What Should We Make Next?

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Hi folks! My wardrobe staples are skirts and tank tops (and cardigans & jackets when it’s cold). Easy peasy, done. So, I’ve been working on a couple of these staple items for Wear the Shift, and we are trying to decide which to pursue next.

Our process generally works like this:

  1. I make something cool for myself.
  2. Madge says, "Want."
  3. I figure out how to make one for her.
  4. We collaborate on the techy/mathy side and come up with a pattern generation algorithm that works for both of us.
  5. We rope in our friends and make them stuff to test and perfect the algorithm. The goal is to ensure that it works for a bunch of differently shaped folks.
  6. When things are fitting well, we launch a beta test to work out even more kinks.

Right now, these 3 pieces are hovering between steps 1 & 3. It takes a good amount of time and resources to get them to the beta phase, so we need to choose one to move forward with first. Can you help?

Check out the choices and vote at the bottom!

We anticipate offering each of these options in both vintage and eco-friendly fabrics, and at a variety of price points, so let us know if there are any features you'd like to see in the comments.

The Skirt

Try to ignore for a moment how short this skirt is, because we'd offer this style in a variety of lengths. We think this style is great for just about every body. Zippered, woven A-line skirt with retro-modern crescent patch pockets and a pair of adorable booty pleats. Anticipated price range: $89-159.

The Blouse

This is an easy-to-wear loose-fitting tank top with cute neckline pleats and gentle waist shaping. I love pairing neutral bottoms with a print top...and topping it with a colorful cardigan. It's a super easy way to look colorful and pulled together. (Okay, my coral skirt may stretch your definition of neutral). Anticipated price range: $49-99.

The Tap Pant

These are so wonderful under skirts (slippery vintage nylon keeps your tights from grabbing your skirt). And as sleepwear. And these would be *fantastic* in a wool-cotton blend or thermal cotton for keeping warm in the fall/winter. Anticipated price range: $39-59.

Please vote! And we'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

xo, Kelly

Cute skirt alert!!! Katie H., Pittsburgh, PA

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Well the feedback is starting to roll in from our beta skirts, and they are looking really good so far! Check out these pictures of Katie, who I was lucky enough to meet this weekend. As it turns out, she already knows everyone I know, which is one of the things I love about this town!

Thanks so much, Katie, for being a beta tester and helping us perfect this skirt. And also for being so darn cute!

Traveling Light, Wearing the Shift

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Since Kelly and I started Wear the Shift, I've taken a couple of trips -- a few visits back to New York, a weekend in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and two glorious weeks in Scotland over Christmas. Each time, I was struck by how easy it was to travel with my shifts. Of course, I live in these little dresses and have more of them than just about anyone (though a few of our customers are catching up!), so I tend to pack several. But even just one can get you through your trip with minimal muss/fuss and maximum cuteness/comfiness.

Let's say you're roadtripping to visit friends in a nearby city. You leave Thursday night and come back on Sunday with these items in your bag:

* A shift * A pair of jeans * A long sleeved tee * A cardigan * A pair of leggings

In the car, and out to dinner with your pals on Thursday night, you wear: * Shift * Leggings * Cardigan

Friday, you wash Thursday's outfit in the sink (if you are clean) or hang it up to air out (if you are me) and go sightseeing in: * Long sleeved tee * Jeans * Pigtails

Saturday it gets chilly, so you layer up: * Long sleeved tee * Cardigan * Shift * Jeans

Sunday you head out to brunch and drive back home in: * Shift * Leggings

Add a nightie, your drawers, and your toiletries, and you're still carrying, like, the smallest weekend bag ever, and you have plenty of fashion options.

On longer trips, the effect is even more pronounced because of the power of multiplication. 3 shifts x 3 tops x 3 bottoms = 27 unique outfits. I packed a little more than that for Scotland -- 5 or 6 shifts, some tights, a few jackets for layering. But I still had plenty of room in my bag to bring home some new cashmere and wee Nessies.

