People accusing the MCU of queerbaiting has always seemed off base to me because queerbaiting implies a level of emotional character interaction that the MCU has overall staunchly refused to feature. Nobody is even friends
one of my “special interests” in the past couple of years has been exploring fast fashion vs. slow fashion. it has been a long journey trying to find clothes that actually 1) fit me 2) look good 3) are made from material that is not actively shoving plastic in the ecosystem 4) involve ethical labor, fair trade, fairly compensated, etc
before i did this research, i really had no clue about fabrics or fashion brands. i used to think i had zero interest in fashion, in fact.
i grew up wearing walmart and thrift store clothes, and when i went to college i bought clothes from target and asos. something started to shift a little bit when i found vintage resellers on etsy and ebay… those clothes were so unique. but a lot of the vintage clothes were polyester blends, stiff, and would fall apart as easily as my asos clothes. i would leave them hanging in my closet and never wear them. i would wear the same old t shirts and jeggings every day. i felt like it was impossible to ever wear comfortable clothes, or ever feel good in clothes, so why bother?
it started with linen. linen is very comfortable and pretty sustainable. i was amazed that i didn’t feel the urge to rip my clothes off when i wore linen. lightbulb number one.
a friend let me borrow a nooworks dress, and i went to the store and got some overalls. wow. overalls. lightbulb number two. holy shit, you can wear overalls. you know how people say “not binary or non-binary but a secret third thing.” that’s overalls.
i realized i loved the bonkers prints that nooworks had, and all of it was soft, and made ethically. it was a higher price point than i was used to, which gave me pause. but then you realize: we’re not supposed to be buying dumb clothes every other weekend. and isn’t a slightly higher price point for soft clothes that you won’t want to tear off your body worth it?
so i started my research. i made a spreadsheet. the prices can be all over the place across brands, so i made a column for prices. sizes can be all over the place too – people always ask me “where is the plus size slow fashion?” it’s there. just look at the size column. people say “isn’t it better to buy secondhand?” yeah, it is. i have many links to secondhand sources.
if you have any suggestions or additions please let me know, it is a living document.
update 6/2023: i added some stuff, deleted some stuff, and this spreadsheet is now huuuuuge! so i made some adjustments for better readability and use. i also added my lists of bags and backpacks so it’s all in one place. remember the order of operations: resist buying on impulse, research and compare, trade / buy secondhand, and then, lastly, buy new if you have the $$$.
grief is crazy because sometimes you have to go through a 174-page document outlining every single thing someone had in their home when they died and you have to look at it and know all their mugs are going to go somewhere else because you don’t need 24 shitty promotional mugs but you can’t bear the idea of someone else using them and then in the next breath you can make fun of them for owning four separate TiVo devices in the year of our lord 2023. anyway i bawled over a reusable water bottle last night
grief is crazy because sometimes 9 months exactly to the date of his death they’ll bring you all the stuff you said you wanted while sobbing and they’re just like, shitty DVDs and a lamp and CDs and you’ll find out that someone you loved your whole life really loved Aimee Mann too, and you just never talked about it, and now you never will
ALT
