The cobalt blue blouse in this inspiration photo reminded me a lot of a blue blouse that I am trying to wear more often. I wasn't sure how well it would work to try to get one more wear in during the Work the Wardrobe Challenge (now that the weather is cold) but this was a promising combination.
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| From bridgetteraes.com |
I felt that my version was reasonably faithful to the original (yep, it helps that I wear the same cognac boots as she prefers), though I did wear skinny jeans instead of skinny ponte pants (which I do not own). The tweed blazer in the inspiration photo is awesome, but I wore this surprisingly useful mottled black/brown jacket instead. (I think it was probably a part of a suit originally, though I bought only the jacket at the thrift store.) When you want to wear both black and brown in an outfit, it can look a bit odd unless you make it look very intentional, and I find that wearing an item that already incorporates both colors is an easy solution to this.
Brown/black open front blazer (thrifted, Perceptions New York), $1.67/wear
Skinny jeans (JCP), $1.23/wear
Blue short-sleeved blouse (212/Kohls), $6.66/wear
Black/pink/blue sparkly scarf (Target), $3.00/wear+
Tall cognac boots by Sam Edelman, $12.66/wear
Outfit total: $25.22/wear
Using that brown/black jacket made it feel more acceptable to me to wear both cognac boots and this black striped scarf (which complemented the blue color of the blouse and I needed to wear it for the WtW Challenge so I'm glad it worked out).
In other news...It was nice to wear my newly-re-waterproofed boots today because we had RAIN, that liquid that falls from the sky and makes the ground wet (not icy).
Jen sent me this article about becoming a minimalist in the fashion realm by "wearing the same thing every day." It's an interesting synopsis, re-iterating some of the points we've talked about on this blog before re: the efficiency and lack of decision fatigue involved in having a uniform.
One thing that struck me about it, though, was that it seemed to conflate some very different approaches to dressing. For example, it talks about capsule wardrobes as though that is the same as "wearing the same outfit every day" (which I take to mean having a uniform). NO. I mean, you can use a capsule wardrobe as the basis for a uniform, but it's really not the same thing.
A capsule wardrobe is where you select a limited set of items that can be mixed and matched with each other to create various outfits. Capsule wardrobes are often developed around a particular season or a particular use situation (e.g., work, stay at home mom, formal). They often have a "minimalist" feel in the sense that you are limiting the number of items and there is often a focus on ensuring that you have your essentials covered.
But I do not believe that capsule wardrobes inherently lead to dressing the same all the time/wearing a personal uniform. For example, check out this plus-size business casual capsule wardrobe--it contains a lot of different patterns, colors, and silhouettes so you might wear a bright ankle pant with a striped top and cardigan one day, a fit-and-flare patterned dress and blazer another day. Here's another great example of a spring business casual capsule wardrobe--while utilizing a limited color palette to make mixing items easier, it has a lot of variety in the shapes (e.g., pencil skirt, ankle pants, bootcut pants, straight leg pants) and the textures of the items. Both of these capsules give you the opportunity to maximize the variety of looks you can achieve with a minimal number of pieces.
Of course, you could easily create a capsule wardrobe that supports wearing a uniform. Robert has a capsule wardrobe for his work clothes that makes it monkey simple for him to get dressed Monday through Thursday mornings in a pair of black or grey pants, a long-sleeved button up shirt (with a focus on blue, burgundy, and white color scheme), and matching black shoes/belt or oxblood shoes/belt. On Friday, he wears a pair of somewhat more casual beige pants with a long-sleeved green (solid or patterned) button up shirt and a brown shoes (more casual)/belt set. I helped him last time he "refreshed" his work wardrobe capsule and he was extremely intentional about it.
But in addition to having a capsule wardrobe that maximizes variety, you can have a huge wardrobe of similar items from which you generate your uniform. There is nothing inherently contradictory about wearing a daily uniform consisting of a pair of skinny jeans, ballet flats, graphic T, and cardigan every day and owning an absolute TON of clothes. (I mean, have you checked Threadless lately? A person could spend a gazillion dollars on t-shirts there.) And you might have a bunch of these items that mix and match well or have sets of them that you always wear together (e.g., you always wear the French bunny top with the grey striped cardigan and the bright pink ballet flats). Or you might go the easiest route of all and have a really basic uniform and only the essential items to support it--like a bunch of white, grey, and black T-shirts, jeans, a couple jackets/cardigans, a few pairs of shoes, maybe a button up shirt and a pullover sweater in the same white/grey/black color scheme.