When I'm dealing with lots of uncertainty and changes of venue, I really appreciate the simplicity of this approach. Whether I'm hanging around my room, going to a party, or taking a trans-Atlantic flight, I can wear the same comfortable and cute clothes. Having spent many hours over many years wringing my hands over what to pack and what to wear, this feels like a huge luxury to me!

What about you? Have you traveled with your shift or another beloved, always-perfect garment? Leave a comment and tell us all about it!

Bye bye PayPal, Hello Etsy

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So, Wednesday was fun! We launched our beta skirts and, at the exact same time, our PayPal integration started working on only about 20% of our orders! Woo hoo! We have been working on this problem ever since with limited success -- since we didn't change anything in the way we accessed PayPal, we are kind of at a loss as to why it's suddenly failing. We appreciate you guys being willing to bear with us through this, but it's clear that our current process is not sustainable.

How to solve the problem when it doesn't appear to be in our sphere of influence? Switch to Etsy and let them handle it!

So, this holiday weekend, Kelly and I will be declaring our independence from PayPal and moving our shop over to Etsy. When we unveil the finished product, it will look different from the site we have now, but it will, you actually allow you to BUY STUFF, which is the most important thing.

To start, we've listed our last 3 beta skirts on Etsy, so if you want to get in on the beta test, you can do so HERE.

Thanks again for hanging with us through our growing pains. We love you!

Skirt beta! Here we go!!

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Creating new stuff is our favorite thing to do, and launching it is our second favorite, so you can imagine that we are beyond psyched to invite you to our Skirt Beta today! Here's what some of our alpha testers have to say about their skirts.


Our beta test has one major goal: to get some skirts onto some ladies and hear what said ladies think about said skirts. This kind of feedback is incredibly valuable to any company but especially to us ... and we are willing to offer you a great deal in order to get it:

In exchange for your feedback, you will get two custom-made skirts for the price of one!

Here's how it will work.

1) You purchase a skirt from our Beta Skirt shopping page (link is below). Put in your measurements within a week, please -- all we need is your waist measurement, your hip measurement, and your height.

2) We will ask for your feedback within a week of receiving your skirt. This will include filling out a questionnaire and sending us a few pictures of you in your skirt.

3) Once we get your feedback, we will send you a coupon code for $49 so you can get a free 2nd skirt! Or you can apply it to anything else on the site, too.

Please note: In order for you to get your coupon code, we must receive your completed questionnaire and pictures within a week.

If this sounds fun to you

... and you're not the type to get a lot of library fines, then sign up by grabbing the fabric of your choice HERE.

If this sounds like a lot of rules to you

... or you don't have easy access to a camera to take pics of yourself, or you're a bit of an anarchist, we still love you! But you should prolly wait till we launch skirts live -- it won't be long now!

Thanks so much -- we are excited and hope you are, too. Now go pick your fabric and let's get this beta started! (Please note that the Skirt Beta is closed now.)

One shift, Three looks

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OK, so I have been rocking this Rebel Girl shift for a while now, and it seems like every time I wear it, I do a little something different with the styling.

On the left is me pretending to be demure in my shift, some capri leggings, little black flats, a cardigan, and some pearls. I could totally pass for Jackie Kennedy here RIGHT??!?!

In the middle is my favorite look -- the shift paired with crazy blue tights, my favorite blue/green/black oxfords, and a black tunic over top. I like the tunic over the shift with insane tights because it gives the eye a little rest and draws your eyes like whoa to the leggal region. Blue legs, people!! The 21st century is amazing.

The look on the right is for going out and shaking a tail feather. (I am doing the "What Have You Done For Me Lately?" move here in case you can't tell.) Orange and gray heels with (pegged!) black jeans, a black satin blazer, bright red lipstick, and, of course, the shift.

You may have noticed that my shoes do not "match" my dress. However, they do somehow "go" -- but I would never have known that if I hadn't tried them on. Moral of the story: color mixing is mysterious and worth experimenting with. Hole yourself up in your bedroom some Tuesday night with a few glasses of wine and see what you can come up with.

