Quality Matters

When I was a young pup of a gal, I didn’t know a thing about brands or quality.  I remember one time I was at Sam’s Club during their busy Christmas Season and I was at an isle looking at chocolate arrangements.  The store being so crowded I bumped into a blonde and when I looked down I saw she was wearing the most exquisite perforated ivory flats.  The leather looked buttery soft and I thought why are my flats so different, so stiff?  My cheap shoes were of course made from synthetic materials and though they were cute they were never going to give the opulence of better-quality materials.

My naivete was so great that I wonder where shoes like hers could be purchased.  I never found items that looked that great at Forever 21, Ross, Marshalls, even Macy’s.  Then one day I courageously ventured into Nordstrom’s a store that I always thought was too posh for a plebeian like me and I saw what great manufacturing and top of the line materials looked like.  I also saw the high prices and the wealthy clientele and I knew that I would probably never be able to afford luxury items. Broken hearted I walked away thinking synthetics were forever in my future…

That is until I began thrifting and finding items (within my price range) that came from the most expensive places in the world.  I began to learn about brands and got to know their manufacturing practices and I learned that my entire young adult existence I had contributed to the negative environmental impact of fast fashion.  Thus, I slowly traded my favorite cheap stores for secondhand alternatives and when treating myself - choosing stores that uphold sustainable policies and practices.

I learned that high prices are usually driven up because of the quality of the materials used in addition to the way the garments are made.  If you can't afford these prices, thrifting might be for you!