Episode 146: Catalogapalooza (part one), with Jess!

Welcome to Clotheshorse, the podcast that as a child would hoard catalogs as if they were real books.

I’m your host Amanda and this is episode 146. Today is part one of two of something so super fun and educational: My friend Jess Todd–who you all know and love from episode 81, where we talked about Tony Danza, all of the jobs Jess has had over the years, and why the fashion industry ignores people over say, a size 14. Yes, THAT Jess! She joined me for many hours of talking all about the history of catalogs. And wow, we had SO MUCH making this episode and the next one. In today’s episode we’ll be be tackling the early history of catalogs, including Sears, Montgomery Ward, and JC Penney. We’ll ask the question: why do so many catalogs begin in Chicago? And then we’ll touch on some catalogs of the 20th century, including Spiegel, Best, and Hammacher Schlemmer. And in next week’s episode, we’ll get to all of the teen girl catalogs of the 90s!

Before we do that, of course we have to listen to some audio essays from small businesses in our community. Today we will be hearing from Traci of Pride Hantverk and Alyse of Curio Mrvosa, my favorite book store, located in Taylor, TX.

Let’s take a listen!

Okay, by now you know that I overthink everything I do, and that includes which audio essays I play together! Of course, right? And I chose to play Traci and Alyse’s together because they both talk about something that I think is a key differentiator between big companies, big brands and small businesses…and that is that sense of mission, of values, of taking one’s beliefs and priorities and playing them out within their business.

Of course all of my big fast fashion employers claimed to have a mission. Okay, to be fair I’m not sure if the biggest one did, other than making as much money as possible, which ultimately should have been the mission of all of my past employers because it would have been more honest of them. I specifically remember that Nasty Gal had a mission statement written in our lunch room in the midst of a floral motive created from chalk paint…something like “We want to empower young women to live their best life.” Or something like that. Our CEO was from Lululemon, and was suspiciously like the Lululemon mission statement at that time. I know because my friend Shari and I were complaining about the hypocrisy of the whole thing and we wondered if it came from Lululemon, like a lot of the other weird cult-like, faux spirituality slash empowerment stuff our CEO liked to spout.

The hypocrisy of it all was both obvious and complex. Who were the young women we were empowering to live their best life? Surely not the garment workers making the clothing we sold. Definitely not the buyers, designers, and the rest of the predominantly female workforce within our office, all suffering from a litany of stress-related problems, from stomach issues to vision problems to high blood pressure to crippling headaches. Not the customers who would receive low quality, poorly fitting clothing that would survive one wear at best, while making them question everything about their appearance and every part of their bodies. Certainly not the hundreds of customers who bought that one swimsuit for spring break that expanded and fell off their bodies when they emerged from a pool. Yeah, that really happened.

The real mission was making money, primarily for a bunch of rich white male investors, and of course, Sophia, the founder. Of seeming more important, more fashionable, more premium, more important than we really were.

Both Traci and Alyse talk about using their values, their sense of ethics, their care for the planet and its people and playing that out in the real world. Traci mends things, gives items new and longer life, because she knows that nothing is disposable. And she is motivated by the mission to do better and better. Alyse sees the value in books, in all items, really, and wants to ensure that people get the most use out of everything she offers them. I certainly can’t say that for any of my past employers, who focused on the volume, the huge sales growth year over year over year, the need to get as much stuff as possible into the hands of their customers, as often as possible.

One more reason to shop small: it’s easier to find businesses that really share your values, that use them as the driving force for making decisions every day, who share those values, those priorities with their customers and their communities. This is one more reason that I believe a better future needs many, many more small businesses, and far less (or really no) huge businesses.

Thank you Traci and Alyse for sharing your audio essays with all of us! I know it can be a very daunting task to record oneself talking and feel okay about it! I will share all of Traci and Alyse’s info in the show notes. Please give them a follow!

Okay, obviously Jess and I have quite a bit to discuss about catalogs, so let’s jump right in to our conversation!!!

Thank you to Jess for spending about four hours talking about catalogs with me. Yes there were pee breaks, but still, it was a long conversation, and some of the most fun I’ve had in a long time! Jess will be back next week to talk about Delia’s, Alloy, Lillian Vernon, and so much more! In the mean time, you can find her on instagram as @jesinspace (that’s with one S) and also on TikTok (where she shares some awesome videos) as jesinspace (yes, still one S).

