“Fashion should be flexible and responsive. Instead, global chains are trying to take the risk out of fashion by selling the same carefully orchestrated trends, which are repeated on the racks of virtually every retailer, making our store-bought looks feel homogenous and generic” Elizabeth L. Cline- Overdressed
How much of you have ever been tired of wearing the same flowered dress, the same button-front denim skirt, the same black chocker ( yes, like the thousands of girls in their Tumblr Profiles), the same cropped flare jeans as anyone else and so on? I decided to start this post with a quote that really impressed me, and the funny part is that I found it on a book that I didn´t buy. In my country Guayaquil, Ecuador, there is one cultural group named “Casa Morada” that made almost every month “the book garage” (where people can buy and exchange their own books). That´s where I got my precious acquisition, the ethical fashion book “Over-Dressed” by Elizabeth L. Cline, and I discovered there an entire different worldview about the responsability of buying in a correct way. Most of us are enchanted by the same look-alike clothes that we find on Zara, Bershka and other fast fashion companies, not only because they are on “trend” but also because of their lower prices. But if you let me sincere to you, I was really tired and exhausted of see clones of me everywhere!
The fact is, I was totally blinded by the magazines and all the other bloggers that propose to wear the exactly dress or skirt, so I said to myself: Am I condemned to be a robot-follower of the trends or I can construct my own style? The media tell us to be UNIQUE AND ORIGINAL WOMEN, but the truth is that in a world that promotes to consume and the massification of all, yes- including the fashion sector, we are far away from this wish. So I realized that the only solution and cure for me at least were this two things:
First I go to all this fast fashion stores and made a shock therapy ( I walk through the showcase but I don´t buy anything), so when I get away I feel this special satisfaction because I don´t succumb to their atraction powers.
Second I go to some swapping events and thrift shops here in my city, and started to make unique purchases ( believe me or not I have found pretty good stuff and above all I can be hundred porcent sure that not anyone will have my oufit)
At least I can be sure of one accesory that its price is perfectly accurate with the reality! Since I was a little girl I knew the entire process behind our iconic Ecuadorian hat and the time that our weavers spent on its manufacture , but that’s a topic for another article!
For this ocassion I wore a Montecristi Ecua-Andino Hat, denim vintage long skirt, a black blouse a and a flat blue navy sandals (made by a Ecuadorian shoemaker),