Every spring, from the same mysterious source through which the green fuse drives the flower maybe , I feel the need to refresh my wardrobe with a simple white blouse. I know I've probably been brainwashed!! However, I no longer feel guilty indulging the urge, as there are endless beautiful pre-owned or vintage options like my thrifted Ulla Johnson blouse in the pic above.

Another item that makes me think of spring is a trench coat. I don't feel a similar urge to refresh my closet, though, because I found The One a few years back at Think Closet. A boutique in New York City stocked with independent Korean designers. My oxfords are thrifted from Monk's Thrift on 1st Avenue. I'm thrilled I held onto them. One of my best, tried and true cleaning-out-your-closet rules is this: if something is really good quality and still fits, NEVER get rid of it. Fashion is cyclical but slow. Eventually, patience pays off! I wore these oxfords all the time about eight years ago, and now they feel relevant again. 

The only truly new item in this picture are my Levi's. Suckered by marketing, I bought them at a low moment this winter. I had to stay home, snowed in with a sick baby most of the winter and could rarely make it out to the gym. These "wedgie icon" jeans promised to deliver a perky tush at a time when I was feeling less than perky in general.

My take: I looked around online, and I feel like other women in the big butt tribe also felt as if these particular Levi's pushed their behinds more flat than up. However I did like the similar, flattening support in the front. I still have a bad tendency to stand like I'm pregnant with my tummy out. These exert a gentle pressure on my tummy and remind me to stand tall. I like them a lot. I'll wear them a lot, but they're not my favorite jeans.

Before I wrote the review (above), though, I looked into Levis' sustainable practices and I was very pleasantly surprised. I rarely buy jeans new. Like pretty, white blouses, there are infinite options available pre-owned and vintage.  Plus, growing the cotton to craft one pair of jeans can require TEN YEARS of drinking water.  (Three for tees!)  Good on You, which is both a website and an app, rated Levis as overall "good", noting: 

Levi's are making continued headway in many areas, including reducing hazardous chemical use and encouraging customers to think about their own water use in caring for their Levi's as well as thinking of their Levi's as a longterm investment. These are my first pair of jeans, but I know I've had my Levi's cutoffs for ten years plus, and they're still just as cute now as they were ten years ago! (It probably helps that I couldn't fit into them due to two pregnancies for four of these ten years, but still!) I felt really optimistic after learning such a big company is making such a big effort to change their manufacturing and distributing practices!

Do you own any Levi's? Which number works for you? I know the 501s are pretty iconic... I'd love to find a vintage pair next!  

Wedgie Icon Jeans are available here. 

​Another secondhand Ulla Johnson blouse is available here. 

For some reason, (read: the election), I've been on a poetry fast for about a year now. Knowing April is National Poetry Month, I had to read some poetry, but I felt unable to crack a book of poems just like that after a whole year away. A whole year without touching my heart in the places poetry touches it. It's like when you've been sitting on your foot. You've got to shake your foot out first before you try to run. 

So I grabbed The Poetry Lesson by Andrei Codrescu, a Romanian born poet who writes more beautifully in English than 99.99% of native-born speakers. The Poetry Lesson is ostensibly about an older poet teaching an introduction to poetry class to some young, naive things, but it's really a windy, fun ride. A sort of syllabus of the poet's own experience of being a poet in a world that doesn't just put aside poetry for a year but sometimes seems to have put it aside entirely. 

So I settled into my pink, foamy bath made from an adorable cupcake bath bomb by Sky Organics. A person needs a warm, cozy place to delve into the terrifying depths of the soul. The book is only 117 pages, but by the time I'd finished it, so was my list of poets I wanted to read or re-read.

My favorite conceit from the book is that we can each pick a poet, dead or alive, as our ghost companion-- or G-C as Andrei calls them. For the sake of simplicity, he assigns a poet to each student based on the letter of their last name. My list cum Andrei's vision would look something like this: Emily Dickinson, Rita Dove, John Dryden, Bob Dylan, Camille Dungy, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Guillaume du Salluste du Bartas, Annette von Drust Hölshoff, H.D., or, maybe best of all, Jane Draycott-- because she's 1. living, 2. a woman, and 3. British.

