http://www.clotheshorsepodcast.com/

Clotheshorse, PO Box 193, Bird in Hand, PA (2026)

06/02/2026

Sharing these teddy bear graphics in honor of accidentally wearing head-to-toe (and very un-matching) teddy bear themed clothing to the urgent care last week!

Last week I got really sick—throwing up every hour for 48 hours, fever, pounding headache, just general misery. I thought maybe the norovirus I had in Mexico the previous week was back. Despite being a survivor of cancer and several rounds of chemo, I have a major phobia of vomiting. So any illness like this has me spiraling with fear and panic. But I figured if I went to urgent care, they would tell me it was all in my head or something equally unhelpful.

But after throwing up for like the 100th time, I finally said to Dustin, “I think I need to see a doctor.” I crawled into my office and spend several minutes figuring out which urgent care my insurance would cover. I smelled terrible, there was definitely puke in my hair, and my pajamas were soaked with sweat. I somehow managed to change into “real” clothes (even a bra), but I mostly just grabbed whatever was around. So imagine my surprise when an hour later, as I was laying on a paper sheet at the urgent care, I realized I was wearing teddy bear pants, a teddy bear sweatshirt, and teddy bear socks. Just a stinky teddy bear mega fan over here!

Anyway, no one pointed out my silly outfit. And it turned out I had a kidney infection and possibly an opportunistic bacteria infection in my guts. A week (and mega antibiotics later), I’m feeling a lot better...and laughing at my mega bear outfit. I say I’m not a teddy bear person, but then again my favorite outfit in 3rd grade was a pair of cobalt blue jeans and a sweatshirt that said “Bear in the USA” alongside a drawing of a teddy bear dressed like Bruce Springsteen.

About this post: Clotheshorse is always an anti-AI zone. This post was originally made last fall, after I thrifted the 1989 book “Bears For All Seasons,” essentially a how-to for decorating with teddy bears for every season and holiday. I scanned and edited these photos using Photoshop. Originally it was a long project...about four hours because this book was difficult to scan well.

05/31/2026

“If you or someone you love has found yourself fighting on behalf of a brand in the comments section of a social media post, you might be entitled to damages in a class action lawsuit.”

Okay, not really. BUT it does mean that emotional branding had an impact on you. And you’re not alone, because we all have a lot of feelings about everything we buy and everywhere we shop...and also, the things we don’t buy and the places we don’t shop!

For almost a year now, I’ve been working on a podcast series called “I’m with the brand.” It’s an ongoing exploration about how marketing and branding help us build parasocial relationships with brands. And those relationships make us buy more and sometimes fight on the internet. TBH it’s my favorite work I’ve done for Clotheshorse and I’m not done yet!

Right now, I’m writing the newest installment in this series, which talks about Everlane, greenwashing, Stickergate (don’t worry if you don’t know what this is), and how to background check brands. That episode will be released later this week, but the date is TBD because the first week of the month is always busy for me at work AND it’s Dustin’s birthday this week!!

Anyway, I thought it would be a great time (especially with all of this talk about Everlane and Quince) to bring back one of my first posts about “emotional branding.”

As always, Clotheshorse (aka me, Amanda) is loudly and proudly anti-AI. This post was made with...MY BRAIN, along with Photoshop. The text was arranged and edited in Figma. Most of the images are from the vintage children’s book “What Do I Hear?” There is no copyright date, but I’m guessing late 60s/early 70s. The other images are from a few of my other vintage puppet books, which have been my obsession for more than a year now. The original version of this post took 4 hours to create (writing, editing, image editing, assembling). I spent another two hours today updating it and adding some images. Yes, it’s a lot of work, but it’s definitely cooler than anything gen AI could create. Plus I got to have the fun of making it myself!!

05/28/2026

“Quince is a sustainable brand, right?”
“Quince isn’t too good to be true, right?”

I receive questions like this multiple times a week. And it’s actually one of the reasons I no longer respond to DMs. With two full time jobs, feral cats to TNR, and a desire to have some work/life balance, I just don’t have time to do the work of background checking brands for others.

But you know what I can do? Is show you HOW to do it yourself!!! I am not a super genius out figuring out what’s going on with a brand. I just know how to search for information. Maybe it’s all that time I spent hanging out the library when I was a kid. Maybe it’s all the mystery novels I read as a bored tween. Maybe it’s just that I love learning new stuff. And seeing through greenwashing and other marketing scams makes me feel so powerful!

In this post, I will show you exactly what I do when I want to figure out the true story about a brand. And specifically in this post, we will dig into Quince as an example. So all of you who are wondering about Quince will get your answers!

