my priorities for "conscious" shopping

Welcome to clipboard, a weekly (except the last two weeks, sorry about that) email newsletter about hospo, fashion and Tāmaki Makaurau by Reilly Hodson. After a two week hiatus due to work burnout, I’m back this week with an explanation about how I shop good and shop well. If you enjoy the newsletter, forward it to your friends and hit the button below to fund my silly lifestyle. Apologies for the late delivery today, a technical hitch sent this only to paying subscribers. If you want to safeguard against that, click below.

shopping “consciously”

In the year 2021, the idea of “sustainable” or “conscious” fashion has been warped to the point of meaninglessness. Every brand is falling over themselves to establish their credibility as a sustainable brand, but it means something different to everyone: from Allbirds publicising the carbon footprint of its shoes to H&M recycling fabric (recycled does not mean ethical). When you live in a capitalist, consumerist society, as we do, and you like to buy new stuff, like I do, you have to make tradeoffs and prioritise things according to your own ethics.

There’s no one right way to do it, but here are the things I think about when I buy new clothes, in my own attempt to minimise the impact of my purchases on the planet, and to support the people who make the things I wear and use.

buy less

The first thing is just straight up buying less stuff. By some measures, I’m sure I have an above-average amount of clothing, but I hold myself to a very high bar when it comes to buying something. If I’m not going to wear it every week, or so (with the exception of formalwear, like a suit), I don’t buy it. That means buying stuff which works with the clothes I already own, and wearing it until it’s worn out. I very rarely sell old clothes, because I tend to keep wearing them until they are no longer usable.

shop local and in person

I wrote a whole newsletter about why I like to shop in person, so I won’t expand too much on the selfish reasons for it here (I like to be pampered, essentially). There are strong moral reasons for it, as well; which boil down to essentially wanting to know the people my money is helping. I’m fortunate enough to be able to shop in a way where, for the most part, I can avoid spending with faceless corporations, and support real people who make great stuff. When I shop at Thom Morison, for example, I’m talking with the guy who makes the clothes, and benefits from my spending, in the room that he makes the patterns for the clothes I’m purchasing. If I can help it, I like to keep my money in the local economy, supporting people here, which also has some environmental benefits, in terms of cutting down courier and travel emissions in the clothes I’m buying. That often means spending more, which pairs well with buying less often.

support transparent production

There’s an aspect to this point that you have to take companies at their words. It’s an uncomfortable truth that a lot of the products we use and consume everyday involve terrible labour practices at some point of their production, including, sometimes, literal slavery. Where possible, I like to support companies that are open with where their product is manufactured, and have ongoing relationships with factories and manufacturers that are based on quality and good labour practices. It’s an imperfect measure, sure, but as someone who has worked for very little money, I try to support organisations that pay their staff well, at all stages of the process, where possible.

a few things I’m bad at, but would like to do more

• Buying secondhand - the best way to buy new stuff is to buy stuff which already exists. I do this sometimes, but I’m terrible at op-shopping and I get a thrill from buying new things, so this is an area to improve.

• Renew my older clothes - I’d love to be better at altering my clothes to keep them up with the way I want to wear them. For example, I went through a stage of buying tees a size up, but now I feel like they’re all too long so I want to hem them, but I don’t have those skills.

None of this is perfect, or foolproof, but it feels good to try to do something good, while I’m doing something inherently selfish (buying new clothes to make myself feel better).

clips

• My favourite curated vintage store, Waves, is going on indefinite hiatus from next month, so get in quick before it goes away!

• Annabel’s Wine Bar is celebrating a year of morning service today with $2 coffees, Campari cakes and dirty affogatos.

• Thom Morison’s new winter range is coming in, and this merino mock neck is a must for anyone who wants to be warm, stylish and sophisticated this winter. I have it on good authority there’s good stuff to come, as well, so stay tuned

• Checks Downtown’s winter range is also trickling out, and it’s characteristically freaky and fun. I love this purple workwear coat, which I would buy if I thought I could pull off purple.

• Also in winter clothes: Kowtow has an amazing refresh to its cotton knitwear selection, which is a great range if you have sensitive skin like I do and can’t wear wool. I’ve been waiting for a cardigan like this for years. In a cool affiliate link situation, if you sign up to their rewards program at this link, you get $10 off your next purchase and so do I.

• Local tourism listing platform Neat Places has reentered the Auckland game with a spate of good lists, including this one about the best cafes in town. Keen eyes will recognise the author of some of these pieces, which provides a little context for why clipboard has been AWOL the past few weeks…

• Williams Eatery is bringing club williams back next Friday! Lebanese food from head chef Elie Assaf, supported by Honest Rum, should be a great night.

• Big eyes emoji energy with this cryptic pizza Instagram account that appears to be the work of clipboard day one Ollie Simon - watch this space.

• Pat Menzies is the only place you can buy Clark’s Wallabees right now in NZ, enough said.

one good thing: the room at Candela

Every week, clipboard features One Good Thing: something I’ve bought, eaten or experienced in the last week that deserves a shout out. This week: the dining room at Candela on Karangahape Road.

My partner and I work full time hours, on slightly different schedules, which means that every hour we’re in the same place counts, and it’s particularly important on date night. This week, date night was at Candela, a new Spanish style wine bar on Karangahape Road, next to Verona and across the road from Celeste.

It was a great dinner: the food was delicious (special shout out to the lamb shoulder empanadas, wowee) and the service was engaged and personable, but the real star was the room, and the vibe. The team at Candela took two neighbouring leases and knocked through the wall, which means that the space is double the size of, say, Clay or Celeste, which makes the whole place feel way more spacious.

The music is great, you don’t feel like you’re walking the aisles of an airplane when you need to go to the bathroom, and crucially, you don’t have to sit next door to any other tables. The layout is such that you have your back to the next table, rather than sitting right next to them, which is very much the style nowadays, in the age of banquette seating. At Candela, you aren’t in the middle of any conversation except your own, which, as a nosy person, is as good as any dish. I’ll be going back to Candela again, and the fact that it’s possible to have a conversation there, without a boomer vibe, will be a big part of why.

That’s all for clipboard this week, thanks for reading! If you enjoy clipboard, send it to your coolest friends and think about subscribing with money so I can buy more cool stuff to write about. See you next Sunday morning!