Project Ethical Elegance – Page 2 – Beverly Army Williams

Ethical Elegance: Meet Moop’s Maker

Last week I reviewed my favorite Moop bags, and this week, I bring you an inside look at Moop. What a thrill when Wendy, the creative, ethical woman behind Moop agreed to an interview! The Moop studio is in Pittsburgh, where every elegant bag is designed and hand crafted out of gorgeous, durable, ethical materials. All images provided by Moop.

Can you describe a typical day? What routines frame your days, even if the day’s work and play varies?
Clyde, our studio kitty, moved to my house when we made our studio move, and he relentlessly chases our house kitty, Mouse. So, I’m usually being roused by them around 4:30 each morning to tell them to knock it off!! and crash back to sleep until my alarm goes off at 5:30. I don’t consider myself a morning person..sometimes it is truly painful to get up at that hour, but that is when my day must begin at this stage of life. My daughter and I run around getting ready for the day, packing lunches, fixing breakfast, feeding the kitties, letting the chickens out for the day, turning off every light in the house (seriously, how does every single light get turned on each morning?!) and heading on our respective ways. I have a long commute right now, so I listen to a lot of audio books on my drive to the studio each morning. It’s a good time to try and calm my thoughts before the rush of the day begins.

My work days at Moop are fairly predictable and usually pretty busy. They center around production, shipping, email, marketing, customer service, etc. I have to be very efficient with my time. Being a working parent means your kids schedules are often controlling your schedule. So, once I arrive at the studio, I’m not usually making lunch dates or taking walks in the park. I’m working until I have to head out for the day and more often than not am eating my lunch while answering emails. That said, I love the days when I get to schedule photo shoots and work on new designs. Open studio time is something I have to work hard to get. It’s an important part of the creative process, but as Moop has grown, that time for me has diminished. The balance between daily production, administrative work, and creative inquiry is something I’ve been trying to restore and getting closer to getting back.

This post provides a terrific glimpse at the values that frame your work. Can you talk about how your values grew or deepened as your business grew?
Moop began as an extension of my studio practice as an artist. I had finished grad school (an MFA in photography) and wasn’t entirely sure how I was going to make a living with the degrees I had earned. It took me a while to find the value in the expensive education I had received as an MFA will not exactly help you get a job. But what I didn’t realize in those moments was how much an MFA was going to create my job…rather, how I would create my career because I had gone through the rigors of an art education. You learn a lot of things that don’t feel very quantifiable – I still believe I received the most varied education because of the route I chose. Learning to make things paired with a desire to have a career in an era where the internet exists is really a pretty remarkable place to be. Building a life around a process of making was something I had always wanted. It is now what I have earned by doing the work that I do. It has not been a piece of cake. It has been years and years of long long hours, lots of trial and error, and pounds of perseverance.

Achieving that goal has made me even more committed to the value of a life built around making things. It does not have to be physical, tangible objects – but, approaching what you do with the purpose of making something fantastic will apply to how you operate in your career and your personal life. Making personal connections is the core of making things. And, personal connections are what move us through life in happy, healthy, productive ways.

Why make bags?
I didn’t really begin with a business plan to find the thing that had the highest retail demand…I had made a few bags for myself and began making them for other people. It turned out I was pretty good at it, so I kept making more. There’s not a very scientific reason behind it. I have always carried tote style bags because they are so versatile: they hold up to my sloppy lifestyle, I can drag them around, over fill them and replace them when they’re all worn out…I usually carry one bag until it dies, then replace it with another. I don’t really accessorize with jewelry; instead my bag was always my accessory. Turns out there are a lot of people like me who want a minimalist functional style that’s not covered in branding. That’s the niche where Moop bags fit.

Will you talk about your design process? One of the things I love about Moop bags is that they transcend trendiness—the essence of elegance! How do you achieve that? What matters to you as you design? How do you match designs to fabrics?
My process is pretty organic. My first Moop design was The Market Bag. The second was a small messenger bag. Every subsequent bag has come from a variation of those two originals. I had the foundation of shape and build techniques and started working over the details. For me, I try to design our bags so everything has a function (for instance, you’ll not see decorative buckles or useless chains). If there is a top flap, the closure system needs to be functional and the flap needs to be covering something useful, like a pocket. Function and a minimalist aesthetic matter most to me. I like our bags to be versatile so, my color palette tends to be neutral. I love grays and browns and that’s mostly what you’ll see in the Moop collection. Aside from the occasional special edition, which might have a punchy color. Currently, our Backpack no.2 in Magenta is filling the role.

What are you going to be excited about in the next few months?
Our studio relocation has been one of the biggest transitions in the last few weeks so, we’re taking some time to get settled before we release anything new…though, I did recently find an amazing special waxed canvas that I’m working up some designs for!