(I'm an anglophile, because I'm half-French, and we're perverse that way. (The English famously loathe-- "Your mother smells of huckleberry!"-- but also love the French and vice versa.) Also now, thanks to my husband's last name, I'm Irish, so the English have become even more forbidden fruit to me.) Or maybe I will simply choose Andrei... at least for this bath. I feel like he would get a kick out of his book being put to such pink, frothy uses by a languid woman immersed in a tub.

Do you have a writer who's like a soul mate or an imaginary friend or who seems like they could be a friend? I used to feel that way about so many writers when I was younger, including, of course, J.K. Rowling, the whole world's imaginary, magical writing pal. I especially feel that way about her now, because she's even more amazing on epigrammatic Twitter than she might even be in novel form. Do you follow her? 

Also, P.S. I linked a bunch of green beauty treats I like to indulge in on Saturdays or Sundays when I treat myself to a (quarter-full) bath. P.P.S. This K. Bunni Cosmetics mask that I adore is only $10 and works so well!  You can use my code "greenbeauty" to get an additional 10% off. 

On our way to the flea market last year! We seem to have skipped right over spring this year and gone from the bitterest cold straight to 70 degree weather, so I thought it would be nice to ruminate on the perfect spring (last year's!), the perfect (thrifted!) spring outfit, and the Clover Flea Market-- one of my favorite spring events in Philadelphia.

​It was already held in Chestnut Hill this spring, but here are some upcoming dates in and around the city:

I love this outfit, because each element was hunted down in different thrift and flea markets. My Valentino sandals are pre-owned from Tradesy. They just barely fit (thank goodness), but they're comfy and gorgeous. Because the soles were just slightly scuffed, they were very affordably priced. I guess secondhand clothes aren't for the faint of heart, but if you're open-minded and willing to deal with a scuff or a scratch or a frayed buttonhole here or there, you can score INCREDIBLE deals online. These were the exact shoes I wanted, and I found them for a quarter of their price new because the soles are slightly battered. You can't even tell when they're on! 

I found this Faithfull the Brand dress on eBay. It has a little spot, again not even noticeable on, so it was only $35! Plus, I love it, because, not only is it chic and effortless to wear, but it's doubly sustainable-- Faithfull the Brand is a sustainable designer that uses family-run factories and local resources in Bali. I now also know the brand runs a little small. I've since bought some of their clothes directly and know to size up.  Buying secondhand is a great way to learn about higher end brands and you end up with some beautiful pieces that cost the same as fast fashion pieces but are handmade and ethically sourced. 

There's nothing like treasure-hunting in a flea market while a bluegrass band plays, the sun shines down, and handmade ice cream fills your tummy! I love the giant macrame plant holder I found at the Clover Flea Market last year. Now that we've recently moved, I'll be on the lookout for new wall decorations. What's your favorite vintage/ thrifted/ flea market find? 

When I began my crash course in sustainability, I could not have imagined how much it would change my life or how welcome those changes would be. To my surprise, a sustainable approach has improved to and added to my quality of life. And in ways I never even imagined when I first made the decision to embrace a different, greener, less anxious, and slower lifestyle. For example, instead of being about me sacrificing, my life has transformed for the better-- my clothes, whether secondhand or sustainably made are nicer. Green beauty treatments have left my skin clearer and brighter, and many of the products are as simple and cheap as investing in a jar of coconut oil. 

Basically, my outlook is all around brighter. 

One of the most surprising aspects of my sustainable adventure is how much fun it's been learning to cook! (If you know me at all, you know I'm a terrible cook. I have done the impossible and burned water. But if you want to be a vegetarian and don't want to subsist on pizza and bagels, learning to cook is a job requirement.)  In that spirit of gratitude and a desire to share what I'm learning, I recently gave away two free meals on Blue Apron on Instagram. [edit: giveaway closed.] Blue Apron has delicious vegetarian and pescetarian recipes and meal kits are a great way to feel more confident about making recipes more complicated than: open oven. Pop in frozen pizza. Try not to burn it.

