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?

"It becomes damaging when a person loses sight of who they are as an individual and only can see the flaws in the mirror," says Melissa T., a professional dancer. "We must break the mirror!". (Photo courtesy of Melissa T.)

I recently interviewed Melissa T. after being impressed by both her dancing and her strength of character and will in the crazy world of professional dance.

A dancer since the tender age of three, Melissa recently graduated from Point Park University, receiving a bachelor’s degree in dance with a concentration in classical ballet. When she isn’t pursuing a professional career in dance, she currently divides her time between dancing with a modern dance company, teaching ballet, and continuing her training.

Below, she answers questions about being beautiful in a body-conscious industry.

How does the dance world view the ideal of the human body and do you agree? Is there a particular body type or weight that you have to have?

This is an extremely controversial issue. The body types do vary based on the style of dance, but in general, you have to maintain a slim yet muscular physique. For classical ballet, a very long, lean line is required in order to achieve the desired aesthetic. For modern, contemporary, or jazz dance, a more athletic look is valued.

In defense of saying this, the aesthetic is also for practical purposes. Carrying extra weight when dancing can actually cause and aggravate injuries — bulky muscles will get in the way of classical technique, and in contemporary dance you actually need more muscle in order to perform the athletic choreography.

Do dancers face pressure to attain a certain body or shape? Does what dancers and performers face so acutely on a daily basis — the demand for a perfect figure — compare to what women of every size experience as well?

Yes, as a dancer you face pressure from directors and instructors to have and maintain a perfect, lean dancer body. They constantly correct and critique the way your body is moving and the way it looks everyday in class and rehearsals. It’s hard when under all that criticism to keep a positive attitude towards your body. You are constantly working towards an ideal that is impossible to reach.

I feel it is the same for women who aren’t dancers. We all see the pictures in the media of these beautiful perfect women who are size 0 — and we try as hard as we can to conform and force our bodies to be like the images we see. Yet what we are trying to reach is unattainable; the human body comes in all shapes and sizes and everyone’s body is different.

Is there some sort of balance or compromise you have to reach to balance a healthy body (and body image) with the demands of your profession?

Because of the demands of the profession, I do have to watch what I eat and make healthy choices. I have to spend extra hours at the gym making sure I maintain a slim muscular physique.

But I strive to not allow these things to control me. I love chocolate so I eat chocolate. Sometimes, I go for a walk outside instead of staying in the gym. I allow myself some flexibility. I try not to diet and focus on getting skinnier, but instead I try work to get healthier. My desire is to be healthy. I want my body to be healthy so that I can work and perform to the best of my ability, but it’s about having the proper mindset: Are you doing this to get skinnier or are you doing this to get healthier?

What have you witnessed in other dancers and performers who were unable to have a healthy perspective on their bodies? Is it damaging? Is it a battle?

Many dancers who are unable to cope with the pressure to have a perfect dancer body end up with a disorder called body dysmorphia, where they constantly obsess about their perceived physical flaws. This then manifests itself in a number of ways — all of which are damaging — an obsession with what they eat (leading to bulimia or anorexia), an obsession with working out, an obsession with weighing themselves, etc. It becomes damaging when a person loses sight of who they are as an individual and only can see the flaws in the mirror. We must break the mirror!

What has been the most challenging thing for you to hear or experience? How do you deal with it?

Once in a partnering class, one of my dance instructors told us girls that we really should not weigh more than 100 to 120 pounds (no matter our height!) if we were going to have a guy lift us. I was shocked, because at almost 5′ 8″, I weighed a good 20 lbs more than that — as did a number of the other girls in the class.

Once an instructor photographed us in class and gave us the photos so we could critique ourselves and see how we really looked in different classical ballet positions. After seeing my photos, I felt terrible about my body for the rest of the week. That weekend in order to release myself from the images I burned them. I refuse to hold on to negative images like the ones those photos embodied.

You have to let such images simply burn away until you see your body for what it truly is. The battle is in your mind. When I am struggling with the way my body looks I often journal about it. For me if I can just get the negative thoughts and emotions out of my head and onto paper I find that I can leave them there and gain some kind of peace.