Thanks, Wendy, for your inspiring responses! I can’t wait to see what you do with that special waxed canvas! To learn more about Moop, visit the website, follow them on Twitter or Instagram, like ’em on Facebook, or see what they’re up to on Pinterest.

Ethical Elegance: Moop Bag Review

You’ve probably heard me mention one of my favorite bag makers plenty of times: Moop! Today I’ll tell you about a few of their bags and wax poetic about the one that serves as my Mary Poppins bag.

The Tiny Clutch 2 is a great bag for tossing into a larger bag when you want to keep necessities–phone, debit card, cash, lip stick–all together. I use it all the time when I don’t want to carry a handbag and a tote.

I reviewed my Paperback bag here (scroll down to the end of the post). Now that I have an iPad mini, the bag holds even more. I especially like this bag when I’m biking to do my errands. It also makes a terrific clutch when I snap off the strap.

I’ve long been on the search for the perfect handbag, but I already own the perfect work bag: the Moop Letter Bag in waxed canvas. Like Mary Poppins’s carpet bag, this bag can hold it all (almost)! Mine is gray waxed canvas, with one of my favorite details–a gorgeous turquoise lining, which makes it easy to find all the things I stuff into the bag. Most days, the slip pocket holds my bullet journal and pencil case, the front pockets hold my reading glasses and sketchbook, and the inside pocket holds text books, work folders, student papers, articles I need to read–you get the idea. And there is a key fob, the handiest detail on any larger bag! The inside pockets are great for my iPad cord, Altoids, and other bibs and bobs I need throughout the day. While I love the look of leather bags, this one is so much lighter than my leather briefcase. I can carry it, stuffed to the brim, with little pain. I also get a lot of use of the shoulder straps–I don’t often carry bags messenger style, but I do like having the options the adjustable strap offers.

It’s more than a terrific bag for work. You can see the Letter Bag at the Louvre when it served as my second carry-on and day bag during a weekend in Paris. Moop makes many styles that are refined enough to wear with more sophisticated looks.

Of course, the fact that the bags are manufactured in the USA using ethically produced materials goes a long way in my love of them.

Stay tuned for an interview next week with Wendy, the genius behind Moop.

In the meantime, spill in the comments–which is your fave Moop bag?

Ethical Elegance Icons

The comments on last week’s Ethical Elegance post were terrific and super helpful as I refine my definition. Mary, Kirsten, and Mary Lou reminded me that the definition should include clothes having an excellent fit. Mary Lou’s encouragement to find a superb tailor made me think about my boss Nancy, at my first job out of college. Nancy was everything I wanted to be: civilized, unflappable, confident in all matters related to writing, especially grammar and style, and elegant even when dressing casually.

She’d spent her early career in Manhattan, living there with her husband and two daughters, and the polish of city life stayed with her when I knew her in Westchester. She taught me to slow down, to be more precise, to prepare for events by learning a little bit about all the big players, which allowed me to make conversation with ease.

I was scruffy, growing out a bleached pixie, too broke to buy new clothes at first. But week by week, I saved up, observed her enough to figure out I should buy one decent sweater set, a pair of flattering slacks, black loafers.

I complimented her clothes often, and I think she took pity on my attempts to dress more elegantly. She told me how she bought dresses with long sleeves and had them cut above her elbow, a more flattering look for her, or had her tailor hem her skirts to land at the sweet spot that made her legs go on forever.

When I close my eyes, I can picture Nancy in a simple tan dress with black piping that fit her as though it had been made for her. It was one of my favorite of her outfits, one that she could wear today, over 15 years later.

Part of what makes an article of clothing a classic is endurance, timelessness. As I cull my wardrobe, frame it with the ideas behind Project Ethical Elegance, I’ll bear that in mind. Ellen’s urging to love a piece, for it to make the wearer happy will be a good test, as will a pause to wonder “What would Nancy do?” –hem it, cut it, make it flatter.

I’d love to hear about one of your IRL fashion icons!

Ethical Elegance: a Definition

This picture, a view from my cot in Maine, embodies my definition of ethical elegance, which I first wrote about here. A shawl I knit, my 12-year-old jean jacket, my Breton shirt made in Brittany. The definition may shift, develop, grow as I delve into my newest style project. I can’t wait to see what I learn in the next few months.

Ethical Elegance means maintaining a minimalist wardrobe, avoiding excess and unnecessary consumerism.

Ethical Elegance means making my own clothes using as many sustainable, organic, or up-cycled materials as I can.

Ethical Elegance means purchasing from indie makers who use as many sustainable, organic, or up-cycled materials as possible.

Ethical Elegance means purchasing from manufacturers that support workers’ rights and decent working conditions.

Ethical Elegance means mending and wearing clothing out.

Ethical Elegance means turning to vintage and used clothing before buying new.

