Category Archives: Fashion

Swishing Things Up A Little

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This season, we’ve upgraded the Style Lottery shopping experience. The first thing most people noticed was that we changed the name of our events.

So why a swish instead of a swap? It’s because swapping is simply about exchanging clothes while swishes are about creating community. Having lived in three cities in the last three years, I know from experience that meeting new people can be somewhat intimidating. Style Lottery brings people together and creates a sense of community around fashion. Our swish events happen on 3 levels (college, city, and community). Our events are our way of making our communities feel more intimate and our impact more evident.

For this event, we teamed up with a local creative collective called goDesignDC to create a unique shopping experience for our guests. The creative geniuses behind the collective (Obi and Amanda) gave us the boutique look we were going for. Here are a few highlights from the event.

A thoughtful & sustainably designed space

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Style Lottery is serious about sustainability, so teaming up with goDesignDC was a match made in Heaven. The team build the ceiling fixtures and racks from locally sourced and recycled materials. If you want to see more of their design vision, check out their Instagram page.

The chance to meet new people in your community _MG_8351

We love when our social circles overlap and our friends meet each other. Friends can turn into style soulmates in a matter of minutes. We witnessed it happen several times throughout the event. A style soulmate is someone who wears a similar size in clothing. Although you didn’t intend to, you end up picking up most of the things she brought to the swish. Once you find her, you decide you have too much in common not to be friends in real life. You exchange numbers and decide to go on a roadtrip to Philly together. That last part actually did happened at our last event. We couldn’t have made it up if we tried.

A curated boutique experience

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Our guests’ favorite part about our events is our ever-changing inventory. As the swish goes on, new items are brought out onto the floor. We had blogger and stylist, Buki Peters of Style With Buki, in the building helping guests style their swish finds. For guests at home missing out on the action, Buki also did a LIVE style session on Periscope.

The option to recycle clothes

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For this swish event, we were fortunate to partner with a local H&M store. The leftover clothing was donated to the store’s recycling program. Most people don’t know that H&M will give you a 15% off coupon for recycling with them. To reward the ladies for lowering their carbon footprints, we made sure that each woman received a 15% off coupon for her contributions.

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Thank you to everyone who made it to our first ever City Swish in DC. We’re always looking to improve your shopping experience for our guests. The feedback we received from our guests has been fantastic!  If you’ve ever been to one of our events, we’d love to hear from you. Please take 2 minutes to fill out our survey.

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   Photo cred: Obi Okolo (goDesignDC)

5 Brands With Perks To Last a Lifetime

When it comes to shopping, I am beginning to realize that a brand’s promise can be more important that the sticker price of its products. There are some brands that take their commitment to quality and customer service to a higher level. I’m talking about brands that care about a product from the minute you purchase it to the second it gets a rip in it. Read below to explore 5 brands that offer lifetime/satisfaction guarantees for their products.

#1. PATAGONIA 

Customers standing in line to fix their torn clothing in Patagonia’s repair truck.

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For all my outdoorsy friends out there, Patagonia is a brand committed to making “high-quality stuff that lasts for years and can be repaired, so you don’t have to buy more of it.” This anti-consumerist message may seem paradoxical for a for-profit apparel brand, but Patagonia knows exactly what it’s doing. They have managed to create a customer culture that values quality items and hand-me-downs. They even created a blog that celebrates the stories behind their customer’s favorite Patagonia items, may of which have been restitched and repaired rather than being discarded or replaced.

Patagonia is so true to its promise to give well-loved clothing articles a second life that it embarked on a repairing cross-country journey. Additionally, through their “Worn Wear” recycling program, if your Patagonia gear is unrepairable, you can send it to them (or bring it into the store) to be recycled and/or repurposed. Old or new, Patagonia gear holds a lot of value. Not only will this brand last longer than most. When it finally gives up the ghost Patagonia repair technicians are ready to breathe life back into it. You can find many previously owned Patagonia pieces online and the repair promise applies to them as well. This is a brand it wouldn’t hurt to buy used.

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#2. REI and #3. L.L.BEAN

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In the movie “Wild” with Reese Witherspoon starring as Cheryl Strayed, there is a scene when Witherspoon throws her hiking boots off a cliff in frustration. She later calls the company REI and they send her new boots, free of charge. A few years ago, REI customers would have told you that was a normal occurrence. Recently, REI changed its return policy to a limited warranty that covers manufacturing defects but not regular wear and tear. However, it’s big outdoors competitor L.L. Bean has maintained its 100% satisfaction guarantee promise.