I guess I see at least 3 dimensions in play in these discussions of wardrobe "minimalism," all of which can get conflated:
(1) Variety--do you wear a uniform or wear a lot of different looks?
(2) Wardrobe size--do you own few clothes or a lot of clothes?
(3) Intentionality--do you shop carefully and curate your closet to achieve an overall coherence in your wardrobe or do you shop more randomly?
I think it's important to remember that these are separate dimensions and that you can choose to be more minimalist on some and more maximalist on others.
Let's be clear--I am a wardrobe maximalist. I have high variety, a large wardrobe size, and a tendency to shop randomly. I have a lot of space to keep my clothes, I like bargain hunting and thrift shopping (both of which are highly reliant on serendipity), and obviously this whole thing is a hobby to me. So I'm not really going to start worshiping at the altar of minimalism for minimalism's sake.
I think that article forgot to point out one of the reasons to pursue wardrobe minimalism: It's what all the cool (non-"mainstream") kids are doing! It's a way to avoid the "artificial pursuits" created by capitalism. "Successful people" are doing it! People who want to criticize consumer culture and write self-congratulatory articles displaying their "social consciousness" on the Internet are doing it! (The quoted phrases all appear in the first couple paragraphs of the article.)
And thus as wardrobe minimalism becomes more frequently presented as the right way to have a wardrobe, people for whom wearing one of your 100 identical black turtlenecks every day (so that they can save their energy toward being an asshole) is not immediately appealing start to feel pressure and stress about how they can become minimalists. (This can occur on top of existing feelings of anxiety and inadequacy because they are "mindful" enough. Living a life of mindful minimalism while ensuring you have lots of interesting, enviable photos to post to social media is like the holy grail right now, I think. Here I am wearing sustainably-produced organic cotton yoga pants, eating a perfect locally-grown tropical fruit you've never heard of and sitting with my gorgeous puppy on top of a mountain in the Andes.)
I wholeheartedly agree that minimalism can be awesome. I have embraced food minimalism (eating the same simple meals over and over again, so low in variety, low in pantry size, and high in intentionality) and I am not looking back. I mean, it frees up a lot of time for taking photographs of my scarves and posting them on the Internet, you know? But it's not a necessity, it's not a morally superior way to live, it's not a competition, it's not something to beat yourself up over if you can't get as minimalist as somebody you read about on the Internet. Minimalism (which is itself a multi-faceted construct) is something to do in the ways and to the extent that it serves you.
If you read no other thing in the world about capsule wardrobes, you MUST read this take on the reality of a capsule wardrobe for moms. She had me at "1 set of fairy wings."
18 comments:
I did follow your last link--that was a fun rant!
It's too bad that stuff on the internet makes people feel competitive. I can't say I'm completely immune, but it became clear pretty early on in my life that I could never be cool, and not long after that trying to be cool didn't seem fun (except for Cara Lala, who clearly was popular just because she was a super-nice person). And I've noticed that losing intramural teams seem way more open to fun than winning teams.
But I still like those kinds of posts because they show what's possible. I hate when you see something like "Hey, you can fit all your clothes into just one six-foot deep walk-in closet," and you're thinking "but I have only a three-foot wide stand-outside closet." These clothing minimalists probably will have some ideas you can use in that situation.
I've found some ideas that I like. I used to have all kinds of belts and shoes. But I like focusing on only black and brown (even if it's fun to literally have blue suede shoes). And I now look for only black, navy, and tan trousers. Even my socks--I've started looking into having only black, blue, and tan (and some patterns with these as the base color) and found that not to be limiting, either. Plus, I latched onto a work uniform--solid pants, solid blazer or sweater, solid knit shirt, jewelry. That still leaves me lots of room for color (though after a decade I got sick of solid shirts). I still have lots of shirts, sweaters, blazers, and jewelry.
I do like your categories, though:
* Variety - I'd say I have a few uniforms--that work uniform I mentioned, the weekend uniform (t-shirt and shorts or jeans), and a dance uniform (wooshy skirt with pockets and coordinating shirt with minimal texture). I'm trying to decide what tweaks I want now that I don't (or rarely?) need a work uniform and now that every day is a weekend day, so it's not so exciting to wear only what I can't wear to work. So far it appears that my uniform is a patterned shirt, solid pants, jeans or shorts, and a sweater or jacket.
