A Spiritual Approach to Connecting With Fashion

"Change or die" - Mara Hoffman In the  piece I wrote about Eileen Fisher earlier this month , I addressed the severity of the amount of pollution created by the fashion industry. I posed a question of what could happen if more and more designers were brave enough to address and commit to making changes to reduce waste in the manufacturing and distribution of their merchandise. Well, more and more designers are getting on board to stop throwing overboard waste into our landfills and oceans. Recycling product and using organic materials is one way that CEO's are taking environmental steps to decrease their companies carbon footprints. Every little bit helps, because not only does it send a message to people from inside and outside the sector, the human brain has a mirror neuron that is used for learning and it is also the biological feature of why we  influence and copy each other . While the fashion industry produces  1.26 billion tons of greenhouse emissions every ...

I shared an article from  Vogue Magazine in one of my alternative spiritual groups on Facebook. The piece was about Gothic fashion and the members widely rejected it. When one of the administrators flat out criticized this fashion as not in fact being Gothic, despite my best efforts to say it is not vintage clothing but rather designer, so while the cuts and fabrics might be different it is still very much Gothic, I decided to remove the post. It made me realize how closed-minded we are to fashion and trends. I wonder if this is because we are brought up in a society where only a selected few can truly enjoy clothing - the wealthy and the increasingly lowering number of those who fit into single-digit sizes.  But when we look at the geniuses behind these designs we see that they themselves are edgy, stand-offish, outcasts, and had to overcome their fair share of societal pressures. I was intimidated by high fashion since my early adulthood years. From the outlandish conc...

We all know when we feel good in our clothing, and when we don't. When we do, we feel more attractive and while some of us might be introverted or shy, we still become more confident in whichever way we might choose to exude that. But when we over-do our dressing, and again, we know when we do, whether it be buying and wearing clothing out of budget, dressing disproportionately for the occasion, or just not being in tune with how we are really feeling and therefore doing ourselves a disservice by dressing in a way that doesn’t reflect that, something can be amiss in our behaviour. Studies show that how we dress changes our brain activity. 1  An example is when we wear track pants we are more casual and laid back, maybe walk with a bit of a swagger, but when we wear formal wear, there is a pressure to live up to that image. We change even the words we use - our brains actually work differently!  2   So why then is it important for the spiritually inclined to...

In a high-end department store, image is important. What is glamorous, exquisite, and even excessive are demanded. An impossible standard that is supposed to represent beauty and success which very few people even in middle to upper class society can achieve. And in the haze of beheld desire, something that I have noticed recently is more women coming in looking for plus-sized garments, and not having any options to purchase. I realized as we come into the first wave of the 2019 spring / summer collection, I felt badly telling these women that we cannot service them. I never felt uncomfortable about the way we as a society treat plus-sized women. In my previous fashion retailer store, I would often hear complaints when I directed customers to the plus-sized section, "Nice. Stick us in the back." And while we had a fair collection of merchandise, the placement in the store was marketed without much compassion. When I was encountering these customers several years ago, I ...

Welcome to my Fashion Blog. My name is Carly Blackwell, and I invite you to walk with me in my journey though fashion.  Even though I have been working with clothing for over twenty years, with my first experience being a part-time sales associate in Ladies' wear at Wal-Mart, I always felt a disconnect from fashion. Either it was too expensive, or I was too self-conscious in my body or spirit to wear many pieces in either trend or more sustainable styles. In the fall of 2018, half a year ago now, I landed a Style Advisor position at a high-end department store. Very early on I was aware that I didn't have the confidence to look the part, put together outfits, or sell with assertiveness. Once it became apparent that I wasn't succeeding to the satisfaction of expectations, I started small, learning more about textile. This helped my confidence grow, and it became a bit easier to talk to customers about the pieces.  Eventually I became more familiar with the inve...