics I consider warm weather-friendly (cotton, linen, silk, or rayon) as much as possible until mid or late September, whenever the temperatures start descending rapidly.

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Once I'm sure that warm weather is here to stay for the foreseeable future, I'll need to start taking steps to do some maintenance of my winter gear. It's now been two long fall/winter seasons since I last had my L.L. Bean boots (with Gore-Tex and Thinsulate) resoled, and it's high time to send them back for another round. (Fun fact, my post about resoling my Bean boots is my single most popular one, because it gets, by far, the most Google search traffic. Alas, most people who come across it have no interest in the rest of my blog!) It's also long past time to launder my down coat (don't think too hard about how long it's been, but in actuality it simply doesn't get dirty easily, even with frequent wear). I think I'll be machine-washing my coat, and machine-drying it with some tennis balls tossed into the dryer to fluff it up. Wish me luck!

I tried on a few other things this month that were less summer weather-oriented, but was disappointed to find that those items, some of which I had really loved the idea and look of, didn't work for me at all. That was mainly the Rachel Comey Mars boots, which run very, very small (I sized all the way up from my usual 7.5 to an 8.5 and could only barely get them on due to the lack of zipper) and just weren't the right shoe for me, and the MM. LaFleur Etsuko dress in blue and black brush jacquard print, which didn't fit me right at all, as I'm just too busty. I was quite sad neither item worked for me, as they're both so pretty.

Fashion - (TOTAL: $69.80)

• Uniqlo x J.W. Anderson Wrap Skirt, navy blue - $39.90 - Longtime readers may recall that the last time I bought skirts from Uniqlo, it turned out poorly. Those skirts were too voluminous, and one flared out too much at the waist. There were also too long, close to being maxi length on me. I also didn't like the synthetic-blended fabrics, which made the skirts unsuitable for hot weather. When I wore one outside briefly in summer, just to run a quick errand and test it out, it started feeling a bit like a non-breathable fabric tents that held in hot air. This time, I have a clearer sense of what I'm looking for, I've been thinking about midi length wrap skirts or slip skirts, ones that wouldn't have as dramatic an a-line silhouette. This skirt seems to have been designed to be knee-length, but it's midi length on my relatively short-legged 5'3'' self. Plus, it's 100% cotton. I'm optimistic about this purchase, but we'll need to wait until the weather warms up to see if it turns out well and I actually reach for it often. This is a true wrap skirt, so it runs the risk of being fussy to put on, but I found it easy to work with when I tried it on a few times at home. Because it's so adjustable, I found the size S and M to both look very similar, though I picked the M because I wanted it to be potentially more forgiving in the waist if needed. 
• Uniqlo Linen-Blend Short-Sleeve Blouse, blue - $29.90 - I really wanted the white version of this or the linen-blend button-down short sleeve blouse to work for me, but I found both white blouses slightly too sheer. I wasn't going to keep this blue one, but after trying it on with jeans, I thought the slightly lighter and brighter than navy shade of blue was very pretty, and that it made for a nice contrast with jeans. I've generally been pleased with the durability of Uniqlo's linen-rayon blend fabric (those long open cardigans I bought last year and loved so much have a similar fabric composition, and they're still going strong) and find it to be comfortable to wear during the height of NYC summer. Both of these Uniqlo linen-blend blouses run quite large and have a lot of room in the body, and they can both flare out a bit from the widest point of the chest (a little bit of that "boob tent" effect I'm sensitive to, as a fairly busty person who is otherwise smaller-framed). But because this blouse is a bit shorter in length than the button-down and because of the sleeves and the look of the light, breezy fabric, I'm okay with the overall look of it, that effect is not as pronounced as with the other blouse. 

I found this to be a very reasonable shopping month, though of course, I still have most of the year left to go, so I can't be too proud yet! Although it might look like I'm thinking about a really large number of potential purchases, certainly far more than I could ever need, a lot of those images sort of represent many different possible ways of getting at an idea for just one or two actual potential additions to my closet, maybe one new summer dress, whether it turns out to have sleeves or not, whatever the silhouette or color (I find all my summer dresses fairly interchangeable in terms of the role they play in my wardrobe, even ones with dramatically different looks), and one or two new tops and skirts for summer. And sometimes I'm mulling over multiple colors of the same thing, or something like that, or thinking about many different possible ways of indulging in just one really fancy purchase, and only after I've moved some other things around in my budget.

