Why I don't wear Chanel

Ok, this post is a bit of a delayed reaction.

And ok, there are probably other reasons why I don't wear Chanel. ($$$)

But as someone who is sort of a hobbyist for fashion, I got fed up with Chanel last year.

Chanel is easily one of the most recognized, respected, and classiest, highest-pinnacle brands in fashion.  It is the creme de la creme.  Chanel has demonstrated over and over again that it is able to be creative, fashionable, beautiful, classic, and contemporary yet timeless.

However, for the Spring/Summer 2015 show held in October 2014, the show concluded with a tasteless, sophomoric faux feminist protest.  Models paraded out one more time, carrying placards with meaningless phrases like "Make Fashion Not War" and "Féministe mais Feminine.”  I was shocked to see this spectacle of highly privileged bodies playacting at the struggles of oppressed and underprivileged groups for highly select audience, elitist by design and definition.  The willful ignorance, lack of sensitivity or conscience, and cold selfcenteredness (and downright display of unabashed elitism) demonstrated filled me with disgust and outrage.

#GIRLBOSS Lessons from Chapter 2

Chapter 2: How I Became a #GIRLBOSS? 

In this chapter, Amoruso takes us through how she went from being an ID checker at a university to creating and running her company, Nasty Gal.  It's a good story to read if you are interested in fashion, online retail, and/or running an eBay business selling vintage clothes.  But I'm not going to get into her details of her story here.  You can read the book if you want to know all that.

Here are the more universal lessons I got from this chapter 
 

Drawing Strength from Other Women (and Men):

Throughout this chapter, Amoruso mention many other women who helped her and inspired her along her journey.  When she first started her eBay business, her mother helped her prepare garments and descriptions for listing (25).  She had several models, friends, model-friends, photographers help and believe in her as her business grew.  The name of her store was inspired by "legendary funk singer and wild woman Betty Davis" (22).  Amoruso describes her decision to name her shop out of homage to this woman:

"I thought I was just picking a name for an eBay store, but it turned out that I was actually infusing the entire brand with not only my spirit, bu the spirit of this incredible woman." (23)

#GIRLBOSS Lessons from Chapter 1

Introduction to #GIRLBOSS 

Because I am interested in fashion, I quickly picked up Sophia Amoruso's book #GIRLBOSS when it came out in the early summer.  For those who don't know, Amoruso is the founder/creative director/CEO of the online fashion retailer Nasty Gal--- a site where I have shopped a lot.  I definitely dig Nasty Gal's vibe which encourages its customers to show some attitude, be themselves, and take risks.  It is sort of a more curated, more punk, more sexy, less cutesy ModCloth.

In #GIRLBOSS, Amoruso tells us her life story and how she came to be where she is in her business and career, while at the same time encouraging her readers to become #GIRLBOSSes themselves and giving her advice as to how to do this.

I read #GIRLBOSS rather hastily and uncritically while flying from Philadelphia to LA and back.  When I got to the end of the book my impression of it was that (1) it was an easy read, (2) a lot of it was the sort of fun, positive, inspirational guff that one usually finds in such books, and (3) there were a bunch of points and practical, straight-talking suggestions that she made that I thought were really great . . . only I couldn't 100% remember what they were.

So over the next few weeks, I am going to quickly re-read the book, chapter by chapter (11 chapters total), to rediscover the pearls of wisdom Amoruso has to offer, and share them with you.

Chapter 1: So You Want to Be a #GIRLBOSS?

On Role Models:

"Not too long ago, someone told me that I had an obligation to take Nasty Gal as far as I could because I'm a role model for girls who want to do cool stuff with their own lives.  I'm still not sure how to feel about that, because for most of my life I didn't even believe in the concept of role models.  I don't want to be put on a pedestal.  Anyway, I'm way to ADD to stay up there: I'd rather be making messes, and making history while I'm at it.  I don't want you to look up, #GIRLBOSS, because all that looking up can keep you down.  There energy you'll expend focusing on someone else's life is better spent working on your own." (13) emphasis is mine

The idea of role models has fascinated me since I was a teenager.  I love to find people I admire and emulate and obsess over their lives.  I think being able to find great role models and understand why you want them as models for your life is really important, integral to development, and natural for the social animals we are.  Much social science research exists on the subject;  much of the debate around getting more female characters and more diverse female characters into our television, films, books, etc. revolves around the idea of role models.  If she can see it, she can be it, right?

Watch Out! You might be wearing the rainforest.

I am passionate about environmentalism and climate change.  I was reading an article on one of my go-to eco-news sites and learned that I might be wearing materials made from pulped forests (with a heavy dose of toxic sludge).

I am a fashion enthusiast, but I was not happy to learn that my styling could be contributing to deforestation, the destruction of important ecosystems and indigenous lands, and the proliferation of toxic chemicals in our environment.

How exactly is it possible to be wearing trees?  Apparently, the combination of pulped wood and

The Enigma of Clothing Sizes

One of my most liberating moments of epiphany (so far) in development as a feminist was realizing how meaningless clothing sizes are.

They seriously are some of the most meaningless numbers in human history.  For the most part once you move past XS, M/L, and XL, all those numbers 00, 2, 4, 8, 10, 28, 14 etc. can almost mean anything.  Numeric clothing sizes fluctuate hugely, like roller coasters, by store, designer, country, clothing range, prince range, and age (of target customer).  To see if something truly fits, flatters, and/or is comfortable you need to do a cursory and educated guess (do you normally wear M's or L's, then you probably know not to try the 00), and then either get out the old tape measure or you need to try it on.

To brag a little, I think I always knew that clothing sizes were a meaningless measurement.  As a teenager I remember fitting into and wearing a lot of different sizes, but being confused and anxious about why I couldn't find the One True Number that I was supposed to fit into.  Little did I know that there is no such One True Number.

Also, growing up with two sisters and a large extended family, I was used to wearing 'hand-me-downs' so perhaps on some level I understood that bodies naturally change and fit into different sizes; and also being one for caring about aesthetics more than status symbols, Child Me usually cared more about whether the clothing item was fun, flashy, colorful etc. than the number stamped on a tag on the inside that no one ever saw.  But again, as I got older, I noticed a lot more of my friends and peers worrying over their 'dress size' and worried that someone would ask me about mine and I wouldn't be able to provide an accurate or definitive answer.

However, in college, I was reading the AMAZING book, The Body Project, (which all American women should read and) which chronicles the evolution of American girls through diaries and in conjunction with the history of American consumerism and body-related technologies.  (Want to know the history of feminine hygiene products?  I did.  And this book covers it.  It's a pretty great book.)