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Why buy used if you can afford new? I unfortunately used to think that way, but I now have an entirely new perspective on buying used that I'd like to share with you.
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!
Recycling is all the rage, right? Not only is it good for the planet, but it's fortunately become mainstream cool. And the best way to recycle something is to reuse it. You might already be doing this a bit; perhaps you save those cardboard boxes and bubblewrap you get in the mail so that you have some packing materials on hand when your best friend's birthday rolls around, or maybe you wash and reuse some of the plastic containers your food comes in for storing left-overs.
But what about your clothes? When clothes go out of fashion, do you just throw them out? Or do you bury them in your closet once you've gone out and bought the latest style? If so, I'd like you to consider recycling in this realm of your life, too.
Rather than toss out that perfectly-functional sweater you just don't like anymore, consider selling it to a consignment shop, donating it to a charity, putting it in a garage sale, or just giving it to a friend. That's one less item in the landfill, and chances are there's someone else out there who'd love that sweater the same way you did once.
And the next time you walk past a consignment shop, don't turn up your nose at it - there are some very high-end consignment shops these days. You can stay in style, save money, and know that you're doing a good thing for the planet by helping to recycle someone else's pre-loved clothes or accessories.
So remember - buying used can also be fashionable!
Comments
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-Great post by the way!!
I've also done clothing swaps with friend which is super fun. Did you ever notice that your friends clothes are always better than your own?
Another great idea
Indeed - that's another great way to recycle!
- Jacqueline
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"Ce qui fait la nuit en nous peut laisser en nous les étoiles." ~ V. Hugo
spot on!
I've saved and made hundreds, possibly more, buying and selling second hand clothing. Thank you for the post.
Absolutely
That's part of what inspired this post: I have a girlfriend who owns a wonderful little shop (The Wandering Wardrobe, located in Skagway - one of the top five cruise ship ports in Alaska). She has a degree in textiles, is incredibly creative, has a great sense of fashion, and buys only the best pre-loved items for her wonderful little shop. I think it's a great idea that saves people money and does a good thing for the environment.
- Jacqueline
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"Ce qui fait la nuit en nous peut laisser en nous les étoiles." ~ V. Hugo
I think this is a great post. :-)
And don't forget, if you have "career clothes", you can send them to various programs that help underprivileged women dress for job interviews, too.
Great idea...
That's a great idea! Thanks for sharing that; I often forget because I wear a uniform and tend to 'dress down' outside of work.
- Jacqueline
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"Ce qui fait la nuit en nous peut laisser en nous les étoiles." ~ V. Hugo
This was such a great post!
This was such a great post! Consignment shops are in. Travis, my graphic artist, that is the only place where he and his friends by all of their clothes. He is very trendy too!
I give all of my clothes to my cleaning lady Melana. She passes them on to her daughter or her Polish friends.
Thanks for this post!
Thanks, and You're Welcome...
Thank you, Freda.
See? I'm trying to find ways to fit in around here...
- Jacqueline
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"Ce qui fait la nuit en nous peut laisser en nous les étoiles." ~ V. Hugo
You are doing a fantastic
You are doing a fantastic job. I always thought you fit in. There was never a question or doubt in my mind!
Upon your suggestions though, we are going to be re-vamping the site. We have been in the process of re-branding and re-doing our logo. There are going to be some changes that I think will be a win/win situation for all of us and maintain a sense of fun, playfulness yet be very sophisticated.
Revamping...
I'm excited to see what you have in mind. I mean, I do like the cute little silhouettes, and would sort of hate to lose them - especially the AlphaWomen logo - but not all of us are 5'8", 130 lbs with a penchant for wearing high heels and cute clothes. It sort of contradicts the 'Real women. Real life.' motto.
If you want any feedback on beta design, I'd be happy to volunteer!
