Our Best Giveaway Ever Starts Now!

In this newsletter: Info about our awesome giveaway, a poll to vote on our next Mini Class, and an August Purchases update

After last month's subscription drive, you guys got us to our goal of 50 new paid Style School subscribers which means you unlocked our coolest giveaway ever.

A few months ago I was with a client at one of my favorite stores, Berriez, when I spotted an incredibly cool purse. “Oh my godddd what is that bag!?” I asked the owner, Emma. She told me it was an upcycled purse made by a Minneapolis-based indie designer called Low Ken. They make all their bags by hand out of materials like old leather jackets, belts, suit pants, khakis, and more. 

Often, upcycled clothes are cool – but very maximalist and crafty-looking due to the constraints of piecing existing garments together. But the magic of Low Ken is that all of their pieces are sleek and luxurious at a level I’ve never seen from upcycled fashion before. I have their Commuter Bag in a rich navy color, and their Slouchy Jacket Bag is so cool, but the show-stopping piece is undeniably their Waisted Bag, made of old suit pants, waist bands, and a series of vintage belts. It’s just soo chic. It starts at $350 and goes up from there for custom colors or bags featuring collectable vintage belt buckles. But lucky for us, Low Ken is going to give away one FREE WAISTED BAG to a Style School subscriber at the end of this month!! So if you're interested in being entered in this giveaway, the requirements are simple:

1) Follow Low Ken on Instagram or if you don't have IG you can scroll to the bottom of their website and sign up for their email list

2) Join Style School at any tier (even free – if you're seeing this you're good)

Reply to this email to let me know you're interested in participating in this giveaway since there's a lot of you and I want to make sure the winner is someone who actually wants one of these bags! A winner will be announced on October 1!

Now, moving onto your second unlocked perk for reaching our Subscription Drive Goal: picking our next Mini Style Class! You guys sent in a lot of suggestions and I took the most popular ones and made them into a little poll.

CLICK HERE TO VOTE ON OUR NEXT MINI STYLE CLASS

And now, the part I know you guys all wait for at the end of each month...my 2026 Low Buy Purchases update!

Since there's a lot of new folks here, let me catch you quickly up to speed. At the end of 2025 I catalogued every clothing purchase I'd made over the course of the year. I assessed the types of things I was buying, whether they were second-hand or new, and whether I got them in-person or online. Off that experience I decided to aim for a lower number of total purchases in 2026 and to take you guys along for the very bump ride of this Low Buy Year. It started strong, then I faltered, and it's been an ebb and flow of decent but imperfect restraint ever since.

Since moving from LA to the farm, my shopping has declined significantly though not totally. It's only been about six weeks since we moved, and so much of that time was dedicated to getting our home ready (and it was not ready when we got her) and moved in. For almost a month, we lived out of our suitcases at my father-in-law's house and when we finally moved into our own place the clothing storage/closet space ended up being pretty limited which makes it easy to talk myself out of a bunch of random purchases. Plus, besides a few trips to places like Bermuda and Cape Cod, the majority of my day is spent outside with animals or my child getting dirty and sweaty. I am still taking clients both virtually and in-person in the Boston area (so reply to this email if you want to book a session for the fall!) and that's been a fun excuse to get properly "dressed" – but my uniform tends to be durable pants and a t-shirt with a big hat and a bandana for sun coverage.

My goal (as usual) was zero purchases for the month of August. This did not come to fruition, but I do think I get some credit for making zero frivolous purchases?!? My two main purchases were things I knew I'd need for this year and have mentioned in previous updates. I'd been getting by for the first month here with flip flops as my throw-em-on-and-walk-outside shoes (for dog walking, gardening, egg collection, checking on the cows, taking a stroll with my son, running to the grocery store, etc) but with all the dirt and weeds and animal feet and time in the garden I needed a durable slip-on shoe that gave me some actual foot protection. I opted for a used aqua-colored pair of Superbirki clogs I found on eBay, and then got new Birkenstock insoles to put inside them. There was like a week between the clogs arriving and the insoles arriving which meant I wore them sole-less and floppy which was not ideal but now they're great and I am using them exactly as often as I had anticipated.

The second item I've been talking about sourcing for a while here was a pair of Blundstone boots. Somehow, I'd made it over a month on the farm wearing my calf-height Tommy Hilfiger lace-up rain boots as "work boots" but folks, these are not work boots. They are rubber, they do not breathe, they have very little structure, no arch support, and no protection from getting your foot stepped on by a cow. I probably wasn't gonna go full steel-toe, but I needed real farm-appropriate footwear. And I knew I didn't want just any old pair of Blundstones– I had pretty specific qualities I was looking for to ensure that even my hard-working boots had a bit of personality in them (per my style guidelines for anyone looking to amp up their work-from-home or rural wardrobe). In my endless eBay, depop, and postmark searches I had come across dark brown Blundstones with rainbow striped elastic on the sides and fell in love with how cute they were. But I never saw them in my size....until one day (in fact, the same day I found the aqua Superbirkis) I spotted a used pair on eBay and pounced. I made two simultaneous low-ball offers on the clogs and the boots and woke up the next morning to both being accepted!! (Though I did initially have the Blunnies set to be shipped to my place in LA and had to deal with rerouting those....whoops!). Once the boots arrived I put new Blundstone insoles with extra arch support in them and when I tell you I have worn the shit out of them I mean it, literally. Or technically I have worn the shit into them because I have clomped around in the cow pasture for hours and hours and stepped in so much poop in these boots but they've been amazing and my feet are so grateful not to be in the rain boots anymore!

The third purchase this month was technically on a whim, but was also a practical and much-needed item. You guys know I am not a super frequent clothes-washer, and in fact typically advocate for much less washing of our clothes in order to preserve their quality and make them last longer and also be nicer to our planet. That said, the aforementioned animal/poop/dirt/sweat situation makes regular washing a must here for my farm wear. It's also been hot over the last few weeks and most of my farm-appropriate pants are heavy and long. I have one pair of navy cut-offs I've been wearing to death, but nothing to wear when those are in the wash. While at Savers a few weeks ago looking for a few outstanding home goods, I spotted a pair of men's vintage 100% cotton pleated navy Dockers shorts for $3.49. They had to be mine, and have gotten tons of wear immediately.

There was really only one tempting purchase this month, though I did manage to walk away from it. And that was a black leather bag I found at a consignment store in Cape Cod last weekend. It had a great, slightly weird and sporty shape and texture and a nice long shoulder strap for easy on-and-off and would fit over the sleeve of a winter coat. It was laptop-sized and $19 but after much deliberation (and negative feedback from my friend Alberta that almost made me want to buy it more just to prove her wrong), I decided I truly do not need another purse right now, and the bags I currently own are covering all the bases of my lifestyle. Perhaps someone else will find her <3

Anyway! That's all for August – I can't believe we are moving into the Fall already, somehow?! But that does mean Fall Fashion which is everyone's favorite, right?

Don't forget to vote on the Mini Class Poll and reply to this email if you'd like to enter the Low Ken Waisted Bag giveaway!