Trying Something Different
because it's insane to keep doing the same old same
I’ve spent the vast majority of my weekend purging and cataloging my wardrobe. I went item by item, meticulously accounting for everything I have with the exception of workout clothes and shoes. This task was tedious, but it’s already paying off.
You might be wondering why I would choose to spend a chunk of precious weekend free time taking pictures of every piece of clothing I own. The short answer is I’m tired of feeling frumpy 99% of the time and like I don’t have an innate sense of style. If you care for the longer version get in loser! We’re going to scratch the surface of the psychology of fashion.
So I live in suburbia, borderline the country. They’re heavily developing in my area so it won’t be country for too much longer, but for now I have to drive for at least 20 minutes to do anything besides shop for groceries, pick up food, or visit a nail salon.
On top of that, I work from home so there is nothing externally inspiring me to get dressed. Most days I wake up, work, work out, and go to bed never venturing out of the confines of my house unless it’s to go for a walk. The only exceptions are Fridays when I go grocery shopping or on weekends when we will occasionally have plans that take us beyond Costco and the gym.
With a schedule like that I’ve fallen into wearing a lot of athleisure. It’s comfortable and I can easily hop from my last work task of the day to my workout. I thought I’d get dressed on the weekends since I don’t during the week, but I quickly let the athleisure bleed in to every single day. I didn’t feel motivated or see the point in putting together a look just to meander down grocery store aisles or to run to Target.
I started to notice that I was slowly eroding my self-esteem and just going through the motions of living and letting opportunities for a little life romanticization slip right past me. I was bored and disconnected. One day I woke up and remembered that I have free will and decided to do something different. I decided that it was finally time for me to start dressing how I want to regardless of what’s on—or not on—my schedule for the day.
Like it or not, what you wear communicates who you are to the world and well-dressed people get better treatment. I’ve experienced this first hand on several occasions. I’ve gotten kinder and more personable service when I bothered to put effort into my outfit and mostly ignored when I didn’t. It’s not always one or the other, nor does effort mean entirely dressed up. Looking like I purposefully chose my outfit and beauty of the day instead of just grabbing whatever was clean and hopping in the car has probably saved me more time, effort, and money than I’m aware of.
You never know who is noticing you. You could make a connection, get a discount, or insider access simply because they like your outfit. I’m pretty sure this is what people mean when they say, “dress for the life you want.”
My current situation doesn’t lend itself to making new friends IRL so I’m going to use my clothes to hopefully pull other fashion-lover locals into my orbit. Just because we aren’t urbanites doesn’t mean we can’t have good style.
Back to why I blew my average screen time indexing my closet.