Fashion Revolution Week and a Wardrobe Update

Flea-market scarf

Part One

We are living through an era when many people, for various reasons, are becoming newly aware of where the goods they buy come from, and they want to support their own national or local economy. I'm hearing that conversation applied much more to food items (or maybe cars) than to clothing. Finding a locally-brewed beverage is often easier than finding locally-made shoes, and a little intentionality in one direction is certainly better than nothing at all. However, the trend to more intentional shopping can easily extend to questions such as "Who made my clothes?"

April 22nd begins Fashion Revolution Week, which began as an annual remembrance of the Rana Plaza tragedy, and continues as a way to point out that, in many ways, "things" ten years or so later aren't much better, and in some ways they're much worse. "Things" being the whole story of clothing on this planet, from crops and factory production, to advertising and selling, to the wearing and maintenance of a purchased clothing item, and to its eventual disposal. And, at least until this fairly recent trend to shop more patriotically, I have not seen much to suggest that people are buying less,  choosing better, or treating "done" clothes any more kindly. Thrift stores are notoriously full of junky clothes at surprisingly high prices, which pushes frustrated people back to buying more junky clothes that are at least new. Who can blame them?

But it doesn't help things either. And the chaotic state of manufacturing and marketing doesn't excuse us, as consumers, from needing to make the most responsible choices we can. Maybe that's upcycling or mending, maybe that's supporting a sustainable but pricey small company with one or two purchases, maybe that's wearing what we already have more and taking better care of it. My own strategy is thrifting the best-quality clothes I can find at reasonable (sometimes better than reasonable) prices, and sticking to a few favourite colours. It's still possible, still practical. I shrug my shoulders just as much as anyone when I see crazy overpriced stuff, but I keep looking for the things that got passed over.

My wardrobe Kryptonite? It's hard for me to pass up a great jacket or blazer, though in a mostly home-based life, I could survive without any office clothes. For me jackets are just fun, especially the colourful vintage ones, and they often sell very cheaply; but I do try to keep them to a reasonable number.

Eiffel Tower, by Robert Delaunay

Update: shirt jacket found at flea market

Update: linen-blend pants

Update: thrifted earrings

Part Two

This is an update to the wardrobe plan I posted last month, which was based on a year-long Vivienne Files wardrobe project. Most of that was based on cold-weather clothes, and we are (finally, after an excruciatingly long winter) moving into more reliably warm weather here. 

The Vivienne Files plan takes more of a whole-year approach to wardrobe building, and in the March update, the imaginary heroine added a navy sweater vest and wool pants, two turtleneck tops, and some accessories. I'm not going to show my versions of these clothes, but they are similar to things I would be pulling out or looking for in the fall.

For April, the VF plan added an ivory linen shirt and pants, a green short-sleeved t-shirt, and a navy cotton pullover sweater--plus a pair of brown sandals, a lovely scarf, and a pair of earrings. I do have a pair of white jeans, but, to be honest, I don't see a lot of women under or over a certain age wearing white trousers around town. At the beach in summer, maybe, or doing the coastal-grandma look for a day at the flea market; but not so much for everyday, at least in this wanna-be-spring season; maybe it's a matter of practicality.

But...I did thrift a pair of sage-green rayon pants, which work well with navy and also with some darker greens.

Also, a lightweight dark blue pullover.

I already have a lightweight white linen shirt, and a brown linen-blend one (trying to add to the brown in the VF plan). I have a sleeveless muted-green top that some people might say clashes with the pants, but I kind of like them together. Also, see the brown sandals in the photo? Thrifted last month, lucky find.

Oh, and I almost forgot--I found a really good spring dress, in the middle of a rack of really ugly and ratty ones. Sometimes you do have to look extra hard.

As for accessories, I did find a vintage scarf that isn't bang-on with the Eiffel Tower palette, but is pretty in its own way. Also a necklace.

So, I think we're caught up with the VF for now.

