THE PARENTAL INSTACOP

When it comes to clothes, basics are important *The More You Know jingle*. They are the staples of your wardrobe, the foundations upon which your eye-catching statement pieces rest.  They are the notes you don't play. In fact, it's entirely possible to get away with wearing only basics, if they're made well and combined with intention. Enter Everlane:

Wrong.

Everlane is a cool little clothing company based out of San Francisco. The business operates under an ethos they call "Radical Transparency": picking good factories and revealing the actual cost of the clothes and their subsequent markup. And they make great basics, like this marled crew sweatshirt:

I'm a sucker for their brand of classy minimalism. Their clothes are modern without being trendy, subtle without being simplistic. I'm still figuring out whether I can justify copping their anorak, even though I live in a city where rain virtually never falls from the sky.

Still. Look at it.

Everlane's prices are (for the most part) competitive with your favorite fast-fashion brands. And when you consider the fact that many of those brands have a rich tradition of workers' rights and safety violations in their manufacturing chains, the Radical Transparency part of Everlane's pitch becomes even more appealing. Unless you like your basics preshrunk by tears. 

I should mention that they also have a (much larger) women's collection.

My wife loves their t-shirts. I love their bags. Allow me to demonstrate the awesomeness of their brand with a quick anecdote. I recently went back to the East Coast to visit my parents. When my mom saw my Everlane twill weekender, she immediately bought the murdered-out version for herself.

Tell me: Can there be any greater recommendation than the parental instacop?