Michelle Obama’s longtime stylist shares her thoughts on the high stakes of dressing the First Lady, how the message of Obama’s new book is influencing her current wardrobe, and why she favors emerging designers. A rare profile on stylist Meredith Koop.
Janie Bryant, who made the curves of ‘Mad Men’s’ Joan Holloway famous with her costume designs, answers the call of her fans with a brand new luxury line targeted at sizes 12-24. Fashionista has a sneak peak.
‘There Are No Winners in This Ugly-Pants Fight’ – if you’ve spent any amount of time on Instagram in the last week, you know what this one’s about.
I’m so thrilled to share that this innovative ethical and sustainable shoe company has met it’s Kickstarter funding goal! Excited to follow along as they work to affect change in the industry.
Swooning over Tradland’s newest addition of sweaters! This beautiful cable knit looks like it’s inspired by classic fisherman knits.
ABLE is having a big sale starting tomorrow! Including the earrings I shared in my Hoops on a Budget post.
Audrey’s fall outfits are endlessly inspiring me right now – especially her use of scarves! (Thanks LO for introducing me! Can’t believe I’m just now discovering this awesome blog.) Also, I want the music in the video to be my soundtrack right now.
We watched The Glass Castle last weekend, and it made me even more of a Woody Harrelson fan (if that was even possible.) Imagine if your parents were homeless. Based on a true story.
When commercials make you cry. (Found via Audrey’s Instagram.)
I’m taking the week off to spend time with my family over the Thanksgiving holiday, including Instagram! I thought it was time for a little reset. I hope you have a wonderful week, and if you’re in the States, Happy Thanksgiving to you!
So many good things… That Tradlands Sweater, though, is perfection. I will be keeping my eye on that one! And the JK drama is fascinating! So many good points have been raised, and I’m really interested to see what happens in the industry. And lastly, do you have any recommendations for the ABLE sale besides earrings (which I love, BTW)? I own the Tirhas bag which I adore, but am looking for some good timeless pieces to add to my closet. Thank you!
Hi Ella! I really like the Military Jacket, I think it’s super cute and have almost purchased it more than once, and I recently did purchase the Trujilo Wrap Top. :) Happy shopping!
I was hoping you’d respond a bit more fully to the JK issue – specifically critiques that her brand intentionally excludes women of average sizes and the related issue of a severe lack of diversity of all kinds in her marketing photos. I was extremely disappointed in her response and also in the lack of response from influencers like you. It seems like people care about their status items more than they care about inclusion. These are the things that make “ethical” fashion look like it’s only for thin, white ladies with a bunch of disposable income. The article you linked above doesn’t really address any of those core issues.
The attack on Jesse Kamm makes me think the ethical fashion community is a now a bunch of mean girls. The whole thing reminded me of Arthur Miller’s the Crucible. I have been unfollowing a lot of stylish women who I used to admire because I can’t support their participation in such awful mob behavior.
Yes is is sad that Jesse Kamm’s sizing is not more inclusive but it is very ignorant and naive of her attackers to think that its a simple matter to just make more sizes. I respect Kamm’s right to make decisions about her own business and I respect someone else’s right to not buy them if they don’t like how she does business. Yes it is totally fair to criticize her for not expanding her size range . However, both Madewell and Everlane, brands that are being brought up as alternatives are extremely problematic (from an ethical clothing persepective) in their own right and to take the size issue step further, I can’t wear Madewell or Everlane’s copycat pants because they don’t fit me. All the copycats are for short girls only and I am 5’11”. I’d love to see more companies make clothes that fit tall women but only a handful do so I will continue to support the ones that do make clothes that fit me. Kamm’s pants fit me better then any other pants I have ever tried and it was hard to spend that much money on a pair of pants but I don’t feel bad about it because the pants are well made and will last a life time so my one expensive pair of pants will last longer then the 4-5 pairs of cheap knock off that never fit right anyway.
I think if you assume that discussions about inclusivity are inherently mean, you have seriously missed the point that others were making. The reality is that women above a sample size are devalued in our society. Women of color are also often devalued. For an “ethical” brand to make clothes that only fit very thin women, and to base their branding images on almost entirely very thin white women, is problematic. JK’s responses when others brought up these concerns were, at first, patronizing and then blatantly racist without any acknowledgement that she had heard and considered the critiques being raised.
