Brad at Commerce With A Conscience reminds us today that shopping in your closet is an art form. It requires just as much focus and dedication as hunting down the perfect cashmere scarf at an end-of-season sale. Only it’s much cheaper and a little easier because your closet is already edited down to stuff that has, at one point or another, caught your eye.

So get a head start on your spring cleaning by starting with your overstuffed closet. CWAC advises the following:

Shopping from yourself is a personal experience, so each person’s trip will be different. Make sure to stay focused and selective. Pay attention to the item. If it needs repairs or a polish, do it. Tailoring is cheaper than buying something new (and it is always good to support your local seamstresses). Wear items on a regular basis (or pick a specific day and wear them in combinations). Call attention to your new purchase. Don’t be afraid to wear dressy items just because their original purchase price might warrant extra care. Wear eccentric items for non-traditional applications – while cycling or visiting the dog park or grocery store (these are good places to practice outfits).

We’re all about the dog park fashion show. Are you motivated yet?

If you’ll be in London next month, make a point to stop by the U.K. Aware 2010 exhibition from April 16-17. This is the third annual event and this year features 200 booths and 50 guest speakers who will show you how to give your life a green makeover.

E.S. friend TRAID will be there to lead DIY projects to update your old closet workhorses.

According to the event organizers, the £6 cover charge will net you the following perks:

• The Green Machines Expo: the UK’s largest showing of low carbon vehicles.
• The Green Business Start-up Surgery: an oasis of solutions for budding entrepreneurs to help make dreams become reality.
• Clothes swapping party: a chance for anyone to get a completely new to you wardrobe without damaging the environment or spending a penny.
• Kids area: shows and interactive activities designed to inspire young minds…a perfect Easter holiday outing!
• Morsbags: an oasis of creative surprises and haberdashery delights — voted best feature by our visitors last year.

Register here for the early-bird discount!

Congratulations to E.S. reader Sarah for winning our February commenting contest!

Sarah won for leaving this thoughtful response to our post on PETA’s boycott of wool:

I would much rather buy wool and cotton than synthetic materials that could be manufactured in some sort of sweat shop. Probably the best thing would be to buy locally made wool that way you would see and know that sheep are not being mistreated. However there are more benefits to buying natural materials than synthetic ones. You can’t always put animals first. People and the survival of the planet come first.

Stay tuned for our March commenting contest — details coming soon!

From Lizzi Miller’s celebrated nude photoshoot in Glamour to the ascension of Crystal Renn on high-fashion catwalks, everyone is buzzing about size diversity. All of a sudden, pin thin is not the only acceptable silhouette in the fashion world.

So in our second-annual body issue, we explore variations on the weight theme.

• British designer Mark Fast has made waves again for employing plus-size models (including the aforementioned Crystal Renn) for the second time in his Fall 2010 Ready-to-Wear Collection, presented at London Fashion Week on February 20. But, as excited as we are about this development, there remains some room for improvement.
• We surely can’t be the only ones who miss Mad Men while the television drama is on hiatus, but to fill the aching hole left by empty space on the Tivo, Christina Hendricks appeared in a bustier on the cover of New York Magazine this month. We totally understand why everyone is gaga for her classic curves, but why all the controversy?
• If there’s one must-read article in this issue (we like to believe that includes all of them, but regardless), it’s Kara’s profile of the exceptionally insightful ballerina known as Melissa T. in our second Real Girl Ethics column. Ever wonder what it would be like to work in an industry that constantly pesters you to be thin? As Melissa shows, it requires self-confidence (as well as buns) of steel.
• Of course, if all these stories merely whet your appetite for more, check out Seam Ripper for a few more articles on the subject of body issues.
• And don’t forget: A few days remain to enter our Weleda hand cream giveaway. All you have to do is leave a comment on this very blog. So simple it’s criminal, right?

If you are going to be in San Francisco the weekend of March 12, we have great news for you. Kate from SenSpa just passed along the details of the grand opening of the spa’s Wellness Apothecary.

The deets:

• Workshops on skincare, stress management, aromatherapy, makeup, and more.
• Free mini-makeovers performed by a Becca makeup artist (SenSpa is the only full service Becca Cosmetics station in San Francisco.)
• Wellness Pass (which offers guests 15% off wellness products purchased that weekend and 10% off of these products on an on-going basis.)
• A buy one custom-blended body scrub and receive a travel-size of the same blend free deal.
• Champagne, tea, and snacks!

Be there or be square (or at the very least, a lot less relaxed).

SenSpa, 1161 Gorgas Avenue, The Presidio, San Francisco, Calif. (415) 441-1777.

Don’t think you can DIY? Courtesy of the ever-fabulous Ashley at Monsterbites365.com comes this incredibly easy, foolproof DIY circle-scarf project that absolutely anyone can do.

All you need is a cozy XXL men’s tee-shirt or fleece (bonus points for thrifting an old one) and a sharp pair of scissors:

Directions:
1. Find a super soft, super big XXL men’s T-shirt with NO seams along the sides.
2. Fold the T-shirt in half length-wise to help you cut out your scarf.
3. First, cut a straight line along the bottom hem.
4. Then, cut a straight line just under the armpits of the T-shift (see diagram below).
5. Finally, experiment to your heart’s content with this versatile fashion accessory.