​Head over to @IsabellaDavidVintage to find out more!

This plaid top is a big trend for spring, but it was definitely inspired by similar apron tops from the 70s! There are a few left on sale at Bloomingdales, but I found a bunch of similar, vintage options online as well as a super cute, pre-owned option by J.Crew. The Pinterest boards below offer aspects of my outfit in a range of sizes from size 0- size 16 and prices from $10-$2,000. The original outfit was copied from Lauren of @discodaydream, because she is my style goddess and I love creating sustainable, affordable versions of her styles.

Follow my slow fashion diary for more vintage goodness and fun ideas @IsabellaDavidVintage!
xx
​Izzy 

As pretty much everyone acknowledges, France is the world's leader in what's cutting-edge in fashion. Whatever Parisian girls are wearing today, in five years the rest of the world will be wearing, too. That's common knowledge. What was more surprising for me to discover is that France is also the leader in anti-fashion.

Antifashion is a new movement in the fashion world, because the old system is no longer working. Antifashion, or slow fashion, doesn't mean people against fashion. Not at all! The opposite is true! You can be involved in antifashion and still love fashion. Rather, it's a movement reimagining concepts and practices surrounding fashion. Instead of a mindless pursuit of labels and status and consumerism, antifashion is about loving fashion to bits but with a more life-enhancing and sustaining approach to fashion--not only for the sake of the planet, animals, and the workers in the textile and manufacturing side of it, but also for the sake of the consumer, who might have lost a sense of wonder, having replaced "marveling at the world" in Stéphanie Calvino's words on Chiffon, a fashion podcast, "with television" and with endless shopping. 

In a more concrete sense, instead of ten, cheap shirts, antifashion asks us to consider buying three well-made ones. And by well-made, antifashion asks us to consider how the shirts were produced and made. 

More information about antifashion can be found at www.anti-fashion-project.com 

If you're exceptionally busy like me, a mother of two toddlers and three rescue animals, then consider shopping secondhand. You can still purchase higher quality items with zero impact on the planet, and, just as life-enhancing as anything else, you'll easily save a lot of money as well.

My neverfull Louis Vuitton tote is secondhand from Tradesy. Because it was monogrammed "GXY" it was even cheaper! I call it my "GalaXY" bag, because it's as big as one. My jacket is Vince, size 2, and will be up for sale in my new shop as I can't  close it over my new mom boobs and probably won't ever wear it again for that reason. Follow my ongoing minimalism & upcycling project @IsabellaDavidVintage on Instagram. My faux-leather jeans are Current-Elliot from Housing Works in NYC. My boots are made by Swedish Hasbeens, a sustainable fashion company that uses vegetable dyes to process its leather and pays its workers a living wage. 

We just have to accept that winter is the time for frizzy, flat hair and dry, itchy, scaly skin, right? Wrong! I have found, through using a variety of fair-trade oils and organic creams, that winter doesn't have to mean giving in to drier temperatures and becoming bone-dry ourselves. Here are a few of my favorite, green discoveries at a variety of price points. 

1. Kora Organics Noni Glow Face Oil

At $68 for 1 oz bottle, this is by far the priciest item on my list, but don't be scared off! A few drops goes a long, long, long way, and I have to say it's the most life-changing of the green products I've encountered over the past year since I made my lifestyle switch. Your makeup goes on like buttah, and it can even replace primer, rendering it an even more economical choice. I also have to admit I first encountered this face oil in a not very green way. I love Jasmine Tookes' makeup tutorials. I have never seen a human being enjoy anything as much as that Victoria's Secret Angel enjoys applying makeup. I was even happier to hear J. Tookes mention an organic brand. Kora Organics are certified organic, but I still did some checking. They have a B rating from Shop Ethical! And are praised for being vegan and cruelty-free as...why wouldn't you be if you're making oil*! 

