Justice

I'm thinking about getting the Justice tarot card as a tattoo. I have three tattoos so far, and I think this would be a good one to add to the collection.

Find your tarot deck here.

You go, Marissa Mayer.

I'm taking a class with Alyson Curtis of AARP on the Elements of Communication Planning. Here is one the posts I wrote for the course:

After Marissa Mayer posed (in a very classy, IMHO) photo shoot for Vogue magazine, she received a combination of praise and criticism. Criticism, interestingly enough, was frequently lobbed at her by colleagues in the tech industry who felt that a person in her position "diminishes... [her] chances for future success by damaging [her] qualification and suitability in the public eye."

At the Interactive Advertising Bureau conference, Marissa spoke with Charlie Rose regarding her strategy at Yahoo. Towards the end of her segment, the conversation evolved to include gender and leadership, where he asked her "Will we see Larry Page on the cover of Vogue?" Of course, Larry Page is one of the co-founders of Google and would probably not look as fabulous in a cobalt blue sheath dress (although I'm willing to be proved wrong).

please don't put him in a blue dress, i was kidding.

At this point, Marissa seemed "clearly embarrassed," and stammered out excuses for her first pass at modeling, claiming that the photographer convinced her to pose like that "out of necessity."

What's clear here is that Marissa's brand is in limbo - is she the self-proclaimed geek whose technological prowess will bring back from the ether a formerly great? Or is she a savvy, strong, and yes - stylish - CEO whose confidence and acumen will invigorate the renaissance of Yahoo?

Whatever combination of the two they present is up to Marissa and her team, but I feel that she should have stood by her Vogue shoot. There was nothing scandalous about the photo, and I believe that what the article said should bear more weight than the accompanying picture anyway. Even if she didn't love how the feature turned out, no CEO or coder should feel compelled to apologize for a situation where they did nothing wrong. Marissa has a lot at stake in appearing confident. After all, how can she inspire confidence in her investors when she can't inspire confident in herself?

Multi-tasking

I don't know about you, but whenever I attempt to multi-task, I normally end up making a royal mess of something I tried to do.

That's one of the reasons I love the District Sample Sale. It's pretty much the easiest way out there to do two things at once - REALLY well.

Directions as follows:

1. Hang with DC's coolest ladies, shop bitchin' clothes from awesome local stores at 90% off, and hit up the complimentary cocktail bar (again, and again, and again...)
2. Support one of my favorite nonprofits, the N Street Village, which helps women recover from homelessness through health services, shelter, and personal transformation.

By simply buying a ticket to the DSS, you can get all that. Not bad, right?

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE.

My fabulous and radiant friend, Alison over at DC Celine, has one of these magical tickets - VIP status, no less - to multi-tasking victory. And she's trying to give it away.

Hop on over to her site and follow this brilliantly simple recipe to learn how you can join us on September 24th for a lady party shopping do-gooder extravaganza. Sound like your vibe? See you there.

U Should Know Better

I love shopping and fashion. Like, love it. To the point where when someone asks me what my interests are, I should say "Going around the internet and filling up my shopping carts with outfits I probably won't buy." That's a hobby, right?

But things have changed in fashion. Fast fashion has trained us that $3.90 is an acceptable price for the fabric and labor to go into a t-shirt. We crave trends and new, inexpensive ways of showcasing our personal style at the cost of deeply troubling labor and environmental practices.

The tragedy in Bangladesh this past April has weighed on me for several months. Garment workers died, crafting cheap items that we may wear 3 or 4 times before we toss them, or give to Goodwill. Beyond labor practices, textile and finishing mills are producers of harsh chemicals which are toxic to us and the world in which we live.

Which brings me to now. I know too much to continue shopping in the same way I did before. I can no longer plead ignorance, and I can't, in good conscience, willfully look past these key issues affecting the fashion industry. While I long gave up Forever21 and H&M, I have recent receipts from places like Mango and Zara - stores that do not employ strong ethical practices for their production standards.

I can't tell you how sad I am to stop shopping at these stores.

But I digress. I know better, and I should do better. Fortunately, I'm not the only person who feels this way. New stores have popped up, promising to deliver classic, beautiful garments made ethically and sustainably. Stores like:
Zady
The Reformation
StyleSaint

There are lots of brands, too, like Steven Alan, Rachel Comey, and Imogene and Willie, who make their clothes here in the US, and you can trust that they do good work - to make totes gorge clothes AND sleep at night doing it.

All this is to say that I'm committing to do my best to only purchase clothes and accessories that sit well with me, ethically. I love fashion too much to not do it right.

I look forward to exploring brands that follow this path. I'll share the results of my research, and let you know how it goes. I can't change anyone else, but I can change myself. This is a start.