Need advice on how to wear your fancy new scarf? Check out our guide to chic neckwarming.

If you’re a scarf aficionado, you know the Hermès silk scarf is the holy grail of neckwarmers. And if you don’t want to plunk down serious plastic for a new one, there are abundant vintage options available.

But since you don’t want to get burned on a counterfeit, ThePerfectRedBox.com offers a guide to spotting a fake on eBay or in the consignment shop. Among the tips:

Weight The weight of the counterfeits I’ve felt were quite different from an authentic Hermès.  All but one has been much lighter -  most were made of polyester and not silk.  A new 35” x 35” Hermès carrè should weigh in around 63 grams or 2.2. ounces.

When in doubt Weigh it.

Back of carrè Almost every counterfeit I’ve seen had very little detail on the back.  The design on an authentic Hermès carrè can be clearly seen from the back – it is colour saturated.

When in doubt Look closely at the back of the carrè.

Hem Almost all Hermès scarves have hand rolled and hand stitched hems, to the front. There are a few exceptions to this, but generally an authentic scarf will be hand rolled and hand stitched. Many of the counterfeits I’ve seen were very clearly and very pooly machine hemmed/finished.

When in doubt If it looks machine sewn, seek further authentication.

Useful, right? See the whole guide here.

As I mentioned yesterday, Valentine’s Day is an irksome holiday. So we’re repossessing it in fashion’s name this year. We say for the next week, make a conscious decision to wear only what you love.

To get you inspired, we’ve published our Love, Ethically issue for your reading pleasure:

• For the next seven days, decide you’re going to feel like a million bucks and make it happen. Here’s some pointers on how to make that happen.
• To remind you to dig deep in your accessories drawer during your week of fabulousness, we offer our second annual ethical jewelry guide — written with the bride-to-be in mind but really, everyone can use a little sparkle in their lives.
• Kara interviewed her friend Elizabeth D. for the inaugural Real Girl Ethics column, our newest feature where we profile a real person and what ethical style means to them. (Got someone in mind who would make a great subject? Email us here!)
• If you’re one of the people whose boyfriend pops the question this weekend, you’ll be sure to have wedding brain. Tracy DiNunzio from RecycledBride.com offers her insight into the enduring popularity (and ease!) of green weddings.
• On a more serious note, the recent controversy over Love magazine’s decision to publish eight supermodels’ measurements got us thinking: Shouldn’t we put more effort into building self-love, rather than holding ourselves up to impossible standards? Read our quasi-feminist manifesto here.
• And as always, we bring you Seam Ripper, our compilation of Behind the Seams blog articles on the subject of love if you’re in the mood for more reading.

What can I say: Valentine’s Day brings out the feminist in me. The holiday is irksome in so many ways, and so I was thrilled to find a kindred spirit in the blogger behind GlossedOver.com and her genius dismantling of InStyle magazine’s “Look Better Naked” issue.

The main feature recommends a variety of get-sexy-quick suggestions that are so over the top, you can’t help but laugh at the absurdity. (Nevermind the hypocrisy of juxtaposing “Love Your Shape!” with “Look Better Naked!” on the cover.)

According to InStyle editors, if you want to successfully seduce the man in your life, by Sunday you must: lose water weight through the mysterious workings of detoxifying salts; spend $850 on a lariat necklace that will make your back look sexier; paint your ceiling pink to cast your naked form in a more flattering, mood-enhancing light. Note that none of these things will make you feel sexy unless you’ve got the self-esteem to back it up.

But the blogger sums it up better than I can:

Of course, the article also covers the usual territory of depilation, exfoliation, and cosmetic trickery to hide anytraces of humanity blemishes and bruises. But unless you’re disrobing for a sculptor who’ll immortalize your every detail in marble, isn’t this overkill? There’s probably a 3,000-word essay here about treating women like objects and the deleterious effects of porn and how the media tries to define our sexuality, but I’ll just leave it at this:

If you’re naked and your partner dares frown at your white ceiling or a stray stretch mark, your relationship is way beyond InStyle’s help. Also, you’re probably dating my ex-boyfriend.

Hey guys — looking to keep warm this winter? You might have to dig deep to avoid looking as fashionable as “a microwavable kebab.” Hilarious men’s fashion writer Alexis Petridis bemoans the state of faux fur for men in the U.K. Guardian:

Once, they were the height of louche sophistication, the kind of thing the Rolling Stones wore while looking elegantly wasted. Perhaps the rock star’s penchant for fur coats hastened their fall from grace: by the late 70s, they had become associated with a rock aristocracy so irritating that people felt impelled to form Sham 69 and spit at each other in protest. The moral argument has an impact, too. You want fake fur to look like the real thing, but too much and you risk Chrissie Hynde chaining herself to you whenever you step outside.

So, there aren’t many about: I ended up with a too-small women’s one, which made me look as louche and sophisticated as a microwavable kebab.

Mr. Petridis can take heart that plenty of vintage fur exists on eBay from the very era he’s trying to channel. No word yet whether Mick Jagger is ready to part with his old coats, though.