* Wardrobe size - I think I have a medium wardrobe size that I'm working on making smallish. I'm trying to have one size and to figure out what my retirement style is and get rid of the things I have that I never wear. And would also never wear if I were one size smaller.
* Intentionality - I have high intentionality when I'm shopping, medium high intentionality when I'm curating my main closet, and sadly low intentionality when I'm curating my clothing in storage.
When I worked in offices, I tended to have that standard 'low-level office worker' work uniform consisting of black synthetic-material dress pants, colorful polyester button-down shirts (or sometimes sweaters, if it was cold), and black non-heel dress shoes.
These days I wear jeans every day (just the one pair) with t-shirts on the days I don't teach, and slightly-better-than-t-shirts (i.e., a shirt with a T shape that doesn't have cute sayings or pictures on it and isn't advertising something) on the days I do teach. Occasionally I wear a long-sleeved shirt, of which I own perhaps 8. There are 1-2 pairs of shoes per season that I may wear with this. If it's cool I have a white jacket or a hoodie to wear, and for cold weather I have a coat (actually a "squall jacket", whatever that is), hat, and mittens.
In the cooler season I wear either ankle-high white athletic-type socks or one of my three pairs of ankle-high thin wool socks, which I wear several times between washes (the wool, not the cotton). In warmer seasons it's either no socks or the white ankle socks.
If this counts as minimalism, it's not intentional - just a combination of having a lifestyle (grad school) that doesn't require dressing up, living in a climate with not too much temperature variation, being on the poor side, and having no confidence about clothing/grooming/self-presentation.
I have a friend in grad school who is a skinny, tall, young man, and he wears a uniform consisting of jeans and t-shirts, but he also always wears a particular jacket (like a suit jacket or a sports coat or something - I don't know words) that gives him a kind of dressed-up cool guy look that works well. I'm jealous of that but I don't think it would work for me.
Avoid the artificial pursuits created by capitalism in your wardrobe! By dressing like Steve Jobs! Save your artificial pursuits for your phone and your tablet!
Debbie--I agree that it can be useful to see the possibilities, and our reactions can be instructive. My NO WAY reaction to the highly regimented daily uniform and small wardrobe capsule made clear that this is not an idea that works with my preferences.
Updating your uniform in the aftermath of a major lifestyle change is an interesting challenge. My sister is in a similar place in her new Mom-who-will-be-returning-to-her-job-in-too-few-weeks role. From what I've seen of my mom post-retirement, her biggest change is wearing jeans (which she didn't do at work).
Tam--I have a co-worker in the HR department (which shares our floor) who is about your size/shape and wears that exact business-casual uniform every day. Even though she doesn't look like you otherwise, her uniform is so Tam-like (perhaps she even shops in the same stores as you did in those days?) that it makes me think of you on a regular basis.
Grad school is not a lifestyle that requires or inspires much in the way of sartorial flare. As long as you are dressing in a way that differentiates you for the most part from your students (in an appropriate way; not e.g. by wearing a formal gown), that's probably good. Here, leggings worn as pants and Ugg boots is the rampant female undergrad uniform. In my PhD program, though, the female Chinese grad students and the female Italian grad student dressed up in a major way--like high heels every day, $1000+ handbags, that sort of thing. It kind of boggled my mind.
Rvman--I know, right? I prefer to remain true to authentic communist ways of living by wearing exclusively left shoes.
Left to my own devices (as I am in grad school), I would characterize my style of dress as "toddler." Maybe a boy toddler, though. No cute little dresses.
One year at Dress Barn they had a line of sweaters that were very plain, synthetic fabric, mock turtlenecks, machine washable. I bought several and a coworker (separately) bought some as well. For years we would sometimes show up to work in the same sweater. I wore them for like 5 or 6 years and they showed no sign of wear. I've never seen their like since - a pity. (Mine don't fit anymore.) They were nice colors, too. I remember I had black, burgundy, and purple ones, at least.
I should mention that not only did I machine wash them, I also machine dried them, with no ill effects. They were marvelous.
