I thought it was going to be easy. Frankly, I considered myself a pro, having done many slow fashion challenges or 90 days without buying anything, yet it was like a yo-yo diet, and my closet was still full. It’s been 12 months of learning how to curate my style and adapt my full wardrobe to my life.
Common sense is my first impulse, and that hasn’t changed.
Happy is another feeling: I look at my wardrobes (I am lucky enough to have enough closets to separate the seasons) and I see clearly, wear stuff interchangeably, notice the note out of tune, and act on it.
Did I go over the five items? Yes. Did I fail? No.
It’s been a year of reckoning. I went from not knowing my size, not accepting those 20 menopausal extra pounds, to accepting the structural changes and the imbalanced proportions, I learned to be ok with the process. They call it the art of the sacred pause, that time between two periods when nothing makes sense, when the chaos of the past collapses into the actual WTF, the week between Christmas and New Year’s, when every day is a Saturday or a Monday and all you have to do, is let it happen without resistance.
SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE
I call the staples the I cannot do withouts
The joy of buying second-hand or vintage.
Quality over quantity, but when you find that perfect white T-shirt, buy the black and the grey.
No wardrobe is complete with elements for all the seasons, it doesn’t matter if you live in the tropics.
Add the disrupting element, diverge from the expected.
Be intentional
If you need something, be as specific as you can as if you were drawing a manifesting board. For example, I prefer vintage cashmere because it is superior and holds the test of time and no pilling.
Buy secondhand first, which means that the specific something will not manifest itself right away, the search may be long but owning that piece will become worthwhile.
For each one in, two must go because if Madame My Middle Name is Chic LSD does it, you should do it, too.
Act purposefully
No ultra-fast fashion and no polyester are the commandments you have to live by, no exceptions. Act as if you were anaphylactic and must avoid it like your life depends on it.
Alter, upcycle, mend, fix, and repair are the name of the game. A trustworthy seamstress is your best ally, although you need to have some basic knowledge of fabrics, yarns, trims, buttons.
ALWAYS ASK
Ask for the item’s composition, ask where the garment was made, ask yourself how many occasions you see yourself wearing what you want to buy as well as if it’s time to part from something and sell it to give it a new life and make space. Formulate your opinions before making a decision.
SOME MYTHS
The capsule wardrobe is like Santa Claus, not such a thing unless you are prepping for a trip and want to pack with the satisfaction of a few pieces and multiple outfits.
Effortless is BS, everything is intentional, minimalism à la Jackie Kennedy or iconic à la Diana Vreeland.
Timeless is another contradiction, if I tell you “That’s so ‘90s” it’s most certainly some overcoat with big shoulder pads, in fashion nothing is timeless, it all belongs to one special collection or a period of time, and everything changes, your body, the times, your lifestyle.
Color theory as a system it’s a marketing trap, we all have colors we prefer and don’t, we all know what’s not good close to our face, but we can wear it as a bottom. It’s like aria fritta (fried air), it doesn’t give you any style lessons, and most probably it will lead you to get rid of a lot of stuff with no resolution.
Those three adjectives to describe your style: contriving and constricting, it sits you at the adult’s table, but what if you wanted to sit with the kids?
Would I do it again?
I think that doing it well once is good enough. If you have learned the tricks the following year, you buy nothing because everything works.