Ethical Elegance means not settling for frumpy clothing just because it is made ethically.

I’m going to return to the definition, refine it as I understand this project more. I’d love to hear what you think defines ethical elegance–won’t you share your ideas in the comments?

Four Years of Dressing with Less

The Story

August 9, 2010, just after noon. I must have stumbled across Courtney’s Minimalist Fashion Project post while eating lunch. I read it several times, thought about how I’d been longing to simplify my closet. I wanted a wardrobe in which everything fit all of me–my body, my style, my values.

I left a waffling comment:

I think I’m in. My fall / winter clothes are packed away, so I’ll have to go to the basement and see what I would want to keep for the project! I love this idea!

Boy, did I ever love it. October 1 will mark four years during which I’ve kept a minimalist closet. I’ve written about it for the Project 333 site, as well as here. I’ve persuaded IRL friends, Twitter pals,clients, and blog readers to give it a try. The initial reactions to the project are often the same: fascination, trepidation, sometimes a defensive “I don’t even wear 33 different items” (often recanted when the speaker goes back to her closet and counts), and sometimes “I don’t like the way my clothes look. How could I find 33 items I’d wear for three months?”

My response to all reactions is the same: give it a try. Just one round of it. Box up what you’re not wearing that round, and see what happens. You don’t have to give it all away, but I’m betting once you get hooked, you’ll give away a lot of those boxed clothes. And I’ll bet you’ll get a better sense of what does flatter you, and as you build your small wardrobe, you’ll be happier and happier with how you look each day.

Project 333 morphed into Project 52/52–ending on Sunday–and that morphed into Project Ethical Elegance.

I asked on Twitter and Facebook what folks want to know about dressing with a minimalish (yes, -ish!) wardrobe. Here are my responses to questions–please feel free to share your own experiences and questions in the comments.

Questions

How do you incorporate “outsiders” in your wardrobe–the occasional colors to brighten up the uniform? Since the 90s when I realized New Yorkers (most city women) wear black to hide dirt just as much as for its chic factor, I’ve been a devotee of black. During my early Project 333, I shifted to gray–I’m no longer a city dweller, and I wanted something ever-so-slightly off of the expected. Last year when I gave up dye and grew out my silver hair, I felt a strong need for color, and I turned to accessories for that bit of bright. Over the past four years, I’ve invested in an orange handbag, a chic pink scarf, a red DKNY cozy. I think hard about each accessory, try to imagine using it with every option in my closet. This spring, I got a ton of compliments when I carried my orange bag and wore m hot pink rain coat. Underneath? Gray sheath dress, fishnets, and gray Malibrans. Accessories are like the party-in-the-back part of a mullet!

Do you feel like you have enough options? I do! After almost four years, I’ve filled wardrobe gaps, found pieces that offer flexibility (check out the DKNY cozy linked above). Accessories (do I sound like a broken record?) help. I may only have two belts, but I have scarves that I also wear as belts. I may have gotten bored a few months ago, but it wasn’t the lack of options!

How do you keep from being stinky? This question really cracked me up, but I was assured it was serious. I rarely wear perfume, and I avoid smokers like the plague, so I don’t get too much environmental stink on my clothes. The first “term” of Project 333, my dryer was broken, and it was a chilly fall (read, not much outdoor clothesline action). I was pretty stingy about how often I washed clothes. I have plenty of undergarments to see me through a week without laundry, and unless I spill, I can wear my black pants, jeans, and skirts several times without washing. If you don’t have a washer/dryer at home, it’s easy enough to do a quick hand wash of that day’s clothes in the sink. Very few of my items require dry cleaning. Most of the time, if I’m in a sweaty situation, I’m wearing my work out or cleaning clothes. Finally, I wear an apron at home, in the kitchen, when I’m working in my sketchbook, sometimes if I’m out in the yard with the dogs. That’s more to prevent stains than stink, I guess.

How do I deal with relatively inexpensive jewelry I don’t wear but was gifted to me? This can be a pickle, but I’ve used a few different approaches. First, I’ve shared with the folks who tend to buy me costume jewelry that I don’t need or want about my project before a gift-giving occasion. Another option is to see if you can create something you would love to wear out of the pieces. My talented bff Sara of Et Voila Design, for example, will take your unworn bijoux to create a stunning OOAK piece that will preserve the sweet intention behind the gift and let you enjoy it.

How do you deal with those deep-season items that are essential at the weather extremes, but not really used at any other time? I like to layer, which makes many of my warm weather pieces adaptable to cold weather. For instance, my Karina dresses are short-sleeved or sleeveless, making them perfect for summer. With a light cardi, they work in early fall and late spring. Add a heavier sweater, and I’m set for winter. Add tights or no, pull on boots or sandals: endlessly flexible. As far as heavy winter coats and boots? I streamline what I have, purchase with flexibility in mind, and accept that living in New England means I can’t do without cold-weather gear.

