Transeasonal Dressing – Perfect for Spring and Fall – For a year around style.
It is a concept to reduce production of clothing and consumption of clothing. A way of dressing to save on the amount of garments needed to live a full existence. Travelers think this way a lot. How many different ways can I wear this skirt or pair of pants?
Clothing that can be layered or worn alone. Clothing that can go from day to evening, or from work to play. If we are wearing functional pieces that can change with the seasons, and the activity, we are doing really well.
The dress codes are not as strict according to social norms going forward or in certain circles. We can set an example by wearing dresses from morning until evening and to the playground or on a long walk. Finding versatile pieces. I once made a vest with panels that folded out on my lap while eating hot dogs at a game or eating lunch on a bench or it I could use it to sit on.
In my opinion, women lawyers should wear shorts with blazers and everyone should be able to wear shorts to work, church, and out to dinner. Men should wear skirts once in a while. The Scottish kilt has made a mainstream foray here and there and I think everyone all around loves the freedom! The Indonesian wrap skirt men wear seem so effortless. The tunics of clergy get to have that sheath comfort women experience with some dresses.
TransSeasonal fashion are pieces especially found for your sustainable wardrobe of versatile quality to last.
They are the lightweight oversized white blouse that can be worn many different ways with or without layers.
The great pair of skorts or baggy shorts made from a durable hemp or bamboo tencel with an elastic waist.
The boxy t-shirt of organic cotton that looks so good it can be worn with a jacket or to court. (I am obsessed with court?–It kills me. Women lawyers do not wear pants?!)
A comfortable tailored jacket, or well made, well fitting jacket, not necessarily fitted, but made out of a fabric that looks and feels good. A tweed from recycled wool (wool is a breathable year around fabric the Arabs of the Sahara wear) , orethically sourced linen with sustainable silk blend.
Other basics include a thin knit shirt. The h20 heat fabric is lightweight, warm and works as an overtop or sweater and as a base layer, bought from Costco (can not be good, but is it) Read ECO/CULT article about sourcing how a fabric is made is more important than anything else.
The h20 has a Huggy feel to excuse under garments or not too tight to add a big bra underneath.
Always perfect jeans, I would recommend Levis but there are so many brands to research to find the ones you love. I need at least three or four pairs in my wardrobe. I am lucky enough to always run across a vintage pair of Levis that I inevitably doctor up with a higher waist band addition, some embroidery, some extra length, some side panels, some inseam panels, the list goes on and on.
We all need one go-to jumper/sweater for year around use. My favorite is a hand me down from my daughter, -it became too big for her? It is white on the front including the sleeves and black on the back with the perfect boxy cut straight across at the neckline producing a mock turtleneck. It works with everything when being prepared for cold.
Check out some of these versatile dresses to inspire making one of your own with some of the unworn excess in your closet. Look closely through the blurry pictures into your imagination of waking up one morning in April wearing one of these artfully combined upcycle easy dresses.
Shirt Dresses to put on and wear all day long are also a must have to make your clothing more sustainable and functional. Most have roomy side pockets. Some are wrap dresses designed to tie at the side or pinned in place with a brooch. One is an open front designed as a tunic or can be wrapped.
Most of all Transeasonal is about shopping for more than one occasion or one season.
To cut or not to cut? Cut all these clothes I have?
These days I am not so hesitant to cut into more expensive designer garments.
Although I still say I would not cut up a Chanel suit. I have only seen a Chanel suit once in a friend’s closet. She was someone who dressed more like Stevie Nicks with flowy silky dresses than wearing a couture jacket.
On a practical note, potentially losing a few thousand dollars by destroying what the coat is intrinsically worth? I ask rhetorically, should certain designers are off limits for upcycling? Of course not!
Does waste matter more by seeing less expensive clothes in the world? While clothes go to waste regardless of their cost, would you like to see it deconstructed, or should we always honor the original structure of a garment? A garment that has become disposed of, like most clothes end up, contributing to the Fashion Industry creating the largest portion of human waste today.
