#consignement

Guest Post Meaghan Foran, Creative Director of  Lawrence Miller & Co. 

If you know me, you may already know that I take living “green” seriously. In our home, paper towels are verboten, we air dry most of our clothes, and reusable diapers are the norm. Really, the key to being more eco-conscious is to consume less in general, so anytime I can eliminate new packaging and product (which both require a long chain of rather messy production) I try to take that option. While Old Town may not have a reputation for being a hippy-dippy city of enviro-lovers (yet!), we have some amazing options available to make a smaller environmental footprint while getting our shopping fix. This month, I put together a short list of my favorite local options for reducing, reusing, and recycling your wardrobe. Best of all, they’re all within walking distance to each other so that you can spend less time on the road and more time breathing in the fresh air you’re helping to keep clean. I’ll continue to add to this list with other shops as we move into winter, and I hope you’ll add other great resources in the comments below!

529 Kids Consign: I have a 15-month old son who is growing like a weed and in a nearly constant state of movement. Hand-me-downs from our wonderful neighbor boy (hi Ike!) have been a huge blessing, but there are always “wardrobe gaps” that arise where I realize we have 14 pairs of pants and no shirts, or his shoes are suddenly too small for our walk today (did they grow overnight??), or I just want something special for the season. 529 Kids Consign is our absolute lifesaver for these moments and I can’t recommend them enough. Megan Podolsky has curated an amazing line of second-hand children’s clothes that are well made, cute, and seasonally rotated so that you are never sifting through piles of swimwear in order to get to the sweaters. Since everything is second-hand, you aren’t contributing to wasteful packaging or production and you are saving a pretty penny on items that may or may not last through the season as your little beanstalk continues to sprout. Best of all? You can bring any quality clothes that aren’t damaged or stained in for consignment as well, so you can easily clean out your closet to make room for a new batch of goodies for your little mini-me.

Mint Condition: One thing you may not know about me is that I am the opposite of what a savvy second-hand shopper should be. I really don’t enjoy “the hunt” through piles of clothes that aren’t my size or may be out of date, and I get overwhelmed by too much selection. Mint Condition is my antidote this experience. When you walk in, it’s clean, open, and the clothes are meticulously organized by size and color to make the search that much easier. Toni Lange and her staff meticulously review any piece that goes into her store and she carries only the trendiest, most high-quality labels. Her aesthetic fits the preppy, colorful, classic style that totally defines Old Town and when you walk into her little shop on South Asaph Street you will barely notice that you’re in a consignment shop at all.

LM&Co: Jewelry is something I never thought to think about sustainably until I realized the seriously heavy environmental impact that metal extraction and production incur. Base metals – zinc, aluminum, steel, etc. – are especially costly as the jewelry that is produced from these materials is often discarded after it loses its initial luster (think about that costume ring you bought that turned your finger green after a few months. Do you still wear it?) When I designed our &Co. line, I wanted to make a line of reasonably affordable everyday jewelry that would be more sustainably sourced than pieces you typically find at big-box stores. Everything we make in this line is made from 100% recycled metal grain and we only use metals that will last a lifetime or more. This fall, I’m adding our Shape Shifter Studs to my everyday look (earrings in the summer are just too fussy for me) and I’ll be wearing our amazing Dual Disk Earrings out to dinner while my parents are in town and we have (free) babysitters.