Tam, those sweaters sound perfect your purpose! There are various arguments for and against purchasing multiples of the same item, but those sweaters were a very good multiples purchase. Reminds me of the like 8 pairs of cotton Dockers in various muted colors/patterns that I wore every day when I worked for the state of Texas. When you find something that is that reliable (and you have no desire for variety for its own sake), it's gold.
I officially have one shirt that I would wear to work that fits right now. I bought it at Target in the wrong size (couldn't try it on because I was wearing the baby in a carrier), so I had Rick return it for a larger size... and maybe should even have gone up a size from that. Don't underestimate the effect of lactation on your clothing size lol. The rest of my clothes right now are nursing tops and maternity jeans or lounge pants. I will definitely have a minimalist wardrobe in the near term since I will be losing weight over several months and don't know what body size I will end up after all this. But as long as I'm nursing, I guess I shouldn't expect a major change in shirt size. The irony is that my feet didn't change size (sometimes they do with pregnancy), but I don't have that many shoes to begin with, and my go-to pair for work are pretty worn out. So, I'm basically starting from scratch! Boxing up all my old clothes, which I may or may not be able / want to wear later on. I like the idea of a uniform, which actually works well in engineering. But at the same time, I had such a limited maternity wardrobe I admit it would be nice to have some different looks for once. So we'll see. I'll probably be ordering stuff online in various sizes and returning what doesn't work instead of attempting to spend enough time at the store to try stuff on, so if I actually find a look that works with my mommy tummy etc, ordering more of the same will be appealing. I'll be weighing having enough items so I don't have to do laundry every day (already doing that with baby stuff) with trying to limit the cost of a temporary wardrobe.
Rick has two uniforms for work: jeans and a graphic/slogan T-shirt (usually somewhat nerdy) or jeans and a polo. With sneakers. One week he added an unstructured cotton blazer (very casual) over his T-shirt and everyone accused him of interviewing for a new job. But he looked great, maybe I can convince him to give it another shot lol.
Also the baby definitely has a better wardrobe than me at this point. Thanks in part to his aunt, of course!! :)
Jen, you are definitely starting from a clean slate! I need to do some research on starting from scratch building a post-baby wardrobe and see what tips/advice I can find.
But at least for now when you're out and about your baby looks so fabulous that nobody notices if you're wearing the same yoga pants for 3 days in a row... ;)
P.S. The laundry aspect of this is HUGE in my opinion. So many of these limited wardrobes have (what seem to me to be) obvious bottlenecks. I mean, maybe you can wear the same pair of jeans for 6 months like that Levi's executive, but do people really wear the same shirt multiple times before washing it? Because, um, yuck. That would not work for me. This is something I notice a lot on blog posts that show how to pack for a vacation, too--they assume you'll wear the same t-shirt a few times (without washing). How can that possibly work??
Also, Jen, if you lived in Coldville, you could probably get by with a couple pairs of jeans, a pair of flats and a pair of ankle boots, a few cardigans, some basic tops, and an array of colorful scarves that always fit no matter what size the rest of you is. If I were going to do any kind of limited wardrobe, the scarves would be a critical component of my uniform. (And bonus, they don't require regular laundering either!)
One general tip is to dress like you do in the first trimester to avoid having people think you're pregnant. (I have a friend who teaches dance and was asked by a mom if she was pregnant again! Gee, thanks...) But I cannot bring myself to wear the same oversized cascade cardigans I hid behind last year. Thinking button up shirts that don't cling and that I can tuck into real jeans. Whatever size they need to be, I will wear real jeans --- with a belt!! And maybe a casual blazer with a t-shirt? And some new sneakers. :)
Jen, I can see how going back to your first trimester hiding clothes does not sound appealing. Hurray for real jeans with a belt!
I wear the same shirts multiple times between washes. It does seem to work for me. When I get home and change into PJs, I evaluate the shirt I'm taking off to see if it's still OK. If so, I hang it up in the closet again. If not, it goes into the hamper. Easy peasy.
Tam, interesting--maybe I'm the odd one then.
Well, I know my overly conscientious grad school friend can't do this, because she sweats a lot. And I'm sure a lot of people (maybe including you) just find it gross. Kinda like how some people need clean sheets every week (or even more often) but some slobs change their sheets twice a year if that. So maybe I'm just more of a slob about clothes than you are. (Well, that part is definitely true.)
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