Am I allowed to cut up anything I want?
Well it was hard to actually sell a portion of what I considered unusable clothes on Ebay. Not because it wasn’t selling, I did not want to post it. I wanted it for myself, for my creative endeavors. If I had some nice business clothes, often I would then give them to a charity WHW Women Helping Women. But since things have been closed and donations restricted I decided to do a little more, combining jackets into one perfect one and so on.
This time it was one Wilson House of Suede Black Leather coat from the eighties, a Goretex all weather coat, an Ungaro suit, an Ed Hardy hoody sweater and some other stuff. Mixed in was a hat from a company that will replace it when it gets worn out, and people put this hat in their will, where I got mine. These were clothes I had to “process”.
A long time ago I sold an Isaac Mizrai shift dress and matching coat from Target, in a huge navy and white abstract flower print that I miss to this day. Maybe I got what I paid for them, around 70.00? Not worth it when I could have made so much from these. I have such fond memories of the ensemble and I actually wore them on occasion, usually as separates but a few times together. At the time I thought about using the fabric in something else, reworking the dress and making a vest out of the jacket but I thought not to mess with designer wear even if it was from Target.
Nowadays I see Louis Vitton bags being cut up for wrist bracelets, used as canvasses for little paintings and new keychains. I love it actually. I have an LV bag my niece gifted me before she moved to the jungle and I almost sold it. It has about doubled in value. I may repurpose it or at least since it was a gift I keep it.
I had just moved back to Southern California when Isaac started selling clothing at Target. I had just gotten a job at St. John Knits in Irvine CA. They had a really funny dress code, no jeans. Well that left me with nothing to wear half of the time. So I started buying the ill fitting Target tailored Isaac clothing. Dress ensembles, skirts, pants, cardigan sweaters which none of it really fit me right. I was still skinny from living in NYC but always had a more high fashion model body, long waist, still skinny but more hippy, as in hips.
Although I quit that job after one year (another blog). I really should never have bought so many funky Target clothes to begin with for work. Nick, the patternmaker I worked with had a little intervention with me one day when I was wearing my chino Gap pants to say I should go out and buy five more pairs just like them and stop wearing the other shit. I bought a few more pairs and started wearing jeans too. I am at my best in a white sea island cotton or silk shirt tucked or tied at the waist with jeans and black shoes, boots, sandals, tennis shoes, wingtips or pumps. I like a few different styles of jacket or sweater to go with the outfit too. While I am at it, accessories with little silk scarves and easy jewelry too, necklaces have to go over my head only, not good with clasps except for earrings so they do not pull out.
I digress, so I was hesitant to post these items for sale. Because while I was working at my many jobs back in the day we cut up a Calvin Kline jacket for the pattern. Somewhat recently a very hip company asked me to knock off a Row trench coat and already had it in pieces. I still see it on the line of the company. That is probably how I became so comfortable cutting up clothing. It was my job as a patternmaker, I either had a bunch of funky samples made out of the wrong sample fabric that no one wanted or nice first samples that needed some fit corrections.
Anyway the abundance of clothing at my disposal was pretty incredible and yet, I didn’t even want it. Once in a while I would take a collar home and sew it on a tshirt or sometimes cuffs. Once I had an oversized coulotte that I took home and made a bunch of pleats in it and wore that piece for years to weddings and everywhere practically.
I know not everyone has had the experience with clothing that I have where they feel comfortable cutting up clothes in their closet, or perhaps something just short of a Chanel jacket.
But we all should try, while researching the sustainable fashion movement we are not going to have leather, cotton, and silk like we have in abundance in our closets right now. So I will love it, refashion it, make it into something I can cherish and wear.
In my case I am more inspired and excited to make something cooler out of the stuff for selling; so be it. I will put it on the line of SaladBowlDress made into three or perhaps four garments on a good day.
For others thinking about making or upcycling their clothes I still say go for it to find your personal style and look your best.