Again, this isn't meant to be a whole plan for the whole spring/summer. If I were doing a full wardrobe, I'd add in the light-wash jeans that my daughter offered me from a bag of free stuff, and a couple of other recent finds. 

But that's enough for now.

Locally-crafted earrings

Last updated May 14, 2025

Green and Leafy: Late-Winter Wardrobe Plan

Over on The Vivienne Files, one of this year's ongoing wardrobe projects is based on a 1909 painting of the Eiffel Tower by Robert Delaunay, and uses mainly navy, brown, ivory/white, and soft green. Delaunay's painting, though from early in the last century,  has a palette that fits well into the blues and greens that were also popular later on (think midcentury upholstered furniture). 

Me as a tot, with my great-great aunt

I recently bought a vintage scarf that, while not exactly the same, does pull in some of the same muted colours. So I thought I would put my own clothes up against those of the imaginary heroine. Because this is a year-long project and it's had only three installments so far, the plan isn't very extensive: there are twelve clothes items and some accessories. I'm trying to curb my impulse to add extra items to this story (such as clothes for spring). So please don't take it as "you could totally live with twelve things and don't add anything else for the rest of the year." It's a beginning, is what it is.

Here's a list of what Janice's "heroine" has so far:

Three pairs of earrings in browns, golds, and labradorite green

Two brown purses

Printed scarf

Shoes, all brown: ballet flats, loafers, sneakers (bronze)

Ivory long-sleeved t-shirt

Brown long-sleeved t-shirt

Teal plaid flannel shirt

Brown shirt

Dusty teal pullover sweater

Ivory crewneck pullover sweater

Navy button-up cardigan

Jeans

Brown corduroy trousers

Navy cotton trousers

Brown midi skirt

Teal striped dress

Looking at my own clothes, I have more navy than brown, especially in accessories, so my take on the colours will be a bit different. Also, it's still the dead of winter here, so snow boots and warm coats are more important than loafers. Plus, I'm Canadian and we wear socks in the house. But we'll pretend to have a normal life where people do wear shoes.

Here's my version:

Three pairs of earrings

Other jewelry:  bracelet set (Fierce Lynx); wristwatch; necklace

Two purses: navy bucket bag, sand convertible mini backpack (from Pixie Mood)

As a third option, if I wanted something dressier, I would add my other Pixie Mood purse (the ivory one was bought new, but the backpack came from a Salvation Army thrift store when we were daytripping last year).

Two scarves (besides the vintage one shown above).  The first one is smaller and lighter weight; the second is the kind you can bundle into.

Three pairs of shoes/boots, navy and charcoal: ankle boots, sneakers, loafers (not shown)

Three t-shirts: navy, frosted teal, winter white. (Two of those tops were bought new. Most of the rest of the things shown in this post were thrifted.)

Navy check flannel shirt

Short-sleeved white blouse with tiny pleats (instead of a brown shirt)

Dusty teal pullover sweater

Winter white mock neck pullover sweater (not shown)

Dark blue merino-wool cardigan. I do have other cardigans and jackets in a more traditional navy, but I'm choosing this one for a couple of reasons, mainly because there's a skirt coming up soon and this is the sweater that matches it best.

But since the dark-blue cardigan is a little lighter and dressier than I might want for everyday, I'm adding in this fisherman-style hoodie pullover. 

Taupe brushed-cotton trousers (not shown). The original plan had brown cords, navy cotton pants; since I have navy cords, I'd put these in instead.

Blue jeans and navy corduroy trousers (not shown). Jeans are usually a no-brainer for me, and I do have a pair of navy cords. If I were trying to live only out of these clothes, though (say for a trip), I might substitute a pair of navy tweed trousers for either the jeans or the cords. Or even a pair of plain navy pants, if I were trying to stay as versatile and dress-up-dress-down as possible.

Dark teal midi skirt (instead of a brown one). I found this at a thrift store--no labels, I think somebody made it at home.