Ultimately, catalogs are kinda the original slow fashion: you might wait weeks or months to receive your order, so you didn’t make the decision to purchase lightly. Returns were (for the most part) not an option, so you measured yourself, you thought about all the ways you would wear something, and when it arrived, you treasured it and cared for it, getting the maximum wear from it. Because you knew that the next garment would–at soonest–arrive in weeks or months.

Obviously that’s not the time we live in now. I could order something now and have it by tomorrow. And just as easily, drop it back in the mail to return later that day. It makes decisions faster, with less time to consider if it’s the “right” thing for me, if I’m going to wear it often, etc. And yes, it’s no surprise to me that the rise of ecommerce (aka online shopping) happened alongside the rise of fast fashion. It’s easier and easier to shop faster and faster. Retailers have worked to streamline the checkout process over the last decade, from saving your payment info by convincing you to create an account in exchange for an introductory discount…to allowing you to pay via one touch with apple pay or a simple code via Shopify pay. Apps will allow you to check out with facial recognition or the passcode to your phone. That’s because retailers saw us abandon carts over and over again when checking out took too long or felt remotely inconvenient. Even an extra minute of entering our card information or our shipping address gave us too much time to reconsider the purchase.

I am not kidding when I say that at every one of my jobs, the ecommerce team was working on making check out faster and faster. And when conversion (aka the % of people actually purchasing after visiting the site)…when conversion is down, the checkout experience is the first thing that gets checked. Is a link broken? Is something wrong with the login page? Are not enough people creating accounts? Should we develop an app to make things faster and easier? Yes, these are the things we discussed when sales and conversion were disappointing. It wasn’t “maybe it’s the product, maybe it doesn’t fit well or it’s lower quality.” It wasn’t “maybe people just don’t feel like shopping or the economy is in a weird place.” No, it was always that we were making customers take too much time to check out, allowing them to second guess the purchase.

As I always say, if we’re going to make substantial change, we have to work together. And step one is acknowledging and understanding the ways in which this industry has manipulated us into feeling as if we are starving for new clothes. Of taking away our chance to think about what we are about to buy. The industry has intentionally prevented us at every turn from being thoughtful about how and where we spend our money. Feeling angry thinking about that? Me too!! Let’s change that, okay? Let’s show others how to spot the manipulation, the scam that is the fast fashionification of just about everything we buy. Let’s prove to to others that a sustainable way of life doesn’t mean “deprivation and misery.” That we don’t have to sacrifice style for ethics (and vice versa)!

We all have an impact on the planet and the people around us. Amazon wouldn’t be the unethical juggernaut that it is if everyone hadn’t started shopping with them regularly. I know that I was a part of that. It started with “well, I don’t have a car and I need to get cat litter ” and over time turned into “it’s also where I buy vitamins, soap, sheets, shampoo, etc.” Multiply that behavior by millions of people, and suddenly…you have Amazon as the biggest retailer of clothing (and other things) in the U.S.

That’s why I also believe that we have the power to move things in another, more sustainable, more ethical direction. Because I’ve seen how our collective consumption habits have created entire trends, industries, and companies.

I’m always skeptical of black and white thinking.You know like “this is right/this is wrong.” Because unfortunately we’re all living within a system where nothing is purely “good.” And the purely “bad” exists, but even digging into the layers there would probably uncover someone along the way with good intentions.

This is where “progress not perfection” comes into play. Acknowledging and accepting that we are not set up for an easy “best” or “perfect” choice is important, but surrendering to that and giving up is not an option.

Make decisions thoughtfully. Assume the responsibility for the lifespan of the things we buy. Know that nothing is actually disposable. Buy less. These things are impactful, especially when we are modeling this behavior for those around us and educating others. Significant change will require a larger societal behavioral shift. That starts with us! Social trends start with a few, spread through more and more groups, until they become second nature for everyone. We can do it!

One person can’t change the world alone, but real change WILL happen when we work together!

Thanks for listening to another episode of Clotheshorse!