Work location this past Tuesday
The other day, I was thinking about how wearing "high and low" (meaning mixing your high-end accessories with fast fashion clothes) is (was?) all the rage. By wearing expensive shoes and bags, you can pass your trendy fast fashion items off as possibly-designer stuff (or at least high market stuff). And I used to dress like that. But (and I hate to pass judgement but I'm going to) that seems the most unethical way to dress to me now. Not only is it fake, but you're taking advantage of slave labor to afford the expensive items to try to look rich. No, if you can afford that designer bag, please pay for clothes made by those being paid a fair wage and working in safe conditions. On top of that, by trying to pass off your disposable clothes as designer wear, you are also promoting the stealing of designs by fast fashion companies. Seriously we all know better, and places like Forever21 should cease to exist. Of course if you can't afford to spend a lot of money on clothes, then shopping at cheap places seems inevitable. But really, if you were smart with your clothing budget, thrifting or saving for one quality piece or hunting for it used on eBay or Poshmark seems the way to go (and I do this too so that can afford all the pieces I want). Ah well, I know for the most part I'm preaching to the choir here. But really, who cares how good you look if you're funding the abuse and misery of those making your clothes (lol too harsh?).
Speaking of designer bags, I read this really interesting article about Chinese immigrants making luxury bags in Italy. So if your "Made in Italy" Chanel bag was probably worked on by a Chinese person, would that matter to you? Or is an artisan and artisan no matter their ethnicity? However, that Chinese artisan is probably working longer hours and charging less money than the Italian one. It really gives me some food for thought about the value of designer bags these days. Also bags from brands like Polene are more likely completely made in one factory from craftsmen whose families have been making bags from generations compared to brands like Gucci and Chanel where the bag pieces are farmed out to different factories (so which one is the true luxury bag?).
On a totally different topic, remember when I wrote this post about the popsocket being my favorite phone accessory? Well, my love for it is still going strong (I'm onto my 3rd one since I changed phones 3 times and it's not as restickable as it claims). But I bring it up because they have now started making car mounts specifically for the popsocket. And as a semi-professional Airstream tow-er I'm driving around a lot, and this popsocket car mount is perfect! Just thought I'd let other popsocket users out there know about it :)