The scene in “Wild” prompted me to look for comparable policies. I discovered L.L.Bean’s robust return policy. According to the website, you simply return the item and L.L. Bean will either reimburse the original purchase price or give a L.L.Bean gift card to replace the item. There was an interesting NPR article that examined how REI and L.L. Bean’s return policies affected customer loyalty. If you search online, you can hear countless stories of customers returning items more than 10 years old and getting back a new replacement. Outdoor gear can be a hefty investment but these generous return policies give customers more bang for their buck.

#4. LEVI’S

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LEVI’s jeans are known for their quality and durability. What most customers don’t realize that some LEVI’s locations have an in-house tailor shop that will make alterations, repair rips, hem and customize your jeans for you.      Customers who often have to pay to have their pants shortened or taken in can take advantage of Levi’s free tailor services. When I spoke to one of Levi’s store tailors in Copenhagen, he said that as long as you keep your receipt you can bring in your jeans for mending. Even if you don’t have a proof of purchase, you will only pay a small fee for the tailor services. To find a tailor shop near you, check out their website for locations.

#5. JANSPORT

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Going back to school always involved shopping for the perfect backpack. Most backpacks have to be replaced year after year, but Jansport backpacks come with a lifetime warranty that few customers take advantage of. Their warranty promise states “If your pack ever breaks down, simply return it to our warranty center. We’ll fix it or if we can;t we’ll replace it or refund it.” I may not have believed the validity of this warranty, had I not sent in my ripped backpack a couple years ago. After I filled out the form and returned it to the mailing center, Jansport sent me a message saying they had received the backpack and were in the process of replacing it. They informed me that an exact replacement of my backpack was unavailable, but gave me the option of choosing from newer Jansport designs. I selected my backpack design and a new one was delivered to my front door, free of charge. The Jansport-brand warranty makes certain that its classic backpacks will .

These brands are household names for a reason. They know how to keep customers coming back and that is why they have lifelong fans. These “give back”policies create a feeling of reciprocity that enable the customer to justify a higher price tag. Customers hand over their money knowing that, along with the item they paid for, they are also ensuring the upkeep of it as well. While the brands listed above are not perfect, they are exemplars in the apparel industry. Simply selling clothes is no longer sufficient, apparel companies must create a culture around their products. Patagonia values storytelling, REI and L.LBean celebrates adventurers, LEVI’s is the symbol of rebels, and Jansport exudes reliability. Apparel brands seeking die-hard fans must ask themselves, what is the brand promise that customer’s get with each purchase? If the answer is nothing, then it may be time to go back to the drawing board.

Orange Harp: Finding Conscious Brands Just Got Easier

I’ve been spending a lot of time lately discovering the heart behind brands. I find myself going to the “about me” sections of their websites, looking for the heart, soul, and conscience behind the brand. More and more, I’m pleasantly surprised to find a mission to help others behind many emerging brands.

An app called Orange Harp is making it easier to find these brands under one roof. I’ll be honest and say that before finding these brands, my method of discovering was stalking hashtags like #ecofashion, #fashionphilanthropy, #sustainablefashion, and #ethicalfashion on Twitter and Instagram.

I stumbled upon the Orange Harp app and saw that their mission is to “connect people with makers that respect the planet and its people.” The team describes the app as “a curated marketplace for socially conscious products you would want to pass on to your future generations.” When you see the app, you’d think Instagram and Etsy got together and had a baby. All the products are aesthetically pleasing and you can discover new brands from skincare and jewelry to lingerie and shirts. The Orange Harp app does a great job of curating great brands and products for you. Instead of going and searching through hundreds of Instagram profiles and websites, I can scroll through all of them at once through the app. In one click, I can see the products from each brand and see a quick summary of their mission or unique selling point.

For example, here are a few of the brands you can find on Orange Harp:

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Click picture above  to see more brands

I have a great time discovering some new brands. Here are my top 3 favorite brand discoveries from Orange Harp:

#1. Tradlands

Tomboys, eat your heart out! This brand specializes in button-down shirts for women. I love a good Oxford shirt so looking through their lookbook was entirely too much fun for me.

I loved this statement from their website:

At Tradlands, our intention is to make the best clothing for our customer, the woman who drifts towards the men’s section and thinks, “I wish they made this for me.” We create menswear inspired staples for women with a relentless emphasis on fit, details, and quality…For the world traveler or the green thumb or girl-about-town, we empower our customers with products that are both classic and comfortable. We are committed to designing and constructing items you love today and value for years to come.

