Caroline
As long as I can remember, fall has been my absolute favorite season. I mean, just the changing colors and temperatures, the change in routine, that little spark of excitement that’s signaling the start of all of the fall and winter holidays. Oh man, it’s all just the best. But with all of those things, honestly, the most exciting thing about fall is the change in wardrobe. While the temperatures here in LA are still in the high 70s low 80s, I can’t help but be excited about sweaters, and tweed, and boots! (Say what you will, I miss the cooler temps.) And what that all means is a look towards all of the slow fashion that fall has to bring. Which seems to me obvious why the genius Karen Templer declared October to be #SlowFashionOctober. It gives us all of us makers a chance to sit down with our boxes of yarns, fabrics, embroidery floss, and maybe most importantly, our notebooks of ideas and think.
Throughout Slow Fashion October, we get to purposely come back to what slow fashion means to us. We get to think about what inspires us, which of our favorite clothing items we want to continue wearing, and which experiments didn’t really work out. Clothes, for me, have always been items that are carefully chosen or made, and selected in consideration with the rest of my wardrobe. I try to be attentive to the styles that work for my body type, and my style. I try to be honest with myself and truly consider if I am going to wear the garment with purpose, pride and care.
Since I began knitting all those many years ago, I made a promise to myself that I would only knit things that I would actually 100% wear as often as I could. I make it a point to think about this when I am selecting a pattern to knit, and I often find that if a pattern isn’t for me, I’m not able to finish it – just like when I purchase something that wasn’t quite right.
This Slow Fashion October will be a bit different for me as I figure out how to clothe a whole new body type – a body type with a bump! But you better believe that even in attempting to think through how to purchase maternity items for me, or knit new tiny things for my little one arriving in February, I’m thinking about how to make sure things fit into a wardrobe that will grow over time, and are classic enough to last for a few seasons.
Ashley
It’s interesting to sit down and try to define my style. I try so hard to not fit into a category or to be easily defined, that I never once thought to put into words what my style means to me. I don’t have much of a uniform and I don’t have a color scheme, only because I love and wear all of them. I get worried about being too on the nose, so I try to mix it up – basketball jersey with floral flatforms, and oversized suit with a t-shirt, hard and soft, vintage and new. I don’t even like having the same hairstyle two days in a row even though I WANT to wear it up in a bun every single day!
I change what I like and dislike so often, and I LIVE for it. I live for new layering inspiration and seeing shocking silhouettes, I live for new makeup trends and and shoe heel heights, I’m just a sucker for what’s new (style-wise, not necessarily BRAND new. I’m a lover of vintage and used clothing) and interesting. I’m not a chameleon, I wouldn’t call myself that. Everytime I change my look, there is something inherently me that is anchoring it down. I have no idea what that anchor is and what it looks like, but it’s there and it guides me season to season. It’s this little voice that screams “F$%K YEAH” when I see something I love while scrolling through hundreds of Fashion Week shows (it’s easy to lose touch of what you like when you’re browsing over thousands of looks), which is so necessary.
The mood board I’m slowly adding to on Pinterest is what I’m into currently, of course, but I also think it looks like me and is me. When I was in middle school, I wanted to be different but I was TERRIFIED of being different. I wanted to wear what I thought was cool, which was only a slight variation on what everyone else thought was cool. It was a few years later as a sophomore in high school that I realized if I believe this is cool, and I’m confident in my pairings and styling, then it will be. That confidence will take you anywhere, and it did. People would tell me “I could never wear that” and I would respond with the truth – “You can, and if you wanted to, you would.” I love helping people find and live this. Obviously not everyone wants to wear everything, and I love that, but if a color or silhouette is holding you back and you really really want that to be a part of you, then just DO IT. Believe that it can be yours, and soon it will be AND THAT’S FREE, MAN! You can, and if you want to, you will.
TINY STITCHERS 