How was your shopping month? Are you starting to think about clothes for next season? Do you have a preference between dressing for winter or for summer? I'm a winter person all the way, though of course, once the cold temperatures set in, I complain about that too, the same way I do about summer heat and humidity. Comfortable temperatures simply don't last very long here, so I'm fussing about the weather most of the year!

Resoling my L.L. Bean Boots

At the moment, I'm wrapping things up at my current job, planning some travel, and getting ready for my new, exciting next job. I hope to write more about all of that later, but today's post will be a very quick one, a follow-up post on how my well-loved and well-used L.L. Bean boots have aged, how to get them resoled, and how much that costs. Edit November 18, 2019: I've now had my Bean boots resoled again, and I wrote an additional post with before and after photos. To the extent that you're interested, please follow this link.

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I recently sent in my L.L. Bean boots with Gore-tex/Thinsulate for resoling. I've had them for two years, and I put them to heavy use throughout almost the entire period from November to March each year On weekdays, I generally spend forty minutes plus walking on city sidewalks as part of my commute and while running errands. That alone isn't inherently hard on shoes, but I always grind down the heels of my boots remarkably fast. I end up resoling my go-to Sam Edelman Petty booties twice a year, for instance. I wore my Bean boots through two winters, and even at the end of the first, the rubber sole was seriously worn down at the heels. By the end of the second, I'd worn through the yellow rubber soles at the heel all the way down to the second layer of gray rubber, which made the shoes more prone to slipping. In short, it was long past time for resoling. 

There isn't a streamlined process for getting L.L. Bean boots resoled. I emailed customer service, and it took a few days to get everything set up. L.L. Bean currently charges $39 to resole the non-insulated boots; $42 to resole the Gore-tex/Thinsulate boots; and $43 to resole the Thinsulate boots. They ask you to mail them in to an address they provide, enclosing a note with your contact information and shipping address, as well as a check or your credit card information. I spent about $12 shipping in my boots with the cheapest USPS option, and they sent my boots back for free. There isn't any kind of confirmation email or tracking info for the return shipment. My boots reappeared approximately five or six weeks after I sent them in. The soles look like new now, and I'm very pleased!

As for how my Bean boots are holding up otherwise, they're doing great, with no serious signs of wear other than at the soles before the repairs. I don't subject them to much except walking around in the sometimes very slushy, salty NYC streets, but that can be pretty hard on some boots. If I had to go back and do it again, I'm not sure if I would still pick the Gore-tex/Thinsulate boots, as they felt rather heavy and stiff when I first got them, more like serious snow boots than I was expecting, and even now, two years later, they still feel that way a bit. It's not something that fully goes away with the shoes being broken in. (At the same time, the non-insulated ones wouldn't suit either, as I've gotten used to having warm feet without needing to get special socks for winter.)

For the other Bean boot lovers out there, how have yours been holding up? Am I just unusually hard on my boots, needing one resole or reheel per season of hard use, generally, or is that the typical experience?

Review: The Laundress Products

 

Earlier this year, I mentioned that one of my personal style resolutions was to start taking better care of my clothing and to use alternatives to dry-cleaning whenever possible. I still dry-clean my suit separates and some of my nicer dresses (and am still a bit leery of putting "dry-clean only" labeled viscose items through the wash). Otherwise, I now machine-wash many a polyester or cotton business-casual dress that I previously thought was dry-clean only and hand-wash all of my sweaters and silk tops. I've been using products from The Laundress for about two months now, and I thought it'd be a good time for a review.

I picked up the Stain Solution and the All-Purpose Bleach Alternative to use in combination to try and freshen up some well-loved white clothes that had gotten progressively dingier over the last few years of normal machine-washing. I confess that I'm not always the biggest stickler for separating most of my lights and darks, outside of keeping red items and white items separate.

