Tammy Parrish: If You Feel Good, You Look Good

The Rock 'n' Roll Porter

Tammy Parrish is the founder of The Clothing Compass. Tammy started her career as a fashion designer, but transferred into a career with a much broader mission. Her goal is to bring awareness to what clothes we buy, why we buy them, how long we should wear them, and what to do with the items in our closets that no longer serves us. In short, wearing our values makes us feel good. I have referred to her as my "personal stylist," but Tammy prefers to call what she does "wardrobe management." I think everyone who can needs to manage their wardrobe. We go deep into why. The fashion industry is a top environmental polluter. There is a way to curb this by being much more mindful and collaborative in the purchases we make. She explains why "professional" should be an adjective and not a noun. We discuss the psychology behind buying clothes and jump into one of my favorite themes: replacing the dopamine hit of convenience with the infinite pleasures of community and connection. This is why I love working with Tammy, and why I loved talking with her even more.

• The Clothing Compass
• Guidelines for fashion brands to follow when designing collections are about the 3 Cs: consent, credit & compensation. Here’s a podcast where lawyer Monica Boța-Moisin, founder of Cultural Intellectual Property Rights Initiative, dives into it.
• A good article on NPR about how to decide as an individual whether wearing something is cultural appropriation

Other resources mentioned by Tammy:

• Aja Barber, author of Consumed
• Orsola de Castro’s book Loved Clothes Last (bol.com, amazon.com, amazon.nl)