Sweater Weather!

I collect sweaters like some people collect garden gnomes, only my sweaters don’t stare at me with an uncanny, chilling smile and force me to sleep with my eyes open. Also, nobody has yet attempted to kidnap one of my sweaters and take it on a road trip.

Sweaters, when made with high-quality fabric like cashmere or merino wool, sourced responsibly, and looked after carefully, make exceptional (and economical) purchases.

They feel great. Cashmere is the tactile equivalent of drinking hot chocolate whilst looking out a frosted window and listening to this guy.

They’re super versatile. A high-quality sweater can linchpin any look. See what happens to my basic dove grey cashmere when paired with

a) Blue jeans:

b) Black cords and a collared shirt:

c) The same collared shirt and a pleated skirt:

Buying versatile basics is a way of protesting and countering the fast fashion movement (and if you can do it while supporting true artisans who are in the fashion industry for the right reasons, even better*). Also, please excuse the soother in the first ph– I mean, I have placed a soother in this photo on purpose to underscore the soothing nature of cashmere. Yes.

They’re cost-effective. Yes, good sweaters are expensive upfront, but they cost far less than buying a crummy one over and over and over again. Contrary to popular belief, cashmere’s durability is on par with wool, and high quality cashmere won’t pill, unlike the polyester-blend sweater I bought 2 years ago from the Gap for $50 and finally gave away in exasperation because no matter how carefully I washed that sucker in cold water or laid it flat to dry, it still emerged from every cleaning with a new colony of fibre-acne. That sweater from the above photos cost me two hundred bucks, but it’s going to last me until my daughter becomes a snarky teenager and makes me throw it out in the year 2027 because it embarrasses her for some esoteric reason. Meanwhile, she’ll probably be wearing something like this:

They’re trend-resistant. Fashion trends are to blame for turning our closets into revolving doors, contributing to waste and flooding the overseas used garment market, ultimately taking business away from local artisans in those countries. Who among us will deny, for example, that this dress or these leggings or this godforsaken boot will be at Goodwill within 12 months of purchase? A sweater in a neutral colour or classic pattern, on the other hand, has so much longevity that its appeal will quite literally outlive you.

See? This sweater that Katherine Hepburn wore is now in my closet.**

Now, where to buy these magical garments? An ethically sourced wool or cashmere sweater can be a bit of a unicorn, but you can buy one custom-made, 3D printed, at Appalatch, my new favourite store. If you’re looking for greater style and colour variety, my friend just told me about Everlane. While this company does make use of overseas factories, its sourcing practices are far, far more stringent and transparent than other companies offering comparable luxury basics, such as Lord & Taylor. They’ve also been featured on Ecouterre, where the company founder talks about supporting the ‘buy less’ movement. They even went so far as to shut down their online store on Black Friday!

Gotta run– My sweaters are getting antsy and I need to take them out of the wardrobe and sing to them.

*Unfortunately, this particular sweater was not sourced ethically- I purchased it before I was being careful that way- but it has held up to my quality standards if not my ethical ones.

**That is not the same sweater.

The Expensiphant in the Room.

Well, it’s no secret but I’m saying it anyway: buying ethical is not cheap. Well-meaning consumers usually start out feeling like this:

And after an hour of browsing online for ethical comparables to their favourite brands, they feel like this:

I’ve felt personally convicted over ethical consumerism for about ten years now and have found the experience to consist of a long cycle of wins and failures. Mostly failures, if I’m being honest (although I do feel like the win:failure ratio is finally starting to balance out!).

Now I’m going to quote Oprah. Oh, and if you’re wondering about the source of that garbled buzzing, it’s the sound of all my friends covering their mouths to stifle a giggle because let’s put it this way– I am not exactly an Oprah-quoting kind of gal. Take this as a sign of my love for you, Gentle Reader. Grab your Blackberry and your PASHMINAAAA and bear with me past the next paragraph.

Barbara Walters once asked Oprah something like, “Okay, so you give lots of money to worthy causes but you’re still rich. Why not give more of your money away? Why not all of it?” to which Oprah replied with something like, “if I think that way, I won’t do anything at all.”

I think her statement provides a nice philosophical foundation for discussing the purchase of ethical clothing. If we each buy 2 items and 1 of them was made in a sweatshop but one of them was made ethically, it’s better than buying 2 items that were both made in a sweatshop. Yes? Yet our minds want to yammer on and on about how we should have bought BOTH of them ethically, and then we are compelled by the emotionally-enticing-but-logically-barren internal refrain of “if you’re not going to buy everything ethically, why bother at all?” This is the type of thinking that leads a consumer to want to tear his or her hair out at the roots and wave buh-bye to the whole question of ethical shopping in the first place.

Instead of asking, “how can I afford an entire closet full of ethical clothing”, why not ask, “how can I afford one piece of ethical clothing?” Good changes are daunting. That’s why we usually fail when we try to make them all at once.