UPCYCLE DEMI-COUTURE

This 6th month has been exhilarating, I am not happy, but re-super happy.

After a 5-month purge of clothes and shoes from the winter and summer wardrobes, there were some a few skirts and dresses that still meant too much to me to let go, but I hadn’t worn in years.

I brainstormed with Alejandro Barzaga, an utterly talented, highly trained designer who has graciously entertained my thoughts and brought them to life.

I am not a designer nor have ever been trained to be one, my mind is the one of a story-teller and when I see a look that can take a shape that would suit me, I am lucky enough to go to who can do it for me.

HOW MANY

OUT: I don’t know how many pieces I sold or sent to Thredup and TheRealReal, how many I gifted to friends who are now enjoying them, how many I can now wear from my life before my menopausal limbs and belly.

IN: no brand new, virgin clothes, but 1 second hand Marni x UNIQLO skirt. Also, I am very proud that I found a new fragrance, first in over 30 years, but that is a different story.

FIT EMPOWERMENT

At the risk of repeating myself, now that I am halfway through the year of only buying 5 new things, June has cemented the concept of body acceptance with a phenomenon I call fit empowerment.

It starts from within, it only took me 55 years to catch the drift, but here you have it.

Your body changes naturally, it evolves mostly due to hormones, gravity, metabolism, weather, overworking and your brain (at least mine) never registers until things are either underway or you are at a no-return point.

In what seems like a jiffy, shit hits the fan and nothing fits anymore, you start wearing MooMoos-adjacent amorphous crap, stop looking at yourself in the mirror, walk past a window so fast that your eye cannot catch a glimpse, and keep buying stuff with no strategy other than becoming invisible and hating being photographed because who you see is not you.

You end up having another closet full of nothing to wear.

Here’s when the empowering path began, in June. Back in January, I accepted the only 5 things a year challenge because why not, I had done 3 and 6 months with no new clothes before, but also for convenience, for my closet’s sake and to save time in the morning, I had too much I wasn’t wearing. One item at a time, I altered, mended, fixed, modified, dyed, and here I am with upcycle demi couture.

And I suggest it to anyone.