Friday Follow-up | Sabah, Zara, Self-Sabotage & More

Sabah!!

Shopping…

It’s the last weekend to enter to win $100 via the ARO giveaway.

Elizabeth Suzann is launching their cold weather collection on 10/4 and it will include wool from Imperial Ranch here in the US. Yay!  When the cold weather collection launches, the SS16 collection  goes away, so if you’re interested in any of those pieces, order soon!

fog linen works has some beautiful linen pieces, and a dress that’s nearly identical to my Eileen Fisher organic linen dress – if you’re still into linen…

As you see above, I got a pair of Sabah shoes this week while they were here in Dallas.  I haven’t worn them yet because it’s still too hot for “shoes,” but I’m looking forward to it.  I got a size 39 (I’m a US size 8) and they’re really comfortable, not snug, but not big.  I tried the 38s as well and while they would have stretched, I felt better in the 39.  The  best part about the pop-up was meeting the Sabah team and seeing all the loyal customers wearing their Sabahs that had already been worn in; they were so perfectly fitted and worn but not WORN looking. I can’t wait for mine to look like that!

Reading…

I’ve been listening to James Altucher‘s podcasts and reading articles after buying and reading his book, Choose Yourself ($.99 at the Kindle store!!).  He writes a lot, and rambles a lot, but I appreciate his irreverent style, and get a few tips here and there.  One thing I took and ran with was his random statement that you tend to be most productive between 2-4 hours after you wake up.  It sounded about right to me, so I thought I’d try and rearrange my schedule to be more productive.

I usually wake up around 5:30, so my “most productive” time should be between 7:30 and 9:30. I’d been going to Pure Barre at 8:30 every morning, which is right in the middle of this productive time, and sometimes I’d be in the middle of something and have to leave it to get to class on time, which was distracting and took the rest of the morning/early afternoon to get over. I shifted my schedule two weeks ago to do the 9:45 class instead, and it’s made such a huge difference! Now, I actually get more done in the 4 hours after I wake up than I did all day before because I’m more focused and intent on completing things earlier in the day.  And basically after 3-4 in the afternoon I’m useless…so I have to get as much done in the mornings that I can!

Anyway, it was such a small change that made a big difference.  That’s all it takes most of the time…

Also, another excellent piece at WANT (Women against negative talk) about Self-Sabotage.  And here I thought I was the queen of Self-sabotage…there are SO MANY GOOD THINGS in this article, but WHOA THIS IS SO ME:

Not too long ago (in the grand scheme of things), whenever things would start to go great for me, I’d start to make something go not-so-great. Probably to counter-balance what I thought deep down was something I hadn’t earned or didn’t deserve.More than anything, I was afraid of success. Failure was easier for me to stomach than the thought of possibly letting someone down once I was at the top.

Zara…sustainable? not sustainable…I’m going to mostly leave that here for you to read and form opinions on yourself, but I will just say that while I’m always a fan of small steps in the RIGHT direction, I also know that you must take those steps while not simultaneously taking two steps in the WRONG direction.  And fast fashion in general is taking so many steps in the wrong direction it will take more than these small efforts to have any impact on the overall destructiveness of the industry.  Same goes for H&M’s conscious collection IMO.  What these efforts MAY do is introduce the idea of more eco-friendly fibers and practices to people who aren’t already aware, which is a good thing, but ultimately, it’s really just…not enough.

I guess my “issue” is that those companies COULD DO MORE to affect real change if they were really committed.  Inditex is the world’s largest fashion retailer, and if they decided to, they could almost single-handedly make the fashion industry more sustainable…

Along the same lines : Gap, Inc. and VF Corp disclose factory lists. Transparency and supply chain monitoring is crucial, and again, another step in the right direction:

When apparel brands are transparent about their supplier factories, it helps workers and advocates swiftly alert brands to possible labor rights violations in the factories, giving brands an opportunity to take corrective steps. Transparency about suppliers also makes it easier for workers to alert brands when factories subcontract production to others without brand approval – a widespread problem that companies have often struggled to combat. Apparel brands cannot monitor conditions in factories they do not know about, and subcontracting factories often have worse records for underpayment of wages, dangerous working conditions, and other labor rights abuses. (HRW)

Happy Friday!

What do you have planned for the weekend? is it cooling off where you are? (Maybe this weekend here..).  What do you think about the issues above? Bought anything interesting lately?