No tags yet.
I recently read an article about how the majority of people only wear about 50% of the clothes they own. This is an oft repeated story one way or another and popular with the press on the 2nd January! Particularly pertinent now as many of us consider our consumption and are more aware of the environmental cost of our clothes. The article was an entertaining read as researchers had looked at what people thought they wore vs the reality- the difference then being used to rank nations by delusion! Hilarious, how deluded are you about the state of your wardrobe! (Annoyingly I can't find the article now to post a link.)
The thought had been buzzing around my head for a while, I wrote about it in my post about my green wax print dress a couple of months ago. I don't buy fast fashion (meaning I don't buy cheap clothes that I then don't wear, or wear once and throw) but I do horde, ahem, collect! I rarely buy something that I really don'tend up wearing, when that happens it's usually something annoying about the fit that wasn't apparent in the fitting room. So clearing out my closet and throwing stuff out isn't something that happens often. My one blind spot is jumpers, I work in the knitwear industry and tend to accumulate free samples which I wouldn't perhaps have parted with actual cash for, so they don't get screened in quite the same way before making it to my drawers, duffs get chucked out to charity regularly! Plus HK isn't really sweater climate except for 1 month when it can be really cold so I'm more brutal when it comes to cleaning out winter clothes.
These days as a working Mum I don't have time to ponder my outfit each morning or iron things off the cuff, apart from time, hot irons and toddlers do not mix. I try to carve out 30 minutes at the weekend to pull out 5 outfits and iron them ready for the week which works really well- when I make the time. But when I don't prioritize this I tend to wear the same things again each week because that was just washed and so is hanging nicely at the front of my wardrobe ready to go again. I'm lucky that I can wear jeans and a T-shirt to work with a statement necklace or scarf and that's absolutely fine. Most folks in my office wear jeans.
You can see from my wardrobe pic here that my closet isn't really stuffed, that's because I already did an edit. Last year when I unpacked my Winter clothes from vacuum storage (under our gas lift bed - amazing for HK tiny living) I was still carrying quite a bit of extra baby weight so I only took out what fitted and left the rest. It was fantastic to have a small capsule wardrobe for those few months and not have so many choices. So I did the same for summer, being mainly hot and sticky in HK I have a LOT of summer clothes so my closet gets pretty stuffed. I got tired of having no space so I did have a big clear up, I packed a lot up in vacuum bags and I gave a little away to charity. Packing things away means that I can enjoy changing things up next year, rediscovering items I've probably forgotten about. I have a number of really pretty skirts for example, I've no desire to throw them out but it is nice to just have 2-3 to choose from this year.
I recently discovered this blog/ instagram, by Lindsey Kaufman. #Wearryourwholecloset I've no intention of making quite such a big project out of this, I don't have the time for one thing but I am feeling quite inspired to try and wear everything that's hanging in my wardrobe and see about tidying things up a bit. With so much packed away it's not going to be as challenging. And that thing of finding clothes unworn with the the price tags on, that's never going to happen to me, I am always too excited about new clothes and wear them immediately!
My shoes are also a very tight collection because I find it hard to get my size in HK (41-42, most here are max 39) I rarely impulse buy shoes. This summer was a bit of a shoe fest because I was home in the UK twice, I managed a whopping 4 pairs. 3 of those were replacements:
Brown sandles- replace old ones that were worn and rubbing and therefore not being worn any more.
Trainers- replacing trainers 8 years old, with holes in the toes and I discovered when my foot got wet, the sole. (No I'm not a trainer person)
Plimpsole/casual shoes- replacing my beautiful VEJA silver shoes that were too small post pregnancy. Yup my feet grew, urgh.
Silver flip flops, replacing nothing, I just liked them!
So I'll be giving my instagram over to this for the next few weeks and possibly months!