The instructions recommend making a paste of the Stain Solution and Bleach Alternative and applying it to stains before soaking the item in hot water. I've used the mixture on antiperspirant stains and other marks on silk tops, cotton tees, and polyester-blend dresses, and it has done a good job with everything, with a few small exceptions. I had one cotton skirt with some mysterious stains of unknown age and origin (a previous dry-cleaning didn't get rid of the stains either), and the Stain Solution-Bleach Alternative blend wasn't able to get it out either. When I purchase from The Laundress again, I might want to buy the Wash and Stain Bar to see if it makes a difference on particularly set-in stains.

For whites clothes, I then rinse out the stain-removal mixture and soak the item again in hot water and the Bleach Alternative before eventually throwing the item into the washing machine with my next load of laundry. Combining the two steps was enough to brighten up the white clothes that had gone dingy. 

On Quality

via Pinterest

Many people have discussed the trend of the declining quality of clothing. I even personally know it to be true: J. Crew is a frequently-cited example, and that's consistent with my experience, where things that I bought five years ago are still going strong while new silk tops and sweaters at the store are of noticeably worse quality. 

Yet I've never found that clothes, even those from the most fast fashion of retailers (like Forever 21) are particularly low quality. I can probably count on one hand the number of items that I have discarded solely because low quality led to them getting prematurely destroyed by normal washing or wear and tear: There was a pencil skirt from Banana Republic that, in hindsight, felt lower-quality than their usual at the time of purchase (like an outlet item that they accidentally put on the racks at a "normal" store, if that happens). Then there was a pair of red skinny jeans from Forever 21 that stretched out dramatically on the first wash. Furthermore, I've only ever had one item actually shrink in the wash: a J. Crew wool cardigan that would have been fine if I hand-washed it instead. Considering that I've been shopping for almost a decade (and primarily at the likes of Target and Forever 21), it isn't too bad. It certainly isn't enough evidence to substantiate an epidemic of profoundly noticeable declining quality.

Outside of those examples, I've found that those fast fashion clothes all seem to be of fine enough quality. Things that I wear very frequently (sometimes more than once a week throughout most seasons of the year) generally last for nearly three years at least. Things that I wear less frequently seem to last almost indefinitely: I get rid of them because I get tired of the styles, not because of signs of wear.  Maybe it helps that I machine wash all my clothes with cold water and line-dry most items? Beyond that, isn't it natural that clothes start showing their wear with a few years of semi-frequent use? 

I guess what I'm getting at is that I really don't know what the "quality" of earlier days actually looks like. I agree that true quality, whether of materials or construction, likely requires higher retail prices, as explained in books like Deluxe and Overdressed. Yet, if most fast fashion survives three, four, even five plus years of wear without showing dramatic damage, on what basis is that kind of "quality"meaningfully different from more elevated types? I imagine that the average fashion-conscious consumer could conceivably get tired of an item long before it wears out. Essentially, I'm wondering if the concept of truly timeless "quality" I read about and sometimes aspire to might be a bit of an elusive concept. (It is also not easily accessible without significant disposable income.)

Make no mistake, I still feel considerable responsibility to cut down on my consumption of fast fashion, though I also talk often about the budget constraints that could get in the way. Additionally, in the contemporary retail environment where expensive brands also try to cut costs, price is certainly no guarantor of quality (the comments on both posts I linked earlier include many examples). It can be frustrating to be a consumer that values quality and more ethical production because even when one is willing and able to pay, it seems to be very difficult to identify truly high-quality brands and collect information about how items are produced. 

In closing, I have a few questions that might present some food for thought: How long do you expect your clothes to last? How often do you throw away clothes because of quality issues? How old are the items you throw away? Have you noticed problems with declining quality at the retailers that you frequently go to? 

When Everything Needs Replacing

Maybe I'm just grouchy because I'm getting tired of winter and of snow, but lately it feels like too many things in my closet are breaking down or in need of replacement sooner than I anticipated.

My two and a half year old "everyday" boots have a hole in the leather upper and are probably unsalvageable. One of my "everyday" earrings, a nearly three year old pair of modestly priced pearl studs, keeps falling off the post and superglue is no longer doing the trick. My fleece lined tights are showing their wear because they're my only pair and they're two years old. Alas, it is not a good time of year to find a reasonably priced pair online. Neither my size nor my color are generally available for less than $20 a pair. My almost three year old down coat (vaguely similar to this one in price and design) has some really annoying design defects (the cloth gets stuck in the zipper and the hood has never stayed up) that feel increasingly obvious.