Happy March, Happy International Women’s History Month! For all the powerful women out there and the men who comfort us, I thank you! Salad Bowl Dress is happy to be part of this month’s history (HERstory), empowering all women everywhere fighting for the mother we all share, the Mother Earth!
Riding this “Earth- ship” one day at a time it feels good to spread the message of love and gratitude when I see the smile of people wearing their new SBD vests. I’m happy to have shared these moments with each of you that have made a change to fight climate waste by being fashion-forward in wearing your upcycled SBD vests. Two inspiring SBD warriors teach us a little about how to let their fashion be part of their action:
Hearing about the intense work all of our teachers have been doing over the past year, I wanted to help at least one teacher in particular by giving her a vest. I always say they are for the teacher, creative, and worker.
Pam Keller is teaching multi-age K-3 students going from lockdown zoom classes, to doing in class and zoom. We see her wearing her Salad Bowl Dress vest inside what looks like a bubble as she takes on the brains of our children on this facebook/saladbowldress post. She is a reminder of all the hard-working, adaptable teachers caring for our kids as the backbone of our society through these times who I want to thank so much!
Now please meet the talented Emma Caltrider who has become the unofficial face of SBD. She has worn the SBD vests since graduating from high school. Always tagging us when she has had performances singing on stage or galavanting around NYC in days of yore. She graciously models for us now. Always showing her care for fellow humankind performing songs or yoga classes on her Instagram, and youtube channel @Emma_andthe_BrightSouls, and acknowledging her privilege as a white woman. She is definitely a hero.
Finally, the first day of Spring felt like the world was coming back from the dead and I sure hope so.
SaladBowlDress at Claremont Farmers market is happening around the third Sunday every month now. See you there this Sunday March 28.
We are starting to open up the SBD store on Thursdays starting soon, until then you may call for an appointment.
Salad Bowl Dress has been a grassroots business that’s been lucky to be fertilized by a very cool community since our beginning. As SBD has spread to higher heights and the SBD brand grows, I’d love to know more about your experience with our clothes so we can help make our community a little cozier.
What is your favorite feature?
What would you like to see more of?
March 9th was International Women’s Day so don’t forget to show your love and respect for mother earth by tagging your SBD @saladbowldress clothes to show off your waist rather than putting waste in the atmosphere by purchasing unethically sourced clothes that contribute to higher carbon emissions. What do I mean?
History is written about wars fought and cities built, let’s make Herstory about Compassion revitalized and kindness breaking barriers. What do you want “Herstory” to represent? I would love to hear your testimonials of what Salad Bowl Dress means to you and what you’ll do to celebrate the female past present and future during this month.
The Autumn/Winter ‘21-’22 + Spring/Summer ‘22 Fashion Forecast shared by Magic Sourcing Trends Digital Discovery Session, is a validation of everything we here at SaladBowlDress stand for…
In a few words making hand-tailored deconstructed clothing for the masses with clothing that would otherwise end up in a landfill is right on trend. I was pleasantly surprised by how much SaladBowlDress represents all the core tenets of the forecast next year.
The four major trends:
1. Prioritize functional trans seasonality
2. Focused on refined craft
3. Promote day to night versatility
4. Create timeless appeal with classic heritage
Seasonless versatility, multifunctional, long lasting trend, nostalgic retro colors, textures and the same with interiors.
Versatile work-life trends and home comforts continue to influence the materials sought. Tactile, comfortable and performance quality plus transeasonality is a big concept going forward.
Transeasonal is the anti-season, clothes not specifically intended for winter or summer. A trend the fashion industry has promised to make sustainable fashion.
Those transeasonal pieces in a wardrobe are essential to layer, throw on and take off in accordance with a sudden change in temperature. I.e. A dress made of a model fabric that can be layered or worn alone, a SaladBowlDress utilitarian tunic or vest.
The performance quality goes from indoors to outdoors and has smart denim or antibacterial fibers to accommodate a back to nature movement.