(*I'll tell you why. Companies that want to take advantage of the huge, growing market in China will test on animals despite anything. Despite naming their companies "Fresh" or "Makeup Against Cruelty". To be fair, Chinese law requires foreign companies to test on animals. To be unfair: so what?? If that goes against your ethos-- calling yourself organic or cruelty-free as MAC does-- then I think you stick to your guns or we take our dollars elsewhere!) 

2.  Shea Moisture Coconut Oil

This company goes out of its way to market itself as fair trade. Unlike Kora, which was developed by another Victoria's Secret Angel and so not really for sale at mortal prices, Shea products are very affordable and available at almost every Target and CVS store that I've visited. 

You can also use the coconut oil on sale at your local grocery store. It works the same either way! I love Shea Moisture's version because it comes in a plastic tub. I don't know how many times a glass jar of cooking coconut oil has slipped out of my freshly lotioned-hands to shatter all over my bathroom floor. (Or, possibly it's not the lotion's fault: I'm really clumsy.) Either way, I love the shatter-proof container and best of all a tub of coconut oil can last me for months and months. I use it for everything from face cream-- although I prefer to the above for layering under makeup-- to body lotion to deep conditioner or even a light patdown before I leave the house to fight winter frizz.

3. The Honest Company's Deep Hydration Cream and Magic Balm

The Honest Company offers another variety of great, affordably eco-friendly products readily available at stores like Target. (I checked online, and they seem to be living up to their claims, or at least attempting to do so!) I love their liquid blush. If you're interested in their makeup, please feel free to DM with questions, but as far as winter products go: the deep hydration cream works well and smells great. My only quibble is that there isn't much of it for the price point, about $34. There's even less of the magic balm, but a tiny, tiny bit goes a very, very long way, and it retails at only $18. 

4. K. Bunni Co 

A recent, serendipitous experience was the owner of K. Bunni Co finding me on Instagram and asking me to try out her organic beauty products... as if that was any hardship to me at all! I looooove trying out products, and now that I've gone green and am changing up my regular routine, it's been a great excuse to try some more new brands. I couldn't have been happier to find out how easily I could replace my heavy cream with K. Bunni's Luxurious Body Butter. It goes on heavy and the smell is a little strong, but it soaks in very quickly without leaving any residual feeling behind and works wonders on dry elbows and callused, winter feet. I am also in love with K. Bunni's French green clay and aloe mask, which retails for only $10 but works as well, if not better, than my former go-to: Lancôme's White Clay Mask, which retails at a steeper $36.  

5. Humidifier

I've been using a humidifier as many nights as I can remember to do so for the past few winters, and it does make a difference. Sky Organics makes a really pretty one that you won't mind storing out in the open year-round, available here for $39.99. 

One of my favorite recent trends is the revival of the maxi dress from the 70s, which was in itself a throwback to the 30s when hemlines dipped low again after briefly hitting their first high EVER in the 20s.... Really what is more vintage than a maxi dress? It's the feminine silhouette from time immemorial. And modesty aside, I see why: it's comfortable and pretty and so easy to throw on. This one pictured above is a second Self-Portrait dress from Tradesy paired with sustainably made Swedish Hasbeens boots and a vintage cashmere shawl from Millay Vintage, named Best in Philadelphia! It works well for any season, and that's another reason I love it. I bought it this spring but wore it again through the fall and now into the winter. 

What's your favorite maxi dress style? I definitely need a little extra confidence on the days when I wear this more fitted, textured version. 

One of my friends recently watched The True Cost, a documentary available to stream on Netflix about... well, here it is in the doc's own words:

It's about the clothes we wear, the people who make them, and the impact the industry is having on our world. The price of clothing has been decreasing for decades, while the human and environmental costs have grown dramatically.

This was my friend's reaction to the documentary: "I am never shopping again." I don't think people understand the severity of the problem we're facing because of fast fashion-- the human and environmental costs both that are just as much a part of that amazing, unbelievable deal you spotted at Forever 21. I myself recently saw a blue velvet blazer for sale on Amazon for $5. Less than a cup of coffee in NYC. The blazer didn't look half bad, either, but the story behind that pricetag is all bad, I guarantee you. 

