Effort makes elegance.

Dearest friends, 

Here is a letter I wrote earlier.

A friend told me, she wouldn’t buy my product because of two things, firstly she wasn’t accustomed to buying real wool and didn’t know how to care for it. Secondly, it was easier to get a one season polyester option from a high street store that she didn’t have to worry about. I mean, valid? But I had some thoughts.

The advice to look after your things has always been a feature of life, from childhood toys, your teeth or those new wooden floors you just installed. Maintenance matters.

I know our mums valued being able to wash and rewash our garments as children, and back then polyester t-shirts and shorts seemed like such a no brainer. That made sense for the chapter of life we were in, but before you knew it, it made up the fabric of your entire wardrobe some 20 years later.

But as life moved on, so did your awareness, you came to learn more and more, and one day you came upon the idea that these synthetics hold more chemicals than they should, and you have it against your skin every day. It doesn’t let the skin breathe and breeds bacteria with every wear - so now you have to wash it often. You learned the more you wash, the more it feeds microplastics to your waste water. You heard the more you buy, the bigger the demand, the more is produced, the worse the quality becomes - the more it impacts the people who make it.

What were your favourite stores for a bargain, that boosted your fashion fancy now seem a little weaker in quality and poorer of taste. You can’t quite ignore, what you once didn’t even think to consider. 

Sooner or later, you found yourself with a polyester filled wardrobe of items that have been washed to death with no hope of regaining shape, ditching the idea of longevity and you want better. You realise you have to come to a point where you barely need to look after your things, you have bought items which don't need any maintenance at all?

We have all been there. 

It would be lovely to think, this solution is just on our doorstep. Affordable and easy, with washing instructions that fit our lifestyle and an aesthetic to match our Pinterest board.

But the point is, nothing should be that easy. Easy has become a marker of a positive review, but in fact, the things that are worthwhile in this world are the things we work for. Think on it, a personal best takes practice, a perfect score takes revision, a perfect finish takes time. 

A perfect wardrobe doesn’t exist, but the hunt is what makes it so fun. Get used to buying better. Whether it be vintage, thrifted or new, it doesn’t matter. Find it, then take care of your attire, get used to washing infrequently, get used to hanging everything to keep natural shape, get used repairing damage. Shift the habits that make luxury possible.

What a feeling to look forward to, when you look at your wardrobe and see every piece of uniqueness and quality, every gem you found, cared for and in great shape. You worked hard to find them, you work even harder to keep them spic and span. But what a feeling? To have earned something better than before, what a feeling to have given yourself this luxury? How elegant, to have made the effort. It’s no shock, that there is no comparison. 

Get to work ladies, satisfaction awaits.

xx