I took an interesting class on professional ethics today.  The point I took home was that ethical issues are almost never black and white.  When it comes to ethical wardrobes, I think a lot of us are doing the best we can.  

Some of my favorite wardrobe items are from some pretty shady manufacturing practices, I’m sure.  That being said, it wasn’t sensible for me to throw them out.  Michelle 2.0 tries to do better within her means.  It’s not all or nothing.  When something is made ethically, my threshold for purchasing lowers and I’m generally willing to pay more.  I debated whether to include qualifiers to brand names on my outfit posts like ‘old’ or ‘secondhand’ or to even post brand names at all.  I decided to not include specifiers because honestly I don’t think it should matter, but I will include brands.  For now at least, I think the pros of including brands outweigh the cons.  I know that I appreciate it when bloggers specify brands so that I can learn more about the label’s design philosophy.  Just like how I can’t listen to a song, good or bad, and not want to find out who sings it.  I am turned off by branding when it is loud and in your face.  In real life, I prefer that no one know the label that I’m wearing and just sort of see me.  I guess I do feel a bit self conscious about the fact that I do post on brands here, so thought I should explain why.  I don’t really talk about this much in real life.  I think blogs are such a perfect place to talk about things that we don’t talk about in real life.  Because who the hell would care so much about this in real life anyway?

But moving on to this outfit.  As you can see, I carry a very large phone.  It doesn’t fit in my pant pockets usually, except for my favorite clyde pants, so it is nice to have a bunch of work shirts with sturdy pockets.  I can use the higher pockets to listen to NPR on speaker when moving around the house or walking the dog in Central Park and not have to worry about cords from headphones getting in the way.

[outfit: trademark work shirt, cluse watch, madewell sateen pants, uniqlo salmon socks, apc gigi boots]