April Favorites

April was, once again, an odd month for me. I’ve been adjusting to no longer quarantining alone, as my parents were able to move into this, their new house, in the middle of the month. It’s been nice not being alone and finally having some furniture to sit on, but the place is still a chaotic mess as they work on unpacking everything.

I’ve been spending a bit more time in my room and office because of this, and I’ve unsurprisingly ended up spending a lot of time reading. Honestly, this isn’t even all the links I’ve had saved for this month’s roundup. I may end up doing this weekly in May…

Social Media

Like many Millenials who are now trapped at home, I recently got a TikTok account. While I mainly use mine to watch videos of cute animals, others are using it as a new way to find talent: IMG is Now Scouting Models on TikTok by Anna Colon

I’ve also been spending way too much time on Twitter, so I was glad that this article gave me a few more options for people to follow: The Power and Politics of High Fashion Twitter by Sara Li

Making

Ok, I totally want to try out this new knitting app. As a relatively new knitter, the idea of an app that removes streamlines instructions and makes it easy to find videos of new stitches and tricky bits sounds absolutely wonderful: Knitrino is an App Poised to Disrupt the Knitting World by Stacey Trock

The Fashion Industry and Sustainability

The current pandemic will have a big effect on the fashion industry, but it’s unclear right now what that effect will be. The Green and Blue speculates here about how the number of collections released each year might change: Will COVID-19 Help the Sustainable Fashion Movement? by Katherine Albertson

A common complaint about modern clothing is that it is lower quality than clothing made in the past. This article looks at three different studies that sought to find out if that was true: Fashion Unraveled: Why You Get Holes in Your T-Shirts Faster (Even When You Pay More) from De Correspondent, translated from the Dutch by Colby Dunn and Joy Phillips

Over the last year, my view of Everlane has gone from “love!” to “I’m watching you” to “I don’t know her” as it’s become impossible to ignore the many problems with the company. It seems that the current crisis might be bad news for companies that were merely playing at being ethical: The Recession’s Calling Bullshit on ‘Mission-Driven’ Companies Like Everlane by Rob Walker

A reminder that the impacts of this recession are going to be global and that those who were already treated poorly are likely to be the worse off: The Global Garment Supply Chain Faces Significant Job Uncertainty Due to Corona Virus by The Fashion Law

Related to the above: The Coronavirus Is Exposing Holes in Our Current Fast Fashion Model by Laura Pitcher

History and Exhibits

I love seeing how things are made and this online exhibit showing images of linen production in the early 20th century do not disappoint: Warp and weft: the story of linen in Ulster by Valerie Wilson

Since we’re all spending more time in our sleepwear: The Evolution of Pajamas by The Fashion and Textile Museum

This article is giving me flashbacks to when I took on similar (but much, much smaller) inventory project: Behind-the-Scenes in Costume and Textiles—PACMA Edition by Madeline Happermann and Rachel Tu

Random

I am very amused by this, and I don’t even play Animal Crossing: Animal Crossing is Providing Community, Comfort and Paid work for Quarantined Fashion Professionals by Whitney Bauck

I’m kind of obsessed with this project to use smog in pottery glaze to make a statement about air quality. It’s such a great example of how everyday objects can be used to draw attention to important issues, while still being beautiful: Smogware: A Porcelain Project Raising Awareness About Air Polution by Grace Dobush