Now for fashion! Tell us what your favorite stores and websites are for dance clothes? Is it all about tutus? What are some of the must-haves for a dancer?

I have two websites that I buy all my dancewear from. I am in love with Yumiko leotards. They are handmade and beautifully crafted, with so many fun and colorful styles to choose from. Many of the cheaper leotards by other brands don’t fit my body well either the fabric doesn’t sit right or it pulls in a funny place.

For all my other dancewear needs I use Discount Dance. It’s much cheaper to buy dancewear online than in stores and I’ve found that Discount Dance has really good prices on just about everything else I need. I buy my favorite tights from them (Capezio #9) and my pointe shoes (Grishko 2007). I love their Body Wrappers “Rip Stop” shorts.

When it comes to legwarmers, I like to have fun. I buy funky leg warmers off-season at stores like Forever 21 and H&M. Way more fun than the average black or pink legwarmer in a dance store, they are cheap and your friends won’t all have the exact same pair. I have legwarmers in every shade of the rainbow as well as ones with fun prints, stripes, and my favorite: argyle!

Here at EthicalStyle, we often discuss organic cotton, sustainable fabrics, and conscious consumption in addition to what is underneath the clothes. Am I right to say that for a dancer — and every woman for that matter — ethical style means treating your own body with respect?

Wearing sustainable fabrics and organic cotton is difficult as a dancer. Most dancewear is made from pliable, synthetic products that wick away moisture and need to remain wearable through hours of sweaty rehearsals. I do make a conscious effort to reuse my dancewear though. Old tights I cut up and turn into tights-tops to wear over leotards on cold days and old dance pants I cut into dance capris or shorts. There is always another use for everything.

And it’s true, ethical style is so much more than what you wear. It is about treating your body with respect. It is about recognizing the beauty within yourself. It is about how you carry yourself and how you present yourself to others. It is about not letting the mirror control who you are or who you become.

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.

Love has inspired poets going as far back at the Torah — and even further, we’re sure. How has love been interpreted by ethical fashion enthusiasts? Read on for a sampling from the Behind the Seams blog.

• For the next couple of weeks, TOMS Shoes is accepting submissions of socially conscious love stories (whether they have to do with its special charity-minded canvas slippers or not). Aw!
• Have you fallen out of love with certain items in your closet? Check out ThredUp.com’s swapping service to trade clothes with your style twins across the globe.
• You may love your labels, but do they love you back? Sometimes yet. Fashion Loves People shows its commitment to social issues by donating $1 from every tee-shirt sold to Not for Sale, a charity that combats human trafficking.
• Fun fact: The original Chanel Quilted Flap was designed with a special pocket to hold Coco’s love letters. Read more about timeless designer handbags here.
• Cosmetics company Bobbi Brown has teamed up with The Heart Truth to promote awareness of heart disease in women with this limited edition Bronze Shimmerbrick set.

Have you heard of ThredUp.com? We hadn’t until today, but as soon as we got this tip from E.S. reader Ali in Canada, we knew it belonged on the blog.

Here’s a common scenario: You’re looking through your closet for something to wear and realize all your best stuff is in the laundry. So instead of pulling out those trousers you swore you’d live in when you bought them months ago, you throw a load into the washer so you can re-wear the same pants you last wore on Monday.

But now you can rehome those trousers and get stuff you will actually wear. ThredUp.com seeks to pair you up with a style twin to expand both of your closets in three easy steps:

1. Tell us exactly what you like. We shop other people’s closets to find you hidden gems in your size that we think you’ll love.

2. Let us know the great items you’re no longer wearing. We find thredUP members who are interested in items like these.

3. We manage the peer-to-peer exchange. You send and receive items using our pre-paid envelopes – no trips to the Post Office, ever!

We are chronic sufferers of nothing-to-wearitis, but this sounds like the perfect, no-muss solution. And don’t you kind of wish you could meet your style twin?

Interested in the idea of swapping but want to be able to try stuff on first? Check out model Lucinda Story’s tips for organizing a swapping party with your friends.

Two social profilers have published a fascinating aggregation of photographs of people on the street that makes a compelling point about the prevalence of a recognizable and infinitely replicable style in a variety of cities over the years. To wit: All of the above photographs were shot of young women on the streets of Paris in 2008.