So there you have it -- 3 different ways to style the same humble electric blue and lime green shift. Which one is your favorite? Leave a comment and let us know!

Before and After

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It's hard to believe that it's been half a year since we first put Wear the Shift out there into the world. We have come such a long way! Today we'd like to show you the progress we've made in our pattern algorithm. Here's a before and after of my very lovely mom, Kris:

On the left is one of our early beta dresses, and on the right is a dress produced just a few weeks ago. My mom looks kinda gorgeous in everything she puts on, but it's obvious that dress on the right has a much better fit. What's changed?

  • Side Shaping We've started shaping closer to the body on the sides through the bust and waist, to give a more fitted profile.
  • Lowered Neckline We like to see your décolletage. We don't know you? We don't care...we still like it. It's pretty and it opens up your face.
  • Narrowed Shoulder Straps This helps keep the dress modern.
  • Enhanced A-line Isn't an A-line the cutest? We're going a little wider with our As nowadays.
  • Back Darts Most recently, we've started adding back darts, which help define the waist and booty, especially for you hourglass-y girls.

Altogether, I'm really proud of where our pattern is, and thankful for the support and feedback of our beta testers for helping us arrive at the fit we're currently achieving.

How I learned to stop hating my body and rock these awesome pins

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Last week, Kelly sent me this article on The Hairpin, and I about fell over. Lindsay Miller writes of her evolving relationship with her "Breasts That Can Be Seen From Orbit," and it seems almost 200 commenters agree with me that her journey makes a pretty good stand-in for ours.


It seems like most of us have something about ourselves that makes us different ... and that we kinda hate. Here's a brief selection of scourged body parts I've heard about since starting work on Wear the Shift: knees, legs, ankles (actually, "cankles"), arms, shoulders, tummy, butt, thighs.  Pretty exhaustive list -- anyone hate their thumbs?


This makes me sad.  We are entirely too critical of ourselves.


As the years unfold and the wisdom builds, Lindsay goes from being weirded out by her breasts to being proud and, well, attached to them: "I've realized that my breasts are a huge (I'm sorry) part of my self-image ... My breasts are kind of like this awesome visual metaphor for my personality: too big, too sexual, taking up too much space."


One critical moment in her story takes place in a dressing room while shopping for a dress to wear to her best friend's wedding. Growing weary of her mother's criticisms and offers of paid-for breast reduction, she snaps: "Can we please stop talking about fixing me? The dress doesn't fit! That's not my fault!"


This, my friends, is the way we all need to think. Because, I bet Lindsay was pretty cute when she tried on her dress and everyone took issue with her for not fitting in it. And I was still cute that time I broke down in tears trying on dozens of pairs of horrifying jeans at Target. And you were cute, too, even when you found yourself slipping down the body shame spiral in that awful, terrible dressing room.


We are all pretty cute, especially when we wear comfy clothes that fit us well. This is why Wear the Shift exists!


(And also why, when you try on something at a store and it is ghastly, you must immediately move on. Like online dating, trying on clothes is more a series of short experiments than anything fraught or meaningful. Department store fashion is not something to take personally ... there’s nothing personable about it. Be a clothes-trying-on robot, and move forward without regrets or second thoughts.)


Returning to Lindsay, when she gets to the advice-y wrap up I nod slowly and thoughtfully, then go all <3s in my eyes:


"Don't bother dressing to create an optical illusion that your body is shaped differently than it is. It won't work, and it's boring. Do you."


Damn straight, on both points. It IS boring, and it DOESN'T work. Putting a big black belt across my tummy doesn't magically give me a tiny waist. All it does is give me a sweaty tummy and extra bulges beyond the ones I already have. Blerg!


I am done walking around uncomfortable in my clothes just because everyone's supposed to look one particular way or be one particular shape. I have no time for it!  I got these gams to rock!


Anyway ... what do you think? How do you handle body image craziness when shopping? Leave a comment and tell us how you deal with the emotions that come up in the dressing room.

