The wild, wild West...

I don't know what it is about Mata Traders clothing, but I find that I'm constantly wearing it in a way that was not the way it was initially intended. In the past, I have worn a Mata Traders skirt as a scarf, I've worn another one as a shirt, and today, I'm wearing a dress as a top (which I have also done before, but with a different dress). It is either the fabulous prints, great textures, or high quality that has me experimenting with extending the lives of garments from Mata Traders more than I tend to do with clothing from other brands.

Today, I wore their new Fresco shift dress as a top with dark denim and fringe boots for, and not to inflate my ego or anything, a pretty awesome casual work outfit. The embroidered chambray worked perfectly with my favourite dark wash skinny jeans and since I was going for the denim on denim look, I figured that pulling on my fringe boots would give the whole outfit a great Western vibe. I fit right in in the desert ('cos it's the wild, wild West, and such...).

I think another reason that I love to re-purpose garments from Mata Traders is that I know where they came from and I can be proud in knowing that the artisans who put these pieces together have a much better standard of living than those who make garments, say in a sweatshop. I know that everything from Mata was created in a fair trade setting and since their clothes are so adorable, when people ask me where I got them, it opens the door to discussions about where all clothing comes from and helps to shift the mindset from wanting fast (fall-apart) fashion that supports illegal sweatshops to wanting clothing that is made well and heck... if you really need to change your wardrobe that often, you can with these clothes... I've proven that!