Textile space, feel good, easy care, strong focus on comfort and how fabrics behave, washable, stretchable, sustainable, and how it makes me feel, as in wellness. At SaladBowlDress all our garments are washable easy care pieces focusing on comfort.
Transparency and ecologically sound, sustainable fashion to help with climate change is a big motivator of this movement. Fabrics must be ethically sourced and manufactured. We want to know where and how and who makes our clothes.
The textile story is one of many textures, soft and plush, tweeds and fleece and a big craft element will prevail. SBD LOGo
Many of the textiles going forward are the 100 % recyclable polyesters for durability, softness, and work well going from indoors to outdoors. Needing performance fabric Tencel-lyocell, https://www.encircled.co/collections/tencel-lyocell breathable, luxurious, clean, and one hundred percent biodegradable.
31% of people in the USA have gone w/o touch all year. Looking for softness and comfort. Reiterating this idea with much more tactility, inherent stretch.
72% changed spending habits -saving money, although a lot of self gifting is going on.
44% will continue to save money showing us their cautiousness.
*The Craft trend #upcycling is the number one hashtag on Instagram. 2.2 m are upcycled. Using existing materials to enhance style, not in place of it.
The tensions around consuming “There’s an aesthetic tension that’s arising that’s being driven by a key consumer desire- the desire for safety and psychological comfort. On one hand it’s emerging through products that evoke a sense of care and love through tactility and visible craft elements. On the other hand, it is appearing in a desire for the armor that protects us through a lens of uncertain economic landscape in technical fabrics and work from home wear that is comfortable but offers a sharper silhouette.” quote by Petah Marian, WGSN Senior Strategist, Insight
Core color palettes. Colors staying around longer.The color story for next year is more of a year around the basics: Navy’s, jade, artisanal red, yellow brass, Dark Oak, Olive Oil, Pewter, sweet coral, digital violet, see the slide.
01 The first big story is called The Domestic Plush about comfort being the main driver, tapping into the Home Hub duvet comfort inspired, felt, gently milled brushed flannel, wool, napped and softened fabrics coming through for day wear, sleep, head to toe softness. Everyday opulence with vintage providence, sustainability (peace silk), and eco conscience leather-(made from mushrooms). Dressmaking with a human touch, DIY, more romantic opulent and ornate.
Softer Loungy-Still femininity-adaptable- less occasion based unbleached cotton.There are different priorities. People are going outdoors more enjoying nature. Their clothing needs to perform, smart denim, cozy sweaters, sneakers.
More adaptable:indoor/outdoor, layering
The stay at home or work from home(WFH) trends. Soft textures and plush polar fleece. Focusing on low maintenance easy care wovens and knit. Breathable, insulating and cozy qualities take on the’ less is more’ customer.
02 Second big idea is Protective Performance where a garment can act as armor increasingly fit for survival mode as in a SaladBowlDress vest with many pockets.
03 Big idea is all about repurposed craft. Hello SaladBowlDress the haven for
consumers who are looking for unique products with repurposed fabrics, embellishments and trims that are beautiful and spark joy, while also promoting sustainability. Honest Craft-DIY, appreciate craft in itself.Mixing in combinations of fibers for a zero-waste approach.
04 Next, the functionality of the clothing is important. A transition around performance, cleaner well put together, color blocking, utility Drills, and heritage denim.
The WFH Uniform is an idea we at SaladBowlDress have embraced for some time that you can put on one piece that will take you from morning to evening, summer to winter, indoors to outdoors.
A utility look remains at the forefront of the practicality focused and built to last agenda, updating a simple silhouette. Describing our SaladBowlDress Vest again while celebrating a casually tailored and put together look.
05 Reconsidered Classics are smartened up, formal materials blend durability, comfort performance and sustainable elements together to support the longevity of these new classic meets future heirloom pieces.
Natural materials are injected with technical enhancements such as crese-free, anti-bacterial, easy care and climate resistance to fit seamlessly into modern lifestyles.
Here at SaladBowlDress we are tinkering with the idea of speaker enhancements to go with our durable materials and desire of being that heirloom piece.