This week: Skype with us about your shift!

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We've heard from a few customers that, although they love the idea of what we're doing, they are a little overwhelmed when it comes to picking a fabric, taking measurements, etc. It's true that this is not a typical shopping experience! And although we think it's much better than trial and error in a poorly lit dressing room, we know that we want to get better at guiding you through our process.

So this week, we're experimenting with something new. Any items purchased this week will come with a Skype chat with one of us, so we can talk you through the process. We will help you:

* choose a fabric that works with your body shape * take your measurements accurately for a great fit * come up with some styling ideas to use your shift in your wardrobe

Go ahead and pick any fabric you like -- if you decide to switch it when we talk, we can take care of that for you. Once we receive your order, we will contact you to schedule a time to chat.

Fun right? Let us know what you think!

Ethics and Fashion: Where do you draw your lines?

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Last week, I started playing with Polyvore, a super fun site that lets you clip clothes and accessories from around the web and combine them in collections to share with others.

I clipped several dresses from our shop and had a ball combining them with different accessories. Turquoise chucks and a yellow belt with a navy pinstripe dress? Shiny Target shoes combined with a $1,500 clutch? Yes please! I could do this all day.

I didn't even think about the implications of what I was clipping until Kelly brought it up: "Maybe we should stick to custom / organic / ethically made stuff?"

Of course we should! But how? These decisions are made in so many shades of gray.

It's similar to the questions many of us ask ourselves when we buy food. Spendy fair trade coffee to brew at home, or a quick cheap cup on the run? Big bag of conventional apples that will give me healthy snacks for a week, or one perfect box of beautiful organic blueberries? There are so many variables!

It's wonderful to be thoughtful, and I'm grateful to know about the supply chains that support my life. But at the same time, I can easily drive myself crazy weighing priorities and debating issues.

Our Criteria

So, to avoid rehashing the same pros and cons list every time we decide to clip (or buy!) something, we decided on some threshold criteria. Anything on this list is fair game:

1) Custom garments, especially those made from vintage or eco-friendly fabrics (of course!)

2) Handmade items created from carefully chosen materials

3) Mass-produced garments made from eco-friendly textiles in an ethical way, and available in a large range of sizes

4) Vintage items

Attitude Adjustment

Applying ethical questions to fashion decisions is brand new for me. For most of my life, I’ve been starving for cute things to wear, so I've been willing to buy anything that looked reasonably good on me, regardless of its provenance.

But that's kind of a crappy attitude to have! There are so many options these days -- custom jeans, handmade organic leggings, our little company -- that there's really no reason to settle. Instead of going through racks of stuff in stores, I want to put my effort into finding exactly what I want online.

Admittedly, many of these choices cost more than their Target counterparts. As in other parts of my life where I've made the switch from price-based shopping to value-based shopping, I find I love the items more and it takes fewer of them to meet my needs.

An Unforeseen Benefit of Buying Ethically

Something we've has noticed is, with these standards in place, shopping actually gets easier! Organic and eco-friendly materials don't have a huge adoption rate (especially in plus sizes), so it becomes simple to exclude a lot of junk and just focus on a smaller set of better quality items.

Of course, this is all a work in progress. We're eager to learn more, and we're curious – what thoughts go through your head when you are contemplating a purchase? Do you consider the ethics of what you wear? What’s most important to you: labor conditions, materials, or something else?

Our Philosophy

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We believe it's time to change the way we dress. We're tired of searching through miles of aisles of clothes and not finding one garment that fits properly.

We're sick of the waste of mass-production -- the noxious chemicals, the exhausted cropland, the human potential lost when workers are treated like manufacturing machines.

And we're totally over an industry that creates more confusion, anxiety, and stuff than anyone wants or needs. How many millions of square feet in our homes are used storing clothes that don't make us look or feel good?

We think there's a better way. It's about marrying tradition and technology to create something quite new.