I get bored easily with my clothes, even now that I buy fairly nice clothes. Not designer, but well made clothes for work. Do you get bored? In nearly four years of dressing minimalishly, I’ve only gotten bored once, about halfway through 52/52. I love the challenge of styling what I have in new ways (and since tights don’t count, I’ve amused myself by building a small, funky collection). Accessories, selected with care and an eye to edginess, help a lot. Project 333 is great because it only lasts three months, and I don’t know about you, but I can do almost anything for three months. At the end of each three month session, I refined my closet. I thought about what I’d been missing, what would have made me even happier when I got dressed. And then I made those very specific purchases (I’m looking at you, hot pink pleated rain coat!).

How do I get my husband to throw out stuff he hasn’t worn since college? Courtney wrote a terrific post on how to live with family who aren’t participating in your changes. When Neal saw how easy my refined wardrobe made my life, how having an emptier closet brought me more ease, he made some changes to his own closet.

What do you do when you look into the closet and you hate every single thing in there? I suck it up. It’s only happened one or two times, and it’s usually just my bad attitude that I have to smack back to its cave. By considering what makes me feel good (for me, that means well put together, like if Cary Grant suddenly stepped out of a movie and asked me to go for a drink, I wouldn’t be ashamed of how I look), what flatters me, and what is aesthetically pleasing to me, and investing in those pieces over time, I’ve made it easier to love my closet every day.

I still struggle with balancing a work vs weekend wardrobe…suggestions? Working as a professor makes this a little easier for me than if I worked in a company requiring a more corporate dress code. I don’t dress much differently on the weekends than I do for work. During the summer, I wear dresses or skirts and a tank top or t-shirt. I have work out and cleaning clothes that don’t count towards my 33 or 52 items. I love wearing my black slacks, a tank, and cardi to work with Fluevog Malibrans, and with my Ugg sneakers on the weekend. I have a few dresses that I’d never wear on the weekend, but most of the items, by changing out accessories, are great for running errands, visiting, or even hanging on my porch, writing or drawing. Honestly, I like feeling well put together when I pick up my CSA share!

Intrigued?

If you’d like to start Project 333 (you can start any time; there’s no reason to wait), but you’re feeling a little anxious about cutting down the wardrobe, I recommend you start with Courtney Carver’s excellent Micro-Course Dress with Less: Click here to view more details.* The course is a week-long, and it includes pdf worksheets, playlists to inspire you (Courtney’s a real Mix Master), and access to a private FaceBook group, where you’ll find lots of people ready to cheer for you and answer questions.

And if you have any questions about paring down your wardrobe, well, I’m here for you. I’d love to chat with you about your clothing list-sometimes it helps to hear that you really can get by with one pair of black pants!

Are you intrigued? What’s holding you back?

*Please note: I am an affiliate for this program. I believe with all of my heart in Courtney’s work. Almost four years in, I know her advice works!

Chanin-istas: Ethical Elegance

I’m about to embark on a new stitching and wardrobe adventure. If blame is to be laid, it sits at the feet of Gale and Kay. Vicki must take her share, too. The blog posts, the Tweets, the Instagram photos: call me powerless against the pretty to be found on the Internet.

Last week I had lunch with Gale (we were plotting our Fiber College Savvy Storytelling class. Join us!), and she brought her stitching with her.

I woke up the next morning from a dream. An Alabama Chanin dream. Such dreams are not to be denied.

I made my way to a magical site.

I ordered a book. I ordered a kit.

I stalked my mail.

I soothed my anticipation by learning how to love my thread and all about Natalie Chanin’s generous open source sharing of her work.

Last night when I at last could sit down with my book and kit, I devoured the book. Devoured. I nodded as I read, as I learned more about the beliefs that gird Alabama Chanin. It all makes so much sense.

And I think I had a conversion.

I sent this out into Twitter: “I want to make and wear every garment in this book”.

And Kay, ever the voice of reason, wrote back “Nothing stopping you.”

She’s right, of course.

So my plan, my next step in my elegant minimalist wardrobe project is to move, piece by piece, toward a more ethical wardrobe. I feel good buying dresses from Karina (check out my guest Dresstination post!), a cozy tunic sweatshirt from Cal Patch, a work bag from Moop. These makers, Alabama Chanin, too, have convinced me that I can dress ethically and elegantly.

I’ve never hand-sewn a garment before. I’m starting my conversion into a Chanin-ista with a shawl. I’m planning a short skirt next, and then I’m going to work my way up to a dress.

With my 52/52 project coming to a close, I’m declaring myself a new one: Project Ethical Elegance. I’d love to hear about your sources for clothing that fits both bills.

Category: Project Ethical Elegance