Brand: Tradlands
Brand: Tradlands

#2. Be Good

The sock enthusiast in me was so excited to see these cute socks on Orange Harp’s Instagram page. The brand’s fashion sense is what they call ‘The French Closet,’ the Gallic preference for selecting seasonal basics- timeless designs that never go out of style. I’m loving the drive to good basics that stand the test of time. From comfy-looking shirts to socks wrapped in recycled paper, Be Good makes being good through fashion look easy.

Check out Be Good’s stance:

“Our ambitious mission is to be the first closed-loop retailer. It has gone mostly overlooked that big retail is the second most pollutive industry on earth. Today, we produce about 10% of the chemical and water waste of a conventional manufacturer.  By examining our supply chain from seed to stitch, we believe we can expose holes in the industry and work to fix them. Like you, we’re passionately curious.”

#3. Bogobrush

I first saw the bamboo Bogobrush a year ago and thought it was the sexiest thing ever made for your teeth. The toothbrush was so popular that they ran out of their pilot design! I was so excited to see them as one of Orange Harps’s brands.

When I couldn’t get my hands on a Bogobrush I wait…and waited. While I waited I discovered other great bamboo toothbrushes (Option 1, 2). Now the wait is over and I can check out the new Bogobrush design. Unfortunately, the brand switched from bamboo to an eco-plastic for their toothbrushes but their buy-one-give-one model is still the same. I’ll be watching for the release of the new toothbrushes to see if they stand the test.

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The Orange Harp team certainly knows how to pick ’em! I’m always interested in the story behind brands and Orange Harp tells them very well. As an entrepreneur myself, I appreciate the platform Orange Harp is giving these small businesses. This app gives them an opportunity to showcase their products to their unique markets. Like the app, the brands attract people who buy from the heart. Their customers attach an added value to the fact that their purchases either contribute to sustainability or give back to the world somehow. I’m excited to see what other brands are going to pop up in Orange Harp’s app. This app does a great job of sniffing out socially conscious brands. For consumers like me looking to give back with our spending, e-shopping with Orange Harp might just be a match made in eco-Heaven. In addition to bring great brands under one app, Orange Harp also donates 1% from all sales to Not For Sale, a organization ending human trafficking.

You can check out the $free Orange Harp iPhone/iPad app and follow them on social media (facebook, pinterest, twitter and instagram) to see some product features and get sustainable fashion news.

Little [Red] Panther in DC

For me the challenge isn’t to be different but to be consistent. – Joan Jett

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The year has just begun and I’m already experiences a lot of changes in my life. I recently moved to DC and started working at a great company. I dyed my locs red and finally realized my dream of becoming a redhead. I had the chance to see some sights in DC and pose for some pictures with my brother and his friend.

Check it out:

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IMG_2379Thanks for the great shots, Ye. You can find more of his work here.

Throwback Thursday: First Day of Grad School

Last First Day of Grad School (left). First Day of Grad School in 2013 (right).
Last First Day of Grad School (left). First Day of Grad School in 2013 (right)

This semester is the last year of my second year of graduate school at Syracuse University. It’s been a crazy fun journey and I’m looking forward to the adventures that are to come. Note: I forget it was picture day this year yet I somehow managed to wear a similar lipstick and hairstyle as the previous year!

The Intern’s Closet

I recently got an internship at an office in Washington, D.C. As I was packing and preparing myself for my life as intern, I took a look at my closet to see what I had that could work for an intern’s closet. My internship has a “business casual” dress code, so I knew I already had some items in my closet that could fit the bill. I didn’t want to buy and entirely knew wardrobe but I wanted versatility, so I was looking to add a few pieces that I could dress up and dress down. I scoured the internet for clues on what most professionals considered business casual. I stumbled upon this photo: business casual photo Here are the recommendations from the post,:

Pants (solid colors are best), Skirts (length that lands at or above the knee), Tailored dress Tailored shirts, blouses, knits, sweaters and cardigans, Blazers and jackets, Both closed toed and open toed heels are appropriate, Jewelry and accessories (such as belts, scarves, watches) should be classic and conservative

One of my biggest problems with D.C. professionals is that they look great at work, but everywhere else they look a little…interesting. I often tuck my heels (if I wear any at all) into my bag and wear cute, sensible flats on the train. I think more brands in the DC area need to invest in comfortable flats, because the market out here is serious! There are women in beautiful skirt and blouse ensembles with neon Nike sneakers on and men in well cut suits with New Balances on. For me, comfort is paramount. I enjoy getting dressed for my internship and I also enjoy the fact that I can leave work and go meet up with friends without having to change. I am comfortable and I look put together. My office seemed to be pretty casual, which explains why my wardrobe leans more on the casual side. Here are a few of my outfits and some tips for the first few weeks at an internship with a business casual dress code.