If you don't want to watch the film because the images might be too much to process, consider reading Lucy Siegle's To Die For: Is Fashion Wearing Out the World. 

This is an issue we all need to engage with either way, because very few of us are going to be nudists. We all wear clothes, and the worst part is we don't even have to give up on fashion in order to not burn the planet and all of us trying to live on it to the ground. 

We just have to care a little bit. In that spirit, I styled a beautiful summer dress I bought a few years back and never wore because I was "saving it for a special occasion" a few different ways. I was shopping for a maxi dress like my fashion icon Florence Welch, when I realized I already had one in my closet! That is slow fashion, too: not just denying yourself a new dress out of some ethical quandary, let alone a financial one, but appreciating the stuff you already have. 

Do you have clothes that you could layer and make work for fall? Share your ideas in the comments below! All the items I accessorized my summer dress with are vintage or secondhand. Message me for details. 
xx
​Izzy

This past Sunday I got dressed in my favorite secondhand dress-- from sustainable fashion superbrand Reformation, so it's doubly sustainable, hooray!-- and practiced visualizing an upcoming audition. I tried out my monologue in different settings: in my backyard, over a cup of coffee, walking my dog. I repeated it until I knew it backwards and forwards. (I would also advise writing it down several times over. I forgot this tip myself, and I think it would have helped me when the director asked me to perform it at double then triple speed. I definitely skipped words.) 

That minor gaffe aside, when the day of the audition came, I couldn't have been more relaxed. I had the chance to perform my monologue several times and earned valuable feedback from the director, who let me know exactly what he liked and didn't like about the audition. 

I used to view auditioning with passing dread. A few years back, someone gave me this brilliant advice: view auditioning as an opportunity to act. 

It took me a while to absorb the wisdom of that statement and more time for the butterflies that were threatening to take over my belly to finally disperse, but they did disperse. I don't know if it's my limited time or having had two babies and lived to tell about it, but I'm not afraid in the same way anymore. The butterflies are more the pleasant kind you get over a crush. 

So have a crush on your goals! Bring that positivity and excitement into an audition room, and I promise you'll learn and grow and be that more ready when the right opportunity presents itself. 

Secondhand Reformation dress from eBay. Secondhand Louis Vuitton satchel from Second Time Around in Soho. Rag & Bone hat bought new for my birthday a few years back. 

As I mention in my blog's sidebar, my sister, a scientist and professor currently working for the Army Corps of Engineers, inspired me to learn more about sustainability and climate change. However, to be frank, at first I was too frightened to delve into the situation. It felt as if, just by opening the covers of books like The Sixth Extinction, I could hear a sepulchral voice shouting from a street corner, "The end of the world is nigh! Repent, ye sinners!"

For my part, I've been easing myself into the world of sustainability via ethical fashion and, to my surprise, the more I learn about the world of sustainability as a whole, the more optimistic I feel about the future and our power to change the world, our world, for the better. Here are me and my sister's five picks geared towards others who want to strike a similar balance between activism and optimism: 

1. The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert 

Our first pick is pretty obvious*. Published in 2014, it was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize and named one of the New York Times Book Reviews best books of the year. I haven't read it yet myself, but I know Stanford is now asking incoming Freshmen to read it. For all those reasons, it's high on my TBR list. For those with less time, my sister mentions that Kolbert has also written a more feel-good(ish) essay about a Danish community's victory over carbon emissions. You can read it here: www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/07/07/the-island-in-the-wind.

*The Sixth Extinction is available on kindle for $9.99, although for some reason it's listed as an e-textbook. 

2. This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate by Naomi Klein

Ugh, I haven't read this one, either. My sister gave me a copy. I started reading it and became terrified when Naomi Klein began scolding people (like me) for looking away. However, we don't have the luxury to look away any longer, not with category 5 hurricanes becoming more commonplace. Not to mention the devastating effects of climate change staring us in the face. (On a related note, please consider giving a few dollars to Puerto Rico. Donors are experiencing fatigue after Texas and Florida and people haven't been as galvanized to help Puerto Rico, which suffered mind-boggling destruction). 