German photographer Ari Versluis and social researcher Ellie Uyttenbroek have been collaborating on the Exactitudes project since 1994, cataloging hundreds of fashion followers who, without knowing it, were adhering to a narrowly-defined dress code that identifies the wearer as part of a certain group.

As Versluis and Uyttenbroek write of their findings:

[The photographs] provide an almost scientific, anthropological record of people’s attempts to distinguish themselves from others by assuming a group identity. The apparent contradiction between individuality and uniformity is, however, taken to such extremes in their arresting objective-looking photographic viewpoint and stylistic analysis that the artistic aspect clearly dominates the purely documentary element.

We’ve certainly seen this at work on a number of the more popular street-style blogs — which we love, but many of them blend together stylistically. E.S. readers, are you surprised by the level of conformity in these collages?

(via TheGlamourai.com)

We just saw Nine last night and were swooning in our seats over the gorgeous costumes from 1960s Italy. All that glamour and slinkiness and femininity — meow!

So we were delighted today to find this slideshow entitled “Movie costumes that started fashion trends” on the Los Angeles Times website. Some of them you’re familiar with — Diane Keaton popularizing menswear in Annie Hall, Jennifer Beals’s legwarmers and off-the-shoulder tops in Flashdance, Faye Dunaway rocking the beret in Bonnie & Clyde — but some were surprises. We hadn’t considered that Brad Pitt in Fight Club was the one responsible for bringing back vintage tees and ’70s-era colored leather jackets (particularly among hipster enclaves, the L.A. Times notes), but the timeline fits.

Some of these movies we had completely forgotten about. (Gleaming the Cube and its asymmetrical haircuts, anyone? Time to reorganize the Netflix queue!)

Which of these have at one time or another influenced your personal style?

Our friends at Green Eyed Monster are celebrating the website’s one-year anniversary and as part of the party, they’re collaborating with up-and-coming Swedish line Pinellapi on some sweet custom bags made from vintage leather and suede.

Pinellapi designer Maja Hellden has a pretty impressive background, having studied under designers like Katherine Hamnett and Diane Von Furstenberg. And she’s happy to design a custom handbag for you based on your needs from her showroom in Stockholm.

Check out Green Eyed Monster’s inventory of sample bags to consider which one will suit your purposes. All of them are gorgeous but we’re partial to the shredded Serpentin style — so on-trend with this season’s focus on fringe!

Accessorizing like a pro is 80 percent inspiration and 20 percent having the right baubles, belts, hats, and heels to dress up your clothes. While not all of the picks in this slideshow are 100 percent ethically sourced, that’s not the point. We urge you to take these gurus’ lead and make what you can out of what’s already in your closet. After all, reuse is the second-most important of the three R’s.

Click on any image below to launch the slideshow.

We had the privilege of hanging out backstage last night at Ximena Valero’s fashion show at the Los Angeles Theatre.

In the middle of a tornado of hair stylists, makeup artists, and dressers, the pint-size Ms. Valero took a minute from the last-minute scramble to chat with us about her spring collection and her advice for DIYers who want to follow her path to becoming a designer.

E.S.: Your designs evoke femininity and womanhood. Are there any celebrities you’d particularly like to dress?

X.V.: My inspiration is when I go to a party and I see real people wearing my dresses. Oh my gosh, I feel so honored. I already dress Jessica Alba, Alicia Keys, and Eva Longoria, among others. But — Shakira! I would love to dress her.

E.S.: You are from Mexico City and you have done several shows throughout Latin America. Are you involved in the fair-trade movement there?

X.V.: No, all of the sewing is done in my showroom in Eagle Rock [Los Angeles]. But I’m always open to charity work.

E.S.: Do you have any advice for would-be designers?

X.V.: Explore. Play. Take a risk. In this spring collection, you’ll see a lot of the same silhouettes in all the dresses, but you can tie them different ways. It’s very versatile. What I want is for people to become creative and put their own personalities out there.

For more behind-the-scenes photos from the show, check out the Ximena Valero photo album on EthicalStyle.com’s spanking-new Facebook page!