This style goes across genders, and ages, using checks,stripes and simple fabrics like unbleached cotton.Tactility wovens look like knits and knits look like wovens
Additionally, as in times of uncertainty, consumers are looking to nostalgia to feel grounded reflected in the patterns, textiles, and colors they will seek.
What does that mean? Garments have to work harder for us. Work life trends looking for garments that make us feel better. We want problem solving designs and add ons that increase the value, longevity, multifunctional aspects, good fabrics, extended life, and going from season to season, transeasonal.
SaladBowlDress has been around for almost ten years upcycling your clothes from overstuffed closets. We do not purchase clothing anywhere by the pound or at a donation center. Although we are not adverse to doing that.
Sbd vests are seasonless, easy care/washable, and loaded with comfortable versatility. Various ways to wear them indoors and out through layering, zippering, and large pockets to hold shoes while walking on the beach or carry the tablet needed to brush up on the next lesson plan. We have added pockets around the neckline to hold earbuds. The vest is a kind of armor that protects us while having visible craft elements to make us feel at home.
What is fast fashion? Zara, H&M, Forever 21, to name but a few since almost every brand went down the fast fashion slide in the hope of fueling a never ending thirst for more sales feeding the frenzy and addiction of everyone wanting more clothes for little cost.
But buying cheaply comes at a high cost.
I thought everyone knew.
My generation always desired new clothes. We have memories of wanting a new pair of pants,
(something very novel to us) an expensive dress, a new t-shirt and Levis jeans, but we either couldn’t afford new clothes all the time or couldn’t buy any Off the Rack like you can today. There were not always clothes in my size, not like today where everyone is accommodated from the very small to the very large.
In my case, being so skinny and small, the only clothes remotely in my size were in the kids section size 14, super ugly big kids clothes for pre-teens, or they were too big for the pre-teen girl wanting more grown-up clothes, that I was.
Definitely just before the days of what we who worked in the industry called junior slut wear. It wasn’t that bad, but it did have sexier details such as sweetheart necklines and the like.
There were only boutiques I would read about in Seventeen magazine.
geared towards the tiny preteen for my sister and I.
One store, in our area, was called Jabberwocky. Our mother brought us all the way there, two cities away, and it did not disappoint.
All the clothes were so fashionable, just what we were looking for and they had small sizes. But they were expensive. I was allowed to buy one pair of pants that I wore practically my whole high school years. A pair of kelly green high waisted pants out of a brushed twill that never seemed to wear out. I only grew out of them eventually.
Friends I had who spent a fortune on clothes had mothers who took their daughters on clothes shopping sprees once or twice a month. They showed up at school with beautiful clean bright new outfits to go with their perfect hair, face, and smile.
The rest of us wore our outfits once or twice a week. That is how we dressed when clothes were expensive and we didn’t shop all the time.
The Gap only had sweatpants for exorcising and sweatshirts or hoodies. Soon they started having a button-down shirt. The Banana Republic had army navy surplus clothes intermingled with other basics that cost more but had a few military-style pieces you could get for a reasonable price.
As time went on, there were more options. We all noticed and started shopping more.
There were strip mall stores opening up with long racks and racks of just tops or sweaters and always one or two we could afford and purchased.
Boutiques in the malls opened up with names like The Limited (except it was anything but) and others all of a sudden, with young trendy cute clothes that were not going to break the bank.
We all shopped more, and it felt like it, we only wanted to go shopping. We went to the mall frequently to buy clothes.
It was an outing different than before when we went to the department stores.
I thought at the time it was having our first real jobs with a need to look better or professional that we shopped. Sure that was part of it but there were so many more options and fashion seemed to embrace all the DIY details we had already made once by hand, but could now buy. Machine embroidered items, already frayed edges at the store, jeans with faded washes.
Nordstroms became the expensive store while for a while they all were before the many boutiques popped up. Nordstrom has survived because in the maelstrom of fast fashion Nordstrom promoted service to the average shopper like no other department store.