Again, on a happier note, as I've been around the people who are dealing, I've become more and more optimistic, not less so. So I feel like I can deal now! I can read this book now. (I'll still be starting with number one on this list first, however.)

*If this pick, still strikes you as too scary, my sister also suggested Climate/ Energy: Hot: Living the Next 50 Years on Planet Earth by Mark Hertsgaard. She describes it as "hopeful" and a "solutions-driven book on climate change."

3. To Die For: Is Fashion Wearing Out the World by Lucy Siegle 

My third pick is one I have read* and can only describe as life-changing. Lucy Siegle presents an expose of the fashion world's environmental devastation and its all-too-ubiquituous ill treatment of workers along with a vision of how green truly can be the new black. She's the Observer's "Ethical Living" columnist, and her book reads like a well-informed friend describing both a horrifying reality alongside an inspiring alternative.

Siegle believes ethical fashionistas can exist, and I know from personal experience beginning to shop ethically has NOT meant giving up on style. I have not had to don sackcloth and ashes but rather have changed my mindset and my expectations from the fashion world and for myself. I buy far fewer things now, yes, but those things are far more beautiful. The more I learn about what goes into creating a garment, the more I treasure what I have as well. See my post on not shopping for a month for more on the subject. 

*Some other books on this subject on my TBR list are Wear No Evil by Greta Eagan and Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion by Elizabeth L. Cline. 

4. American Wasteland: How America Throws Away Nearly Half Its Food and What We Can Do About It by Jonathan Bloom 

Another rec from my sister. I'm eager to read this one myself as this topic is a cultural fight in my own household. I'm French-American and the French half of me dominates when it comes to food as in: "Why throw food out just because it's past its expiration date? Especially if it smells all right?"

My American husband will proceed to look at me like I'm nuts. "You eat rotten cheese if you want."

"Aargh! But it's not rotten!" I'll shout, frustrated that he's being so obtuse. However, nothing I said convinced him one iota, until I pointed out that France had become the first country in the world to ban supermarkets from throwing away or destroying perfectly good food.

www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/04/french-law-forbids-food-waste-by-supermarkets

​Now, he at least doesn't throw my food out, although I still can't quite convince him to ignore expiration dates and smell the food himself. I can't wait to read more about this difference in mentalities and where it comes from. 

5. Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet by Bill McKibben

Okay, if you've read this far, you're probably pretty tough and you can take this one. Bill McKibben was one of the first to warn about global warming over twenty years ago. Now he claims, not only is global warming upon us but the Earth has been so fundamentally changed it might as well be referred to by a new name: Eaarth. "Our hope depends, McKibben argues, on scaling back — on building the kind of societies and economies that can hunker down, concentrate on essentials, and create the type of community (in the neighborhood, but also on the Internet) that will allow us to weather trouble on an unprecedented scale. Change — fundamental change — is our best hope on a planet suddenly and violently out of balance." 

Further reading:

On Water 
Unquenchable: America's Water Crisis and What To Do About It  by Robert Glennon
-An easy-to-read, hopeful book about water crisis. 

Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner. 
-A famous book, written in the '80s about water. Very controversial in tone. 

Water: Adapting to a New Normal by S. Postel 
-There's also a shorter essay by this author that you can read here: www.scribd.com/document/63678768/WATER-Adapting-to-a-New-Normal-by-Sandra-Postel

The Last Drop by M. Specter

On Food 
Omnivores Dilemma and Botany of Desire by Micahel Pollan
-Also Pollan wrote a really great essay in the New York Times to then president-elect Obama: michaelpollan.com/articles-archive/farmer-in-chief/

Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal by Tristram Stuart 
-He also gave a Ted Talk: 

On the Climate/ Energy/ Sustainable Living
Hot: Living the Next 50 Years on Planet Earth by Mark Hertsgaard
Farewell, My Subaru by Doug Fine
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
Sleeping Naked is Green: How An Eco-Cynic Unplugged Her Fridge, Sold Her Car, and Found Love in 366 Days by Vanessa Farquharson 
The Sustainability Revolution by Andres R. Edwards and David W. Orr