Tip #1: Show some personality with some color.

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I find most traditional black boring so I opted for a pair of cobalt blue skinny pants from F21

Tip #2: Wear a sleeveless top and bring along a sweater or jacket to adjust for the weather.

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I used online shopping websites to introduce cute inexpensive tops to my closet.

Tip #3: Use statement necklaces to make your outfits a little more interesting

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Statement necklaces tend to dress up outfits and make them appear more thought out

Tip #4: Invest in a bag is both cute and functional

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This bag is sturdy and spacious to hold my work, heels, and my lunch kit.

Tip #5:  Pair solids with patterns to break up the monotony of an outfit

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My houndstooth skirt

Tip 6: Substitute uncomfortable slack for jeggings 

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I’ve worn these wine skinny pants into the office multiple times and no one has realized they’re jeggings!

My favorite tip is the last one. I never would have thought I’d be wearing jeggings to work, but after the first day I realized my desk job requires me sitting for hours! I realized, I might as well be comfortable while I sit and work. When I decided to wear jeggings, I made sure they were the type that actually looked like regular pants (with a zipper, button, back pocket, etc.). I also both them a size up, so they wouldn’t be inappropriately tight. There is a wide variety of jeggings online and most of them are inexpensive. I know that there will come a day when I have to become a real person and buy an entire wardrobe of designer pants, but for now I am just a humble intern who wears stylish jeggings to work.  Those are my tips for dressing to impress as an intern. Are there any other interns out there? What do you all wear to work?

Style Lottery wins a Fast Forward award!

Here’s a little about the award:

Thirteen entrants—both individuals and teams—have been selected as winners in the Fast Forward competition, in which the University will fund student projects that demonstrate how Syracuse University and its students can have a positive impact on the world. The winners presented their ideas for the Chancellor, Board of Trustee members and fellow students at the Fast Forward event as part of the Chancellor’s Inauguration. The student projects will be awarded grants of as much as $1,500 to fund the completion of their projects.

This award has been just the time of encouragement Style Lottery needs. I have been hosting closet swaps for quite a few years now. It’s been a lot of work to coordinate, but they’re always worth the “trouble.” Cheers to bigger and better swaps in the future! Following the presentation, I ended up in the Daily Orange newspaper: Screen Shot 2014-04-17 at 10.13.03 AM

Brands With A Conscience: Warby Parker

Ever since I started my nonprofit organization, Style Lottery, I have been thinking about the role of fashion/apparel brands play in philanthropy. To be honest, when the marketing team at Warby Parker approached me about doing a post about their new sunglasses my first thought was to decline. Yea, they are a super chic glasses company but what made them different than the other brands?

I headed over to their site to check out their merchandise. Their website is a beautifully designed blog. I kept scrolling down their page, looking at their gorgeous layout and design. I stumbled on their new sunglasses line called the SPECTRUM Sun Collection:

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I love the look of the frames from Warby Parker. I can spot them from a mile away. They’re so unique and have a classic retro feel to them. My current prescription glasses fit into this style of frames. I especially like the DEAN English Oak and the DOWNING Striped Sassafras.

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Warby Parker has a Try-On methods. A guy I met last week told me he’s taken advantage of the Home Try-On option and had worn different frames for every day of class. I would love this option. I like changing things up. But it wasn’t even these hipsteresque frames or even the Try-on options that sold me on this company. It was their Do Good efforts. For as many times as I’ve seen these glasses and admired them, I never realized how much philanthropy Warby Parker was doing for people around the world.

Warby Parker has a “buy a pair, give a pair” system, much like that of TOMs shoes:

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I have started realizing that impacting the world through fashion may require me to buy more expensive items in order to do more good. I have bought two pairs of TOMs shoes, not just because of the aesthetic but because of the heart behind it. Some may criticize brands with this “buy one, give one” model but I would argue that these companies are addressing issues that would otherwise go unnoticed. At the very least, they are raising awareness. A few months ago, my church did a donation drive of old glasses to send to widows and orphans overseas. Prior to that moment, that issue wasn’t even on my radar. I’m attracted to the look of this brand and the heart behind it. I look forward to seeing more brands take up philanthropic causes.