I’ve made quite a few additions to my closet in the last few months and often grapple with guilt about spending — this has always been an issue with me and probably won’t go away anytime soon. After years of child-rearing, and then graduate school, our expenses are now considerably reduced, I’m working for pay full-time, and I have enough disposable income that I can indulge. I tend to shop certain haunts fairly regularly, and if I see something I know will work for me or that I really love, I generally get it, if the price is reasonable. Besides the guilt, luckily, I’ve recognized a pay-off to this shopping over the last year or so: finally, I can see a workable wardrobe emerging — I’m at the point where I can find something I’m happy wearing for almost any occasion (I’m short on clothes for really dressing up — a fund-raising dinner, the opera, etc., — but I’ve got enough to fake it if I have to).
Here’s an example of something I was able to pull together one morning last week, all items I’ve owned for at least a year, except for the pendant. In fact, I’ve had the InWear skirt for at least eight years and finally put it in the give-away bag several months ago — then I started thinking about how much I’d always loved it and was relieved to find the bag hadn’t yet left the house, so the skirt’s back in service again! It looks and feels better on than it does here as you can’t see the way the light chiffon printed layer floats over the solid slip underneath. The Free People cardigan and the Wilfred black t-neck I bought last year from Aritzia.
The Frye boots were an impulse switch from the black boots I’d first thought of pairing with the skirt — I don’t wear them often enough and I love them, especially since they were free! A friend gave them to me three or four years ago after hearing me wish for a pair and remembering that his sister-in-law never got a comfortable fit from hers — they fit me beautifully, altho’ I’m not completely used to that cowboy heel.
With so much black on top, especially with the turtleneck, I thought I needed some jewelry, but I couldn’t settle on anything that worked with the skirt’s colours and the boot’s toughness — then I remembered that I’d bought this pendant at a craft/artisan stall at a market this summer. The clever amateur jeweler made great pendants and brooches by reworking estate/vintage pieces, combining them in unusual ways and binding them with silver wire. Here she’s augmented a belt buckle originally decorated with a cowboy boot and extended the boot with a portion of rhinestone that probably once formed part of a bracelet. I’m not sure why Blogger imported the photo sideways — it was right side up in my camera, on my computer screen, and in the file I pulled it from. I’ve tried twice to bring it in to Blogger correctly, but I’m afraid you’ll have to strain your necks for this one. Sorry.
What about you? What’s a favourite in your closet, even if you only wear it several times a year or less? And have you ever rescued something from your give-away bag?
I like your black skirt. The print on it makes it interesting. I like the cowboy boot theme too. My favorites in my closet are my bags. Maybe I even let them decide what I wear. No,once I´ve decided to get rid of something,I don´t change my mind.
Metscan: I can somehow imagine a little cartoon of your bags deciding what you should wear 😉
The things I rescue from my give-away bags are always the things I shouldn’t. Those comfortable oversized jumpers I’m so fond of or big t-shirts, stuff I know I shouldn’t wear so I get strong and throw it away then get un-strong and take it back.
Your beautiful necklace is exactly the sort of jewellery I’m always looking for, beautiful crafted pieces with a story – It’s just lovely.
I love that skirt, and of course the black on top. Sometimes I ‘retire’ a skirt for a year or more, to one son’s room’s closet. If I forget I own it, it’s almost like buying something new.
I went back to the LBD Shop- they have little new stock and though they were reticent to say much, said suppliers had canceled 15 dresses on them.I’ll always think of the dress you found as your “opera dress”.
Cybill: Strong, un-strong, that’s so often the story, isn’t it!
I’m really happy with this pendant as well, for exactly the reason you state — I love a piece to have a story — the work this artisan was doing had the added bonus of being recycled!
Duchesse: That’s what I need: a recycling closet! And yes, that’s exactly what it was like, buying (or finding) something new.
That’s too bad about the LBD shop — such a great concept, but it sounds as if these tough times are starting to hit where it hurts.
Opera season’s almost here — that dress will be getting a night out . . .
I am now really regretting throwing anything away, as daisy is breathing new life in to freebies from me and my mother. She just pulls it all in with a 4inch deep belt.
I am glad I kept my old slightly too big trousers which now fit, sad but true. I wish I had kept some old bootleg cords because with a deep turn up they would have looked amazing.
I am learning that sometimes one small item can open up outfits hitherto undreamed of, so I try to think a little harder before throwng away.
I think investing in beautiful jewellery is the way to go it really lifts so many outfits.
Alison: Isn’t it amazing what youth can resuscitate? And make look better than ever . . .
And yes, I’m also discovering what a difference the right scarf or necklace or pin can make to breathe new life into an old garment.