Black Friday Results

I'm not sure why I focus on clothing, and to a lesser extend cosmetics, during Black Friday and all the shopping days around these couple of months, since electronics and appliances probably have better deals. But I did buy quite a few pieces this year.

The most surprising of which (to everyone but me) is a dress that I intend to wear for my wedding. I was not careful and called it a wedding dress to the first few people I told and that caused some confusion. I'm proud that it costs less than $200, which means I can order more Lady M cakes.

The main order I made is at Skye, which is an ethical brand that I either discovered /r/ffa or through StyleBee. Skye provides some specifics about how their production is ethical and sustainable, but are lacking in quantifiable claims (eg. what is a living wage, what percent of their cotton is recycled). It also bothers me that they still refer to the Guangzhou region as Canton -_-
I got 2 tops and 2 dresses, one top of which I'm returning since it's way too big. I find that sizing in general for smaller "ethical" brands to be challenging, since the cuts tend to be generous or oversized to begin with, and many brands don't even go down to XS. I've been eying Skye for a while because their cuts tend to have some waist definition (and they have nice prints), so I'm slightly disappointed that one of the top was entirely too big. Even the dresses are not cut or darted to have any curves, but at least I could use the waist belt to adjust the fit. Conversely, I'm quite happy with the material quality. Out of the 4 items, I got one in tencel, two in cotton (but different feel) and one in cotton / linen blend. All of the materials felt durable and substantial, and one of the summer weight cotton does actually feel very crisp and refreshing. The white top was not completely opaque (eg. can clearly see black pants underneath), but it sufficiently covers up a bra. The seams appear well done to my amateur eye. I also like that their clothing uses interesting buttons, makes their statements about "thoughtful design" more believable.
As an aside, I realize I totally do not pay close attention to clothing description / photos when shopping online. I was not aware that some of the pieces had snap buttons, or that one of the dress had an "architectural detail" around the collar. Looks like I didn't learn my lesson from my HOPE boots.

With the total of 3 new clothing pieces, this actually goes over my 10 item limit for 2019. I was originally planning on reducing my limit for 2020 to only 8 new items, so now it's effectively 7. It'll be challenging since I know I'll be tempted by Taobao when I'm in China.

I did also get a Wamsutta bath robe, which is super fluffy. I highly recommend. Apparently it's from the same manufacturer that supplies a high end hotel, but the tag did say made exclusively for Bed Bath & Beyond so unfortunately it's not the exact same robe :(