Category: Wear
The best in sustainable style, looks and influencers
Finding that perfect vintage treasure hits differently. It’s the simple pleasure of scoring that unique item that seems to have been made just for you. Every day a reader hypes up their best vintage find. Vanessa, 27, thinks her black leather boots are the coolest shoes in the room.
Among many other things, the pandemic has given us time to take a long hard look at our wardrobes, and finally do that long overdue clear out. Why not earn some extra cash by selling your castoff clothes?
Finding that perfect vintage treasure hits differently. It’s the simple pleasure of scoring that unique item that seems to have been made just for you. Every day a reader hypes up their best vintage find. Sam, 25, tells us about his treasured old backpack.
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Six cheap sustainable underwear brands
When shopping sustainably, the number one rule is to buy less overall. But there’s one clothing category where this rule can be a bit more difficult to live by: underwear.
We all wear it (unless you prefer going commando, no judgement here). But it’s one of those items, like socks, we hate spending money on. Secondhand underwear probably doesn’t sound very attractive for hygienic reasons, so to help you and your butt live a more sustainable life, Stitch Up! has rounded up our favourite affordable sustainable underwear brands.
Finding that perfect vintage treasure hits differently. It’s the simple pleasure of scoring that unique item that seems to have been made just for you. Every day a reader hypes up their best vintage find. Lauren, 23, loves the leather coat her grandma gave her.
Finding that perfect vintage treasure hits differently. It’s the simple pleasure of scoring that unique item that seems to have been made just for you. Every day a reader hypes up their best vintage find. Nassim, 23, knew he found something special in his patchwork leather jacket.
Was Clueless’s Cher on to something 25 years ago with her digitised wardrobe?
Clothes management apps like Save Your Wardrobe, Whering and Acloset might help you live out those Clueless fashion closet dreams. Many also say it’s helped them cut down on buying new, so we decided to take them for a test run.
These apps claim you can change your life by seeing every clothing item you own in one place. But when I open my wardrobe doors, this is basically what I get already. Granted, I have a chest of drawers, but it’s not as if my items are scattered around my house in such a way that it’s impossible for me to visualise my clothing collection.
Save Your Wardrobe
Save Your Wardrobe says on its website: “Users will know what is inside their digital wardrobe at all times, possibly preventing them from buying items that might be similar to the ones they already own, and reducing the number of impulse purchases.” Arguably, if you have so many clothes that you can’t remember whether or not you own a similar item to one you’re about to buy in a shop, then you have too many.
I was sceptical, but I do enjoy organising things, and I hate to think of clothing items collecting dust at the back of my wardrobe because I’ve forgotten I own them. Downloading the app is easy, but you then have to spend a good chunk of a day inputting your entire wardrobe.
As a test, I took a photo of my sunflower print skirt. I was expecting it to pick up at least some information, at least the fact that it was a skirt, but alas, I had to input all the information myself.
I like the “Services” tab, which has links to sustainable clothing brands, so if you are going to buy new, at least you can do it responsibly. There are also suggestions for where to get your clothes cleaned, repaired and altered, or where to donate unwanted items. They even have links to mending tutorials so you can upcycle things yourself.
Once the majority of my clothes were in the app, I could log different outfits, but I would rather try them on to get an accurate outfit view rather than a disproportionate collage of my different clothes items on top of each other on my phone screen.
When I remembered to check the app before getting dressed, it did make me consider new outfits. It also gave me an appreciation for how many clothes I do already own, and would probably stop me buying something new unless it was a really unique item.
Verdict: 7/10
Acloset
I was disappointed again when the AI which “analysed” the same photo of my skirt but did not come back with any information.
On the Acloset homepage there is an outfit recommendation, which uses your location to recommend based on the weather. This is helpful, but I can just as easily look out my window or check my own weather app on my phone.
There is also a calendar feature which shows you what you have worn for the past week. I enjoyed looking back at my past outfits as I do forget what I’ve worn, and it didn’t put me off repeating them.
Verdict: 6/10
Whering
With Whering, you first fill out a short multiple-choice survey about your style. The rest of the app is almost the same as the other two. There are sustainability-encouraging phrases dotted around the app (e.g. “Outfit repeating? Totally cool”) which are well-meaning but come off as slightly patronising.
Whering also has Shopping, Services and Tips tabs, but these aren’t as well developed as Save Your Wardrobe’s and only have a couple of links in each.
The app was quite slow and often shut down unexpectedly, which made for a frustrating user experience.
Verdict: 4/10
Overall, I think these apps are a good idea, if you can be bothered to use them. Making a general effort to look at all your clothes and buy less will probably achieve the same results. The less established apps feel a bit gimmicky, and it’s really just another reason to stare at your phone screen. Is this really helping or is it just a colossal waste of time? The jury’s out.
Just like trench coats, kitten heels, and cocktails with olive skewers, silk scarves always seemed a little out of reach for my unrefined tastes. Sure, my more sophisticated friends could handle accessories with a grown-up, polished allure – but I, with my band tees and oversized denim, could never.
It’s a prejudice I’ve held dear for years. But this summer, the silk (or at least silky) scarf in all its forms has taken over our Instagram feeds and the high street. Whether vintage Hermès, new-in Zara, or fished out of the charity shop bargain bin, all the cool girls and boys are draping themselves in one.
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The rules for eco-friendly face masks
Over the last year, facemasks have taken on a number of roles in the public imagination; from an important protective measure to a symbol of an ever-growing cultural war.
With lockdown rules lifted and people spending less time indoors, we understand that changing your approach to masks probably isn’t a high priority right now. But after the pandemic, people may be more wary of catching things on their daily commute, so masks could continue to be a valued commodity in the future.
For now, we all still need to wear them… But what you wear matters. For many companies, they are simply a cheap disposable commodity to be bundled in with fast fashion hauls. To help you make the right choice, check out our handy list of rules for eco-friendly face masks.