The last thing I want to say is this: I get a lot of requests to do “take down” posts on brands. I am not going to do that. For one, it’s just not that interesting to me because it’s almost the same story over and over again. It’s also has this super negative undercurrent that feels unnecessary in scary times. I want to be a source of education, inspiration, and hope. And lastly, it puts me in legal peril that I just do not need as a person who does this work for free and does not have extra money to pay lawyers. Quince specifically has spent a lot of money over the past few years sending scary letters to activists and journalists in the sustainable fashion space. I don’t need that.

About this post: as always, Clotheshorse is an anti-AI space. This post is an updated version of post from last year. Cumulatively, I spent six hours on it. Obviously there was there was the research and writing. I used photoshop to fill in the screens on a vintage computer photo. The cats are cutouts of scans from my ever-growing library of vintage cat books.

05/22/2026

My stomach is still really angry about last week’s norovirus and I feel really exhausted right now. So instead of working on a new post, I’m going to put on my pajamas and read (current book is Flashlight by Susan Choi).

And instead of toiling over Photoshop, I’m going to share a favorite set of images from the archives. The images in this post are from Soft Toys to Stitch and Stuff, a Farm Journal Craft Book, published in 1983. I found it in the craft books section of Freedom Thrift in Blue Ball, PA. Yes, that’s the name of the town and they have a sick town-wide yard sale over Labor Day weekend. Sometimes I think I’ve seen all the cool weird vintage books...and then I encounter a new one. As soon as I opened this one, I knew the images had to be used for some Clotheshorse-isms about fast fashion, consumerism, and wealth inequality. Also, I definitely need to make some of these animals because they are all amazing!

How did I make this post? Well first I scanned in my favorite pages. This was a tricky project because the book is bigger than my scanner, so I had to do it sections and then reassemble them. I’m grateful that I have a massive secondhand monitor that makes it a lot easier to do this. Next, I added the text. I used a variety of filters and layers to make the lettering look as if was screen printed. I am always obsessed with making digital images look like they are real paper. All in all, this project took about 3 hours, with the “reassembly” of the images being the hardest part.

Also: if you want the patterns from this book so that you can make some of these animals yourself, I have good news! A scan of the full book is available FOR FREE at archive.org.

05/20/2026

Every week I receive multiple emails from startups and PR firms announcing a new thing that will “save” the world from fast fashion. Apps. New miracle fabrics. Blockchain. Virtual outfits (remember when the solution was that we would all just start buying virtual clothing for the Metaverse?) The conceit is always that technology will “fix” this problem.

Yes, I think technology can be a part of the solution, closing some of the waste loops in the fashion production system. BUT…we know that the real “fix” to all of this is buying less new stuff in the first place. I always say that slow fashion is a way of life that extends far beyond the actual fashion/clothes part of our lives. And that involves a lot of changes in how we live our lives.
🐴 Shopping secondhand first.
🐴 Shopping small and local.
🐴 Repairing what we already have.
🐴 Mindfully rehoming our stuff.
🐴 Doing a lot of work on ourselves to unpack our own relationships with stuff, shopping, and clothes.

The solution to the fast fashion crisis, to overconsumption is…PEOPLE.

And one way people come into play as part of all of this is via their small businesses. In this week’s episode I am joined by Malena of . The entire business is built off of Malena’s slow fashion values. And we had a lot to discuss:
🐴 How Malena uses their own values as a decision making tool for their business
🐴 Why writing a business manifesto made this a lot easier (and why you should write your own PERSONAL manifesto)
🐴 How they reconcile their own anti-capitalist beliefs with being a small business owner
🐴 How they connect with and educate their customers and community via the business

This whole conversation ties so nicely into this week’s big news: SHEIN is buying Everlane. And in this episode I also explain how Everlane, All Birds, and my worst job ever are all cautionary tales of brands using sustainability and social justice as a marketing story, not a core value.

Clotheshorse is an anti-AI zone. This post was created using scans of three vintage books (show in the last image). I used photoshop to clean up the scans, then add copy. The process took 2.5 hours.

05/18/2026

If you’ve been wondering where I’ve been for the last week or so...well, first I took Mother’s Day weekend off from social media. It’s a tradition for me because that holiday is emotionally fraught for me for many reasons.

Then Dustin and I went to Mexico City for a week. Now, I have been planning this trip for seven months. And I planned to work every day while I was there (because Dustin was, too). I was also going to release a new episode of the podcast and I had lots of new posts I was working on. But then...I got norovirus. And I was in bed sick for days. And yes, it was so miserable.

But also, it gave a me a chance to do some thinking.