A Very Brief History of Clothes

As recently as 90 years ago, most women’s clothes were made for the specific person when she needed them. This process produced beautifully-fitting, durable garments without producing much waste.

The downsides: It took a long time, was expensive, and your choices were limited. Most folks had just a few bespoke outfits that they wore all the time.

With the onset of industrialization, custom garments were replaced by ready-made ones and a couple of significant shifts occurred:

• Clothing began to appear in sizes. This meant that the huge range of human body shapes was narrowed down to a single linear scale.

• A great deal more waste appeared in the process -- in fact, waste is intrinsic to mass production. Companies produce clothes based on what they think people will buy, but a guess is still a guess. More clothes are always made than what's bought. And it’s not just extra yoga pants released into the wild: extra fabric ends up in landfills, dyes pollute waterways...there are a lot of not-so-nice byproducts of mass-produced fashion.

• Sewing is one of those things that's hard to fully automate -- lots of labor is typically involved. And industrial production hates nothing more than high labor costs. Consequently, the garment industry has had more than its share of problems with workers' rights.

Mass production has brought the price of ready-made clothing way down, which is kind of awesome. We have waaay more choices than, say, Laura Ingalls Wilder. It's a huge luxury to be able to buy a garment that required the work of hundreds of people around the world for less than an hour's wages.

Because of mass-production, most of us now have more than enough in our wardrobes. The problem is, none of it is quite right. Even with all of the choices available, it's still almost impossible to find something that fits well. Or that doesn't fall apart after two washings. Or that doesn't smell vaguely, terribly chemical.

There Is A Better Way

At Wear the Shift, we believe we can use technology to solve these problems and produce beautiful garments in a vastly superior way. How?

• By producing each garment when it is ordered, to fit a specific person.

• By building a technological platform and a manufacturing process that makes it easy to create custom sewing patterns and bespoke garments.

• By using gorgeous vintage fabric remnants and lovely new eco-friendly textiles.

• By working with artisans who construct garments to the highest level of quality, and paying them fairly.

Right now, we are officially in the humble beginnings phase. But we're proud of the fact that we can already put a beautifully-fitting, ethically-made, supercute dress in your hands for the same price you'd pay at, say, Anthropologie or ModCloth. And that's in year one! We can't wait to see what unfolds in years 2, 3, and beyond.

We're really glad you're interested, too, and would love to hear your thoughts ...

A few new wearable fabrics for Spring!

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Hi folks, happy Friday! We have a few new fabrics on the site that we think are great staples for your Spring wardrobe. We focused on wearable colors and easy-care fabrics this week.

Coral Reef is a beautiful peachy-coral color criss-crossed with white diamonds. It's so cheery it makes us smile every time we see it, and it should put a little glow into your complexion.
Olivia is covered in sweet olive-green diamonds in varying shades. It's a very simple fabric, with a not-so-basic twist.
Jardin des Tuileries is so sweet and evocative of the early 1960s. It's not quite as versatile as our other offerings this week, but it's such a gorgeous fabric for Spring that we hope someone will make it their wardrobe staple.
Roadtrip is funky and classic all at the same time. It's easy and breezy...and harkens to the fun sunny days ahead of us.

This week we started taking photos on the dressmaker's dummy to give you a better sense of the drape of the various fabrics. If there are any fabrics currently listed that you'd like to see presented this way, tell us in the comments and we'll snap the pics! Have a great weekend, everyone!

Structured vs. Drapey fabrics revisited

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We got a great picture from one of our beta testers this week -- hey Zelda! -- and when we saw it, we knew we wanted to share it with you. We've talked before about how a dress made from a structured fabric will look compared to a drapey dress ... now we can show you the difference.

Structured: Zelda

Zelda's dress is made from Space Mum, a heavy and slightly stiff cotton canvas -- one of the most structured we have offered. You can see how the fabric holds the A-line shape of the dress. I for one love this, because it skims the overall shape of my body without broadcasting the details of every curve. If there's not a huge difference between the width of your shoulders and your hips, then this kind of fabric will work great for you.


