At the end of last year, after trying the Ganni loafers from the RealReal that were too small, I pre-ordered these chunky loafers from Alohas. I’ve seen them around on Instagram and I have to say their ads got me. Also NGL, their name Alohas got my attention since I’m from Hawaii (sadly it has nothing to do with Hawaii and this is a Spanish brand that makes all their items ethically in Spain).

My first dress from April Meets October, this small BIPOC female-owned La-made brand, was the Ogden dress. Since then I had seen the May dress everywhere and wanted to try it out. I was a bit hesitant at first since the long length and long bodice of the dress doesn’t usually favor my petite height and long torso. But when I found it on eBay for a bit less than retail, I decided to give it a try. And overall, I’m quite happy with my new-to-me summer dress!

After trying out the Mesh All You, the Classic All You, and the Limitless Wirefree bras from Pepper (my first Pepper bra review here), I decided to try out their Lift Up bra, ie their version of the push-up bra. As I mentioned in my first Pepper review, I had been wearing mostly push-up bras before this because I’ve always been self-conscious of my bust size. But I have to admit that after wearing the All You bras (my favorite being the Classic for the comfort though it’s not as supportive) I’ve gotten used to my chest size and don’t feel the need to give it a boost. But for the sake of experimentation and for those days that I feel like being boosted, I decided to go for the Lift Up.

I tried to go to the Rudy Jude store twice, on the two separate occasions I was in LA, and sadly the store was closed both times. I think fate was telling me not to be tempted with their high-priced (but ethically made) clothing. Well lucky for me, I happened to be on Insta when Helen decided to sell her white day blouse (just the item I had been wanting). So what did I think of the insta-famous Rudy Jude Day Blouse?

One of my goals this year as part of #LessNewin2022 is to write more posts about items I already own and less reviews of new stuff. So today I’ll be doing a little roundup of my current shirt collection and how they’ve worn over the years. The following are my five most worn shirt brands:

As I mentioned in my What I Bought in December post, these Birdies shoes were my last purchase of the year. We were in LA and browsing Abbot Kinney (a street with a bunch of DTC brands like Everlane, Cuyana, All Birds, nadaam, etc.) when I popped into the Birdies store just to try it on. Were these shoes really as comfortable as all those Instagram ads promised they would be?

As I mentioned in my “What I Bought in November” post, I finally purchased this Classic Coat from The Curated after eyeing it for over two years! I think I first found them through other bloggers (see Andrea in her Classic Coat here and Lee’s review here). But I didn’t want to commit to the purchase of a winter coat while my body was still changing through pregnancy (two years ago) and then last year we were in Hawaii for the winter. But this year, I finally decided it was time and oh boy, I was not disappointed and yes it does live up to the hype!

I really like doing my end of the year recap of what I wore most in the past year because it makes me stop and reflect on what have been the true workhorses of my closet. Last year, not surprisingly, loungewear and all things comfy were at the top of the list (here’s 2020’s most worn list). I also did this in 2018 (with data from my Stylebook App) and I’m happy to see that some things have stayed on the list even three years later. Which just goes to show that I may buy a lot of different things throughout the year but I probably don’t have to since I stick with a lot of the same things anyway.

As I mentioned in last week’s post, I purchased a Pepper bra and loved it so much I wanted to purchase more. Well since last week I bought another one and have officially retired all other bras to the emergency pile. And am now only going to wear Pepper bras. Yep they’re that good!

I had heard of OffOn Clothing for awhile now since they’re a favorite in the ethical fashion Insta world. But none of their items really called to me until I saw this Belle Dress several months ago. So for those of you who requested an OffOn Clothing review, this one’s for you!