Everything’s Poly!
There are few things I’ve said more often than “I need new pants.” It’s a problem that persists. One that I - in fits and starts - try to manage but can never quite get my arms (legs?) around. Lately the problem has spread. I need pants and I need shirts. And a new jacket. And shoes. From the floor up, I need new things. I need them partially because what I have is out of fashion and partially because I, like the Grinch’s heart, have grown three sizes.
The internet feels like the appropriate place to tackle my clothing issue except that it’s both too vast and too shallow. Any search I enter yields roughly the same results: exquisitely SEO’d websites selling junk, or mass market retailers offering me the same olive green button down I bought in 1998. I know there are things to be found, but I can’t find them. Plus, If I do find something, how will I know if it fits? How much fossil fuel does it take to ship and then return an item? What about all that packing material?
My issue is further compounded by the desire to fill my closet with only natural fabrics – cottons and wools, mostly (although I guess I could do a silk shirt? If it wasn’t weird?). There is not a lot to be found online or in stores that doesn’t contain some quantity of plastic. I was recently approached in a department store by a sales clerk who saw me carefully eyeing the labels on the inside of a designer pair of pants. He proceeded, at an exhaustingly awkward length, to tell me about the varying qualities of polyester on the market and how Tom Ford’s polyesters were top notch, cream of the poly-crop! I didn’t buy them. He seemed a little mad about it.
There are vintage stores and consignment shops to consider, as well. Unfortunately, New York is about the worst place in the world for “thrift” shopping. I stopped into one such store on Broadway just to find old Levi’s 501s for sale at $80 and a whole slew of ASOS shirts for $20 bucks a pop! Criminal, I tell you! I don’t mind paying for my clothes, but top dollar for someone else’s worn out clothes from a fast-fashion junk shop? Please.
I know I can’t put off this issue forever. Eventually, the two pairs of pants that I wear on repeat will tater and fray. The handful of sweatshirts I like are already halfway there. I haven’t re-upped my closet with more professional wear since before the pandemic. There are a total of two things I can wear on a Friday night out. Fortunately, fashion has fallen into a mid-aughts K-hole so even if I look like garbage, everyone else in Brooklyn is looking like garbage, too. It’s the trend. But I don’t want to be on trend. I want to look good, and feel good, in what I’m wearing.
I’m willing to put in a little effort, but I don’t even know where to point my arrow. I’m adrift in my Wranglers and afraid that someone will see me for three days in a row, at which point I’ll have exhausted all my “looks.” If I don’t solve my clothing problem soon, this winter will be one spent at home, save for a few highly-curated public appearances-No photos please! A lot more ‘ordering in’ and a lot less ‘meeting for drinks.’
Not all is lost, though. I did last week acquire a variety pack of socks that are cute and functional; my two biggest requirements for clothes. They keep me warm and are high enough on the calf that I can cross my leg on the train without exposing my pale, hairy leg skin. I like them a lot. They look good with my old pants, too. And my old sweatshirt, for that matter.
Now that I think about it, maybe my clothes are fine and my socks were the whole horrible problem all along. Maybe now everything is fine…except…wait, let me just squint to read the label on these socks…ah damn…made with 20% polyester. Probably the poor quality kind, too. That store clerk would be disappointed in me.
If it wasn’t cold in my room, I’d pull these socks off and chuck them in the bin. Only that would not do anyone any good, especially the landfill they’d end up in. So, I’ll keep my cute plastic socks on and open another browser window to search for “natural fiber clothes.”
Wish me luck.
P.S. If anyone has any clothing suggestions for me, drop them in the comments below!
New tunes to enjoy:
So definitely not natural fabrics but I LOVE all of the Karina dresses and everyone I tell has become a convert! https://www.karinadresses.com/
The book Plastic Free by Beth Terry really helped a lot, but I am still struggling with clothing too! I found a clothing fiber sustainability chart in a magazine that I'll take a pic of and text you. :)