When did the Gap become a fashion maven? When did Penny’s become only a place to buy underwear, then after a revamp a place to buy inexpensive suits and dresses. At least they didn’t go by way of a Woolworth’s which touted inexpensive clothes but by no means could compete with trendy chain boutiques.
All of a sudden you could find cute t-shirts at Forever 21 that were extra long and cheap, three for ten dollars. Before that I was sewing any extra fabric I could find to the bottom of my t-shirts to make them longer since low cut pants were in style. We really could not believe it. We couldn’t get enough. We wanted to go back for more. The fast-fashion addiction was beginning.
How could we resist? We found cargo pants, the ones with tons of cute pockets a third of the price of real Gerards. We couldn’t help ourselves. Sweaters were affordable when we were making five to ten dollars an hour.
I know we are still making ten an hour but it was a time of inflation, there was less income inequality. We felt a real option of moving up the pay scale and growth in our careers.
Somewhere along the line, the fashion industry started making more than four or five seasons to feed the demand. There was Spring One and Resort, Fall 1and 2.
We started manufacturing in China.
Unending cheap labor made it possible to design anything we wanted without it costing a lot. It was designed by fax and spec at first. At some point, we started to send the actual clothing to copy.
At first, we designed and made patterns, and traced them, and physically sent them over.
In return we would get these squished clothes that had been sitting in ship containers for weeks, often smelling of chemicals.
Sometimes the USA factories in Flint Mi, Pennsylvania, and the Carolinas would still make knits and mostly sweatshirts. There was money for artists to actually draw bunnies and sheep for sweatshirt designs. The competition for making a shirt ten cents cheaper would go to the lowest bidder for a store like Kmart.
People were getting used to their clothes being made somewhere else besides Italy. When more and more madras plaids were pouring in from India and everyone had one because they were a cheap nice-looking plaid shirt made out of cotton gauze.
Levi’s started being made in China too.
For the large majority of their jeans, Levi’s are not made in the USA. More than 99% of their jeans are made in countries like China, Japan, Italy, and others. Levi’s does have a single collection of “Made in the USA” 501 jeans, sourced from a small denim mill called White Oak in Greensboro, NC. Dec 23, 2019
All of a sudden we were emailing China daily, hourly, to get our goods, making only up to two corrections max in an afternoon. The turnaround time was getting shorter and shorter. When we used to plan a year in advance and finish the line to show three months in advance everything was moving faster now.
People were buying whatever we put out there. The competition was fierce to keep making more to feed the fast fashion addiction.
The Target, the H& M’s, The Forever 21’s were the competition with Gap and every big label jumping on board to produce the cheapest and the most sold in more and more stores across the states.
Department stores started hurting not being able to sell designer clothing and quality pieces for twice as much. Plus their turnover was not as great.
If you wanted something trendy in fashion the department stores lagged behind the cheap franchise stores. Manufacturers found the wait time for payment from traditional department stores unacceptable and had a hard time stocking some brands that did better in a boutique setting who paid when they made the order not six weeks later like the department stores.
The competition for making something a dime cheaper for mass production to go into every store around the country and the world was formidable. The markup went from 50% in the old days to 30% and 20% to keep quantity and price down.
H&M started hiring high fashion designers, then Target did the same and big designers started having a line of off-the-rack clothing for the masses.. It was hard to tell if the RL brand was the expensive one or the one made for cheap. So why bother buying the expensive one?
The better-made clothiers were becoming more exclusive. All adding to the income inequality aspect of brands being for the very wealthy. At the same time, most brands were buying more, making six to ten seasons a year. Leaving the design in the dust and relying on surface treatments which are very labor-intensive but easy for China who had unlimited cheap labor.
But now the fashion industry as a whole is having a reboot, some are closing down or slowing down with the help of the pandemic but the pandemic added a magnifying glass to the dilemma to stop the 2.5 trillion industry from destroying our planet. Embracing Intersectional Connection to change the profit motive and discover what sustainable fashion is really all about.