I know this post is “long” by social media standards, but it’s really only two single-space pages. And I’m really worried about how we are losing our patience and focus for reading. Like I said before, less looks maxxing, more literacy maxxing!! So I am going to continue to share these “longer” posts because I want us to keep our brains strong.

What else? There is a new episode coming this week...Monday or Tuesday. Thanks for your patience!

About this post: as always, Clotheshorse is an anti-AI zone. First, I outlined this post on the flight home yesterday. Today and I sat down and wrote it. The images in this post came from a vintage craft magazine called YOU CAN MAKE FURRY NOVELTIES. I scanned them and then edited them in Photoshop. The post was assembled in Figma. The entire process from beginning to end took 4 hours. Thanks for reading it!

05/07/2026

Last month I finally got a new PO Box for Clotheshorse, for the first time in years. I had one previously, but it was a waste of money because I never received any mail. But when I went to check it last week, there was SO MUCH mail from members of our community. Reading everyone’s notes, hearing about their cats and gardens...it was the mood boost that I have been really, REALLY needing lately. One of the senders even wrote their letter on paper they made themselves!

So I decided to have some postcards printed to use to send responses to everyone who sends mail. I used some cake art that I created earlier this year. One of my favorite genres of vintage books is cake decorating. I am always just blown away by what people can accomplish with icing, vision, and talent. I’ve been wanting to make my own “fake cakes” to share here. The challenge? Using photoshop and scanned images from vintage cake decorating books to create cakes with new messages that LOOKED they were from vintage cake decorating books. Finally this winter I decided to figure out how to do it. I watched so many videos about photoshop tricks. I spent days finetuning the shadow on the “icing” and adding layers that made the images look printed. I don’t even want to think about how many hours were involved in doing this. At least 12? I love these cakes so much that I decided they would be perfect for postcards.

Because some of these posts require so much time and effort to create, I think I am going to have my favorites printed as postcards now and then for use in Clotheshorse correspondence. Maybe some day I will get them printed into a book for myself, just so I can look back and feel proud of them.

I included my PO box address in this post if YOU want to send a letter (and get a postcard of your own).

One last thing for the elite Caption Kitties: the last photo is...Alexis, one of the feral cats I have been trying to trap for months. Well, I finally trapped her...just in time for her to give birth to four kittens in our spare room. My goal is to socialize the entire family and find homes for the babies. Hopefully Alexis will learn to like me and stay in the house with us forever.

05/03/2026

Dustin is in Baltimore recording the next American Motors album, so it’s very quiet here on the farm. That means I have lots of time to sing a long to music at top volume while thinking deep (?) thoughts.

As always, Clotheshorse is an anti-AI zone. So how did I make this post? Well, mostly with my big ole brain. The animal graphics are from the 1968 Froebel-Kan children’s book OUR NAUGHTY PETS (what a name)! The stationery in the background was thrifted last month at the Re-uzit Shop of Morgantown. This post took more than five (!) hours to make: 90 minutes of writing, another 45 of editing, then the rest of the time designing it in photoshop.

04/29/2026

This is a follow up to my post a few days ago that wasn’t specifically about AI, but more about why I think it’s important to be loud and proud about how much work we put into things.

That said—we had a lot of good conversations about AI. And the big takeaway? We need to normalize saying
“I made this without AI.”
“I wrote this without AI.”
“I don’t use AI.”

I know it seems like a small thing, but like a lot of issues we are facing right now, we can’t stay silent. Social media is full of bots and paid partnerships working overtime to not only normalize using AI for everything we do, but silence those who have serious concerns about it. Why? Because there are actually many, MANY people who feel like generative AI is bad for many reasons. But those with the most power and money have invested a lot of money into AI, even as it hasn’t really delivered on a lot of its promises. If you feel like “everyone” is saying “oh, I asked ChatGPT” or “I used Claude to ____,” realize that normalizing AI use is a key part of pushing through data centers and bringing in more investment.

And TBH, most AI output kinda sucks. It’s boring, repetitive, and low quality. Several times a week I have conversations with people who got incorrect info from ChatGPT. I’m not even going to get started on the ethical and environmental issues attached to generative AI, because you already know them.

To be clear: some really rich people are prioritizing profits over everything and everyone else.

About this post: It started as a scans from the 1984 book The Magical Art of Cake Decorating by Carole Collier. My thrifted copy has a very strong cigarette smell. Next I played around in photoshop to add my own message on each cake, fiddling around with shadow, perspective, noise, and saturation to make it look as real as possible. Then I used layers on top of the image to create the feeling that these images—with their new additions—were printed in an old cookbook. It took me 3 hours to do it.

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