Also, maybe it's just that I had originally been viewing the site on my desktop computer and over the past few days have instead been on my laptop which has a slightly different configuration, but I'm suddenly seeing a lot more ads than there used to be. I know you have to make money at this venture, but it feels like it's too many ads, and it's taking the space otherwise occupied by the content I'm starting to really love on this site. Any plans to potentially offer fewer/no ads for early adopters, or for paid accounts (other sites I pay for give an option of monthly, semi-annual and annual... with one site (LiveJournal) giving the occasional option of lifetime accounts which are only sold on rare occasions for a limited time and are somewhat spendy ($100 was what I paid for mine over there). Just some things to think about... not that, um, you asked.
- Jacqueline
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"Ce qui fait la nuit en nous peut laisser en nous les étoiles." ~ V. Hugo
Also, comments to e-mail seems to be back...
Also, it seemed like I wasn't getting any comment thread notifications by e-mail and was just about to report that when they suddenly started working again. Huzzah!
- Jacqueline
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"Ce qui fait la nuit en nous peut laisser en nous les étoiles." ~ V. Hugo
That is interesting and you
That is interesting and you are not the only one to mention that. We are trying to get that fixed. An updated, hopefully bug free version will be re-launched this evening.
I don't know why the threads aren't working. Please keep me in the loop on that one. I get every email that happens on the site. YOU breathe and I get an email about it!
LOL
Re: The Site
Heh. I mentioned a ton of stuff... which bit, specifically, was interesting and I'm not the first to mention it?
Also, just a few other thoughts (for now)...
As it sounds like you have a site wish-list going, could we please get some expanded HTML formatting ability for blog posts? <CENTER> and <BLOCKQUOTE> would be cool to have in our formatting arsenal, for instance. This is minor, of course, but would be neat to see for those of us who have our own sites and know how to use that sort of code.
On a final note, if you do revamp the actual logo, which I'm assuming is on those t-shirts you've been awarding people, is there a way to buy one of those shirts (preferably long sleeved since I'm in Alaska) before the logo gets changed? (And heck, that brings up another tought - maybe another money-making venture would be to start a gift shop for the site. You know, logo travel mugs and water bottles and shirts and the like (and if I can get really 'preachy,' preferably green, socially-conscious stuff made with a high percentage of post-consumer recycled content, free of overseas sweatshop labor, etc...).
I guess I should probably stop with the unsolicited feedback now!
- Jacqueline
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"Ce qui fait la nuit en nous peut laisser en nous les étoiles." ~ V. Hugo
- Jacqueline
_____
"Ce qui fait la nuit en nous peut laisser en nous les étoiles." ~ V. Hugo
Great ideas! I would love to
Great ideas! I would love to do the gift shop. The advertising is hard we are very limited and restricted on our ads because it was custom. The ad servers are incredibly expensive and we are probably a year out from such a sophisticated program.
I like your ideas.Sometimes visitors don't know all the other aspects that are featured on the site so we have to blow our own horn so these other features get noticed like our AlphaFiles with the great interviews on some pretty cool women.
I love the formating idea. We are working on that. That was on my wish list a while back. Great minds think a like.
Email me your address and I will send you a long sleeved t-shirt. What size do you where. I am assuming a small but they are form fitting.
I think we would continue on with the t-shirts the way they are. The new logo wouldn't work on the t-shirts but I think you might like it.
Ideas
How about a section on the site called...Words of encouragement? A spot where women who might need a little help bringing out the "Alphawomen" in them. Every now and then we all need a little encouragement. It can cover a variety of things, like inspirational quotes or fashion advice. It can be a question or comment based format.
1vida
It's your life...How do you live it better yet...Dress for it?
Great Ideal!
This is a great idea!
The New Way of Featuring Articles
Great work on the updates to the site, F - bet you're tired!
I like the new way you're featuring the recent articles (a slide show format, if you will), but it moves a little too quickly for me to read and it can't really be paused. Being able to pause it would be awesome.
Is there a place on the site for discussing this? Not that I mind us using this blog entry, but it seems like it'd be better if it was more visible to everyone...
- Jacqueline
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"Ce qui fait la nuit en nous peut laisser en nous les étoiles." ~ V. Hugo