It’s been 1 week since the move and we’re still living in boxes but otherwise I feel good. I love our new apartment and how cozy it feels. Also our new location is fairly convenient and I can walk to a lot of places if I wanted to. I look forward to exploring my neighborhood more this year! Also another aspect of apartment living that I’ve noticed recently is the whole elevator vibe thing, which is new to me since I haven’t lived in an apartment complex in a long time nor in one this big. As an introvert I would rather not see anyone in the elevator, but even a brief pleasant exchange, a smile or hello with your apartment mates in the elevator can really lift the spirit. While being in an elevator with unfriendly or unhappy people can also send out a negative or heavy vibe (which I most likely encounter during the hours of 6-7pm from tired people coming back from work). What interesting social creatures we humans are, lol.
Anyway as you can see this is going to be more of a rambling post than anything. So please excuse me while I ramble on about Everlane’s texture cotton cardigan (aka the babaa knock-off). When I first saw this in their Coming Soon preview I was like “uh-oh, this is going to conflict with my new year’s resolution of only 1 new closet item at the end of the month.” Because of course who wouldn’t want the cheaper version of the cardigan that every ethical closet blogger has? But after reading Karen’s review, I’m not so sure I would have loved it. First of all it is 27% nylon (so over a quarter of it is made of plastic—I guess Everlane’s promise of no new virgin plastic in their products really is going into effect 2021 and they’re in no rush to make changes just yet), which I know is to keep the costs down and would help retain the sweater’s shape when using cheap cotton. But it is an inferior product to the 100% premium cotton babaa knits made with consciously harvested spanish cotton. Also at the end of its life, the babaa one is fully biodegradable since even the buttons are made of recycled cotton fiber, while you know that the over-quarter-plastic Everlane one will not fully biodegrade). Anyway I’ve been lucky enough to try the babaa cardigan before (thank you West Coast Craft) and I can attest to the quality of these really heavy cotton knits.
I can see how an item like this gives Everlane a “fast-fashion” reputation because right now they seem pretty Zara-like when it comes to this cardigan. And yes even though the styling looks the same, the cardigans themselves don’t look the same (the Everlane one looks flimsier and thinner). It seems to me that the whole point of buying ethically is to buy less but better (consume slowly and consciously), but this cardigan is just a substitute for those who want the look of the trend. If you really were going to consume ethically, then wouldn’t saving up all your pennies to buy the one coveted cardigan you’ve always wanted and that you’ll treasure forever be the way to go? You know the babaa sweater is not going to be in the donation pile anytime soon. But I get it, not everyone can spend several hundred dollars on one item of clothing (especially if its a trend or if they don’t know it will suit them). Also I can see the merit of the Everlane sweater being thinner so less bulky than the babaa one (I personally passed on the babaa at the time because I thought it was too bulky). Well it seems a bit of a gray area to me but I do expect to see this cardigan pop up more on Insta and other blogs and for it to be sold out in a month. Also if it weren’t for my resolution I know I would have tried this out to review so who am I to judge?
P.S. I found this post about the ethics behind purchasing fast fashion secondhand and liked some of the issues it raises. What do you think: is it ok to buy secondhand fast fashion?