I'm sad about the boots. I paid $20.00 to resole them in November, declining a $45.00 deal that would have included cleaning and weatherproofing in addition to resoling. I thought the boots were too beat up (very noticeable salt and water stains) to be worth the maintenance costs. I was thinking yesterday that I might like the boots enough to go through with the cleaning and weatherproofing after all. I examined them and realized there I had worn a hole into the side of one. No wonder it still leaked despite the recent resoling. 

I really shouldn't complain. Winter will still be going strong for another month or two, but I have a pair of rain-boots and a pair of riding boots (which went through the $45.00 treatment) that will see me through the season. Replacement for the boots might need to wait until the fall this year. I might like a pair of waterproof duck boots then, but now is not the time. I can replace the earrings and that fits in my budget. If I get desperate, I can probably figure out the fleece-lined tights situation. The coat can definitely wait until winter next year, and maybe longer. 

Still, it isn't a great feeling when a lot of things seem to need replacement all at the same time. I am forced to wonder if spending my money more carefully on the boots and the coat would have helped me avoid the need for replacement this soon. Do you have anything in your closet that's crying out for a replacement? Was it a surprise? Or was it something you already anticipated and accounted for?

Style Resolutions: Maintaining my Clothes

via Pinterest

One of my style resolutions for the year is to learn more about and spend more time on caring for and maintaining my wardrobe. For now, I am focusing on laundry and ways to avoid dry-cleaning whenever possible. The vast majority of my clothes are suitable for a business-casual wardrobe: a lot of lined pencil skirts, sheath dresses, cardigans, and the like. I also have a particular fondness for silk clothing. All in all, I have ended up with a lot of items that are labeled as "dry-clean only," but dry-cleaning in NYC is hardly cheap and it ends up being a disincentive to wearing a lot of my clothes. Some items also languish for weeks after a few wears until I can get the items to and from the dry cleaner. 

I have previously grown accustomed to hand-washing my sweaters and cardigans (I wear too many for dry-cleaning to be practical) and a few of my more casual silk tops. The method I have been using is alright, but I am not entirely satisfied with it. In particular, I have been reading that Woolite might not be the ideal detergent for hand-washing delicate items. My general practice so far is to follow the method described here on the Martha Stewart website and I use Woolite for detergent.

The general idea is right, I think, though it might not be the most efficient procedure. (At the same time, it doesn't take too long and isn't too difficult to keep up with if I set aside time for hand-washing a few items about once every week or two.) My main problems are that I have not figured out how to deal with residue from deodorant in the armpits of my sweaters. Also, I feel like the Woolite sometimes doesn't rinse out cleanly enough, even after two full soaks in clean water. Finally, using this process and Woolite with my bras doesn't seem to work well over time, nude-colored bras start to get dingy, the bras don't feel that clean, etc. 

There is going to be a bit of a learning curve. I decided to purchase some of the products from The Laundress, namely the Wool and Cashmere Shampoo and the Delicate Wash. It was a bit expensive when compared to any laundry detergent I have ever purchased in the past. I had read about some cheaper alternatives such as using baby shampoo, Eucalan, or diluted Dr. Bonner's castille soap, and perhaps I will look to those alternatives in the future. For now, I was comparing the cost of  the Laundress products to the alternative and higher costs of dry-cleaning more regularly. 

My hope is that I will stop taking most of my sweaters and silk items to the dry cleaner and that I can eventually get comfortable with using the Laundress products to machine wash some of my delicate and wool items as they recommend in their handy "Can I be Washed" chart.  In theory, I feel like I should only have to take special items like my suits, coats, and special occasion dresses to the dry cleaner. That the suits go to a dry cleaner might not even be a given. Presently, however. I am still leery of machine-washing wool sweaters after one of mine shrank very noticeably after being put in a washing machine one time (in cold water only and in a mesh bag) even though I line dried it. Attempts to stretch out that particular sweater to its original shape during subsequent hand-washings have been to no avail. 

I will write in the future if I learn anything substantial about hand or machine-washing clothes that were previously destined for the dry cleaner. Any tips about how to care for and hand-wash (or machine-wash) more difficult items are, of course, very much appreciated!