Finally we get to the dress, and that's where I'm going to pass on trying to come up with anything close. If I were going this minimal with clothes, I think the jersey midi skirt would be dressy enough to handle most of what I'd be doing, especially paired with this blouse.

As I said, I don't want to add in a lot of extras to the story just because I have navy, white and teal things in my closet. But there are a couple of things that I do want to include. One is this long knit vest, partly because I like the style, and also because it adds that bit of brown back into the mix.

The other is this vintage tapestry-print blazer that I found last fall at a flea market. Blazers aren't part of my daily at-home lineup, but I would definitely wear this one for church, dinner out, whatever, maybe with navy underpinnings, or with the taupe pants. 

It also works with the green pullover.

I'm not going to show outfits, as this is one of those mini-plans where you can't go too wrong. A top, a bottom, some jewelry or a scarf if you're feeling it. I'm not going to be wearing only these twelve-or-so clothes items, but I am going to put them front and centre for the next month or so. Thank you to the Vivienne Files for continuing to inspire!

Last updated February 6, 2025

Apples to Apples (frugally catching up)

In a time of inflation and shrinkflation, we tend to focus our frugal efforts (including celebrations and complaints) on small everyday things, like groceries. It's easier to blame a package of mushrooms for going bad after only a day in the fridge, than it is to try to make sense of all the reasons that we seem to get less and, often, not what we expected. It helps when we do find good stuff for lower prices, such as at the local supermarket that seems to be on a never-ending reorganization project.

We have been on an early-winter binge of soup making, which meant resurrecting an old-faithful split pea-sausage soup recipe (combining the usual ingredients with a dried-vegetable mix we found at Euro Foods); trying out a friend's taco soup recipe (using our own taco seasoning spices), and adding half-price ravioli to turkey soup.

We haven't been making as much bread lately, but we did use this easy recipe to make rolls for Christmas dinner. (We let the bread machine do the mixing and first rise, then shaped them and let them rise again before baking.)

A few weeks ago, we made a couple of trips to local apple growers. At one of them, I bought a jar of apple butter (besides some apples), and half of that went into a batch of holiday-style squares (think date squares, only with apple butter and dried cranberries for the filling). On our other apple stop, we bought a new kind that turned out to be not our favourites for eating, so after Christmas I cut them up into the crockpot, added a little water and cinnamon, and let them cook down into applesauce. (You could puree it in the blender, but we didn't bother.) But what to do with all that applesauce in the fridge? I could have frozen it, but it was a more interesting challenge to use it up fresh.

The first thing I made with it was an applesauce cake, which also finished off the jar of apple butter. I used this recipe, adjusting the ingredients a bit for sweetness and amount of liquid. The only caution I would make is that you do have to really watch your proportions. Our cake turned out great, but if you're not careful (or don't bake it quite long enough), you could get something sad and soggy. I think the fact that I used demerara rather than regular brown sugar might have helped keep the cake light and not heavy/soggy. I will also say that the teaspoonful of vanilla in that recipe sounds a bit out of place, but it works.

Yesterday, we were looking for meat deals at the supermarket, and Mr. Fixit found a package of pork chops. Maybe it was something to do with a recent writing project involving Normandy, I don't know, but "pork" and "apples" sounded right together, so we translated A Year of Slow Cooking's Applesauce Chicken recipe into "Pork With Applesauce Gravy." (One addition: when we first made this recipe about fifteen years ago, we appreciated the fact that the recipe didn't have any added salt, but now we prefer to add some in with the seasonings.)

So that's where all the apples went.

On a different note, we have been trying to warm up a couple of chilly spots in the house (and the garage when Mr. Fixit works out there), without turning the heat up everywhere. The thrift stores didn't seem to have the right thing, so we bought a small heater at Giant Tiger which has made the living room much cozier. Then today we found a 1980's heater at the Salvation Army store. Mr. Fixit checked it out carefully, and it seems safe and fine and everything, so that's going to go in the garage.