Drapey: Sarah

Sarah, who we've featured before, is wearing a shift made from the very drapey S'il Vous Plaid. You can see how it is more pliable, and falls in a straight line down from the fullest part of her body. This kind of fabric works really well for folks with wider hips/more junk the in trunk, because it doesn't add any additional width to the lower body. If your hips are a good bit wider than your shoulders, look for a drapey fabric.

Hey there, it's Robin!

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We're pleased to welcome Robin to our eco-friendly offerings! Robin is a sumptuous herringbone twill, woven from a blend of 55% hemp and 45% organic cotton. She is sturdy and drapey (and soft!), and will wear really well on every body type. We think that she has a more refined finish than Rosie, our hemp-tencel blend, making her perfect for work or weekend. We have two options for Robin. She comes in an amazing black, which is polished and professional. She also comes in a smoky steel gray-blue that's going to be as versatile as your favorite pair of jeans.

In either case, we really, really love this fabric – it's so sturdy and good. We really hope you do too.

Busy week! Fabric, press, and deep thoughts ...

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This has been such a fun week! It started Saturday at the Salvation Army Ladies' Auxiliary annual fabric sale, where we scored bags and bags of amazing vintage fabrics to play with and share with you. Some of them will be showing up on the site soon ... stay tuned.

Then, on Tuesday, we were featured in the Post-Gazette -- thanks so much to Clutch: Get a Hold of Style author Sarah Sudar for doing a fantastic job telling our story! This girl really hustles to connect the threads here in Pittsburgh.

Yesterday, we were stoked to see that the always inspiring Pop City decided to write about us, too. I just love Pop City -- I always feel so happy about our town and what's going on here whenever I read it. And Innovation Editor Deb Smit, who wrote about us, totally gets it!

We've also been working on beefing up our website this week to include more photos, more information, and more fun. We added a video to the front page and new sections describing our shifts and slips in detail.

As we worked on drafts of this text, I remembered a piece written by Sci-fi author and Viridian Design visionary Bruce Sterling. We quoted a bit of it on our shift page, but I think the whole quote (and the whole piece) is worth reading and thinking about:

It’s not bad to own fine things that you like. What you need are things that you GENUINELY like. Things that you cherish, that enhance your existence in the world. The rest is dross.

Do not “economize.” Please. That is not the point. The economy is clearly insane. Even its champions are terrified by it now. It’s melting the North Pole. So “economization” is not your friend. Cheapness can be value-less. Voluntary simplicity is, furthermore, boring. Less can become too much work.

The items that you use incessantly, the items you employ every day, the normal, boring goods that don’t seem luxurious or romantic: these are the critical ones. They are truly central. The everyday object is the monarch of all objects.

I thought about this again as I tidied up my closet last night. I have sooo many clothes in there! Many of them were bought on sale or at thrift stores -- bargains, sure, except for the fact that I hardly ever wear them. Instead, almost every day, I find myself reaching for a shift.

For me, the shift has become the monarch of all outfits, replacing dozens of not-quite-right "great deals." And my attitude toward shopping has changed, too -- I no longer salivate when I find myself in a freshly restocked Target, because I know that, no matter how many things I try on, none of them will compare to my lovely comfy shifts.

And I can't help but wonder -- what would the world look like if a bunch of us got used to and refused to settle for less than the highest possible quality? How much waste could we avoid? And how would it feel?

I propose that we find out together. :)

Come see us tonight at GA/GI!

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Heading down to the Geek Arts/Green Innovators festival on Penn Avenue tonight? Come by the ground floor of the Glass Lofts (i.e., the massive lime green building near the corner of Penn and Fairmount) and say hi to us! We'll have lots of fabrics for you to check out and lots of ideas on how we can dress ourselves with more creativity and less waste. Look for the bicycling robot and the Gigapanorama -- we will be inside along with Jessica Rutherford's beautiful jewelry, Don Jones' robotic cuties, and several other artists displaying their fabulous wares.

Hope to see you there!