There was an interesting mini instant message conversation in the office this week involving tights (tights as in stockings, not leggings to be clear). At a time like this, is it wise to spend, say, $60 on a pair of Wolfords that will probably see you through the recession? Or should we be dashing downstairs to buy a three-pack of nylons at Duane Reade to last the week instead? For most of us, there's always been a delicious guilt involved with shopping (or over-shopping), but now there just seems to be so much tsk tsk involved in the sport.
We ran into Farah of A Peace Treaty on inauguration night who had been busy putting together the lookbook for the new spring/summer collection of scarves styled by Niki Hall. It's a line we discovered way before the recession, and the founders, Dana Arbib and Farah Malik, have been collaborating from the start with artisans in places like Pakistan to help pump funds back into the loom trade. The new collection introduces silk for the first time — each piece takes up to eight hours to make with motifs for each design carved out on wooden blocks with gorgeously inky results. There's something special and endlessly joyful about clothes that have been made with such painstaking care, especially when none of it sits under a cloud of sweatshop labor. So, rather than pinching pennies in our closets this spring, we're going to invest responsibly in the quality, hand-finished stuff (accessories mostly) and only purchase the things that make us feel, well, good. Check selections from A Peace Treaty's Spring/Summer 09 line after the jump.