Also, I had been wanting to find something a bit more seasonal, or just a little different, to hang in the spot where we have the William Morris tapestry. I saw a needlework wall hanging at an antiques market, but the price was out of our budget. Then one day we were at Value Village, and I was browsing through the home-decor stuff and found this table runner. Mr. Fixit and I both had the same idea: what would it look like as a hanging? We decided not to take down the tapestry, but just to layer them up, at least for the time being. The colours of the two pieces aren't the same, but the leaves on the runner connect with the leaves and flowers on the tapestry, so I'm happy with that.

More thrift store finds

So, we began 2025 with hope. And apples.

Common wardrobe to festive frolics

The Vivienne Files recently did a travel wardrobe post for somewhere "snowy and brisk", using classic but casual navy and grey clothes, and jazzed up with burgundy for the holidays. 

While my main mode of travel is tiny packing (mainly lightweight clothing that can be squeezed into a backpack), it would be fun to imagine a wider set of options, say for a road trip. Or if checking a bigger bag was an option (and somebody else paid for it). A purse that doesn't have to be flat-packed? A nice hat? Count me in.

So let's start with the VF "common wardrobe." (You can see the original version at that link.) Here are the closest things I could find from my own closet (mostly thrifted):

Navy crewneck pullover, grey vest (not a sweater vest because I don't have one, but this is close), navy boucle blazer/cardigan

Three long-sleeved t-shirts

I might swap one of the solid-colour t-shirts for a striped one, or pack a striped sweater instead of the solid navy one.

Three shirts. I do have a striped shirt much like the one in the VF photograph, but I'm swapping in a vintage flannel check shirt.

Three pairs of pants. The grey pants here are a bit lightweight and loungey. In real life, if I didn't have a more solid pair of grey ones, I might take another pair of navy pants.

So those are the common-dozen clothes. The next thing in the VF story is a travel outfit. I was able to come pretty close with a top, sweater, hat and scarf.

Here's the bottom half of the travel outfit: jeans, boots, tote bag, gloves.

And a coat; not my heaviest all-blizzard one. I thought this jacket would be a bit dressier, if the heroine is not planning on playing in the snow (or digging out of a snowstorm).

Following the additions and options in the VF story, we have a dark red cardigan (looks brighter in the photo, but it should be more of a ruby colour); a boiled-wool vest (subbing for the quilted version in the story); the flannel shirt; a scarf; and (below) the navy cords and a pair of burgundy lace-up shoes. I don't think it would have probably occurred to me to put all these things together in real life, but I will give it a shot if the opportunity comes up.

Another suggested outfit: the grey pants and vest, jean shirt, boots, and a blue and white scarf.

The VF heroine has a burgundy corduroy shirt dress, which isn't like anything I own. However, I do have an eggplant fleece dress with a high neck.

The dress can be worn under this vintage handmade paisley shirt-jacket. The purse doesn't look very good in the photo (the colour seems to be off), but it's better in real life. I photographed this outfit with navy low-heeled pumps, but I'm also not delighted with that, so I might go for a pair of boots instead (photo below that).

The dress can also be worn with the vest (channelling one of the VF suggestions).

If I had unlimited packing space, I'd add in these things: a grey hoodie; a burgundy pleated skirt (which can be a dressy outfit with the cardigan, see photo below that); a winter-white mockneck pullover; and a pair of navy knit pants (to go with all those other navy things). Also, an extra scarf.

Here's the scarf, shown on a sweater that I would also consider chucking into this ever-expanding suitcase.

I would probably pack this navy scarf, and a dressier hat.

The VF story has only earrings for jewelry, but I'm including these Sophisticated Lynx bracelets from Canadian maker Fierce Lynx.

Locally-made porcelain earrings.

A couple of thrifted necklaces.   

                                        

And a festive-looking brooch.

Happy Holidays!

Last updated November 28, 2024