The idea that we can’t critique these choices without being labelled mean is antithetical to the whole idea of ethical fashion. We can, and should, expect businesses to demonstrate basic human decency. We can expect business owners to not engage in body shaming and to not tokenize women of color. If we don’t, it just goes to show that “ethical fashion” is often designed to exclude people who aren’t thin, wealthy white women.
Hi Amanda and Amy!
Here are my thoughts on the Kamm pants discussion. It’s awfully nuanced, and I can see the perspectives from both sides. I do not think Jesse Kamm has maliciously excluded people in the designs of their garments. It sounds like they are working to bring greater sizing inclusion, given the latest information that they shared. From a business standpoint, I can understand that when they are regularly left with excess inventory in larger sizes (according to their blog) that they would shy away from expanding that end of their sizing. Since they do not make their garments in-house, I do not believe they could move to a made-to-order model. If there is a market of women who want to purchase JK pants in larger sizes then I think they deserve to be heard. I think it’s great to collectively raise voices and hopefully bring greater size inclusivity to a brand with a cult following in the ‘ethical fashion’ community.
Many of the comments I read on Instagram directed at Jesse Kamm were respectful and well-intentioned, bringing up important points on size-inclusivity and diversity. I also read some that were downright mean and spiteful, shaming even. I agree with you Amy, there seems to be some ‘mean girl’ mentality going around in the ethical fashion community right now, and I don’t like it at all. I think it’s completely counter-productive and goes against basic human decency. If we want to get our point across, kindness leads to listening but contempt leads to closed minds. This is our human nature.
I do think the response from Jesse Kamm was not as good as it could have been. I think they could have done a better job showing that they want to listen and respond to their audience instead of getting defensive.
As far as the pants themselves, it will be interesting to see what happens! If/when Jesse Kamm expands sizing I hope the situation turns into a win-win for all who are involved.
Thank you so much for including your personal opinion on the JK drama. <3
Thanks for your response, Andrea. I appreciate your thoughtfulness, though I want to try and respectfully point some concerns I have with your stance on this. I do understand that the issue is nuanced, particularly in relation to sizing availability and pricing. I don’t personally think pricing your pants based on demand and profit margins is unacceptable, though I do realize that critiques of pricing are largely driven by the exclusiveness of many ethical fashion brands in general. My concern is with exclusion of women of color, as well as women who are larger than a size 8 (about the max size that could fit into the largest size of JK pants).
What still troubles me is that many of the counter-responses to the critiques, including yours, still don’t address one core issue, which is that JK as a brand has almost exclusively markets their product toward, and for, thin white women. If you look at their social media presence alone, their models are largely white-looking. They are almost all very thin. It’s not a surprise, then, that they don’t see a lot of sales to women of average and larger sizes – JK’s brand is clearly not meant for them. That’s exactly how exclusion works – you make it clear that someone is not welcome, and when they go elsewhere, you claim it was their choice. If JK really wanted more diverse women to buy their product, they wouldn’t just expand sizes on select products, they’d adjust their brand imagery to include a wider range of ethnicities and sizes. They haven’t, and their branding is otherwise very good, so I can only conclude that it is intentional.
I agree that some commenters got out of line – but many women raising critiques of JK were respectful, and were either ignored/blocked (by JK) or fat-shamed and insulted (by her followers). Yet women decrying the “mean girl” mentality, including yourself, have showed little to no concern for those women. Furthermore, telling people that they have to be nice to be heard is a classic way of silencing marginalized people, many of whom have spent their whole lives feeling frustrated and excluded by well-meaning white women, and have likely exhausted their energies trying to constantly bring up problems in a “nice” way that doesn’t offend anyone. Demanding that marginalized people be unfailingly kind even when they are excluded and devalued by your communities demonstrates your privilege, and contributes to the continued exclusion of those people from ethical fashion spaces. It’s worth reflecting on whether that’s something you want to contribute to.
I appreciate your blog, and much of the rest of the ethical fashion community, for its commitment to supporting brands that treat workers fairly and produce products in an eco-conscious way. But increasingly it’s become clear that this isn’t space that welcomes women from different backgrounds and identities, so I’ll be disengaging for awhile. I hope that this comment is helpful for explaining some aspects of this debate that have gotten lost in the general noise, though, and I hope it encourages you and other well-meaning white women in the ethical fashion space to do a little more listening to women with different perspectives, even when that makes you uncomfortable.
Hi Amanda, thanks for the feedback. I appreciate the time and perspective you put into your comment. There are definitely perspectives on this issue that are harder for me to see because I’m white. I’m taking this in and trying to get a broader perspective.