Months 4 and 5 into the #ruleoffive: repair and reparations

It’s been a rather convulse period with course finals and all, I barely managed to keep a semblance of sanity, not without coming down with a cold and an unspecified eye allergy.

Full in exploration of one of my truest TROUSSEAU ERAS in which, as Rachel Tashjian Wise describes in her most coveted newsletter Opulent Tips

unsuitable belongings from earlier times are expunged and new, more apropos garments are acquired with precision and grace.

I have been expunging, a lot, with spurs of determination mitigated by bouts of grace.

Rummaging through your closet in search of the unworn is a cathartic ritual that reconnects you with your body and your style.

from Manuela Pavesi photography

How is it going

An introspective journey that started with one self-imposed rule and led me to realize I was focusing on the wrong side of the closet. All I was committed to was finding what to buy that is not there yet, strategizing on how to be smart and pace myself to only buy 5 things.

With the purpose of reducing my carbon footprint, my tunnel vision was busy buying, when as close as in my book there’s a whole chapter dedicated to “But first, shop in your closet”.

When I shifted lane, boom, the fireworks, ed è subito sera .

I may have already bought those 5 items half way through the year, but I don’t think I have never been happier or more satisfied with my wardrobe.

I know where things are, I have monetized on pieces that were idling (I have so many heels from the life when I used to stand on them for 8 hours a day) and still deserving of a new life, I became acquainted with my new body, embraced how much it changed, I have consciously uncoupled with so much stuff, stuff that had no reason of lingering in my closet, transformed, altered, upcycled, reshaped a bunch of garments that had monetary and sentimental value, yet I wasn’t wearing.

in numbers

Mended and altered:

  • 1 blazer

  • 1 sleeveless car coat

  • 1 vintage MARNI dress

  • 3 pairs of jeans

  • 1 pair of cotton trousers

  • 1 pair of coulottes

  • 1 long silk caftan-like dress bought on Poshmark 2 years ago and never worn because it was from my moomoo period, until the pictures below showed up on my Pinterest.

In the process of being upcycled

  1. with the imprimatur of designer and former student Alejandro Barzaga: 2 skirts and 1 dress

  2. with the genius free hand of Pangea Kali Virga, a multifaceted conceptual artist, fashion designer and dear friend: 1 dress with a whole bunch of T shirts

Now, something I want to emphasize: to have the opportunity to witness the calm and graceful process of the craft with two talented designers, is a privilege.

I regard their time and skills as highly as I would a painter painting my portrait. I enjoy all steps of the process from the preliminary exchange of ideas to the final reveal, and the apparent idle time in between that serves to let the confetti settle down and for their sensibility to go vroom vroom.

This is how you hone your personal style and support talent.

Donated to the local all-women shelter:

  • 1 mini handbag

  • 1 pair of cords

  • 2 tops

Mailed to Thredup: 1 jean jacket, 1 overall, 1 pair of clogs, 2 pairs of cords, 2 blouses, 2 summer dresses

Sold on The Real Real: 1 raincoat, 3 sandals.

Bought:

  1. on Etsy the summer basket, the staple of my glorious summers in Tuscany

  2. on Poshmark, the classic Sperry Top Siders brown boat shoes because Miuccia made me do it

  3. at a stylist’s closet sale: blue Clark’s Wallabees (this was a totally unexpected find that couldn’t be

LESSONS LEARNED

Am I surprised at how much stuff I got rid of?

Yes.

Because of the amount of money I spent in second-hand clothes that I never wore and/or didn’t need.

Because the new purchases I have made are items that belong to a précis I have formulated as a result of the higher plan I have committed to.

Because more are the things that have found a new home than the ones I welcomed.

Because I bought only as a result of a whole lot of reasoning, intention, speculation, consideration, rumination.

Because the concept of wardrobe essentials is BS.

Month n.3 into #theruleoffive

THOUGHT N.1 - HAPPY

I bought some stuff but it’s all for the greater good.

Hear me out.

image from Lessico Familiare collab. with Cavalli e Nastri

4: the items I consigned with TRR

5: the unworn pieces I put for sale on Poshmark

10: the garments I mailed to Thredup

2: the stuff I bought new are an oversized navy blazer and a blue striped extra fine cotton man pajama. 

3: the stuff I bought second hand are a trench coat and a pair of boat shoes and I received a too chic to be true vintage MARNI dress as an early gift for Mother’s day. 

5: I altered and mended five garments with the seamstress.

This deserves a pause to say that I am not a designer, of all the jobs I have ever held in fashion, designer was never one, and rightfully so. I revere the profession, the talent, skills, the craftsmanship, the expertise, I respect the process, I am always in awe of the process, I want to know everything about the process. I grew up with a great grandmother who was a dress maker, one who draped fabric around her clients and made the dress before the pattern, and I would be observing from the door ajar, eavesdropping about the parties that those gowns would be made for and then collecting the scraps on the floor after the client was gone. With my students I have a thing that they let me guess if they are merchandizing or design major, and I am never wrong. The mind of a designer functions with different stimuli than the one of a storyteller. And I leave it at that, but it goes to say that when I go to Laura, my seamstress, she knows that “I have an idea” that she translates in cuts, elastics, buttons, stitchings. That’s what she did with those 5 second hand garments I bought last year for a total of under $100

7: Some essentials (all new) a white T shirt, a pair of 70 denier black Wolford tights, 3 pairs of ankle socks and 2 pairs of knee length ones.  

In the scale of happily optimized wardrobe happy person, I am at 19 gone and 5 in, which makes me +14 happier.

Essentials (7) and upcycled/mended (5) aren’t included in the count.

TADAAA… And just like that I am a happy person.

THOUGHT N.2 - WHY

What produced this ebb and flow?

My own version of Sturm und Drang, an internal turmoil that finally came to surface and calmed down, some more work on coming to term with my physical appearance and body weight.

When people experience a heightened sense of physical balance, they’re less likely to overspend and more likely to buy things within their budget.

I don’t want to be tedious and repetitive about my menopausal troubles, it’s all here, but keeping them for myself didn’t help, ask anyone who has gone through it and felt it wasn’t appropriate to talk about it.

It’s hard, man.

Everybody will get there. So now you know, you are welcome.

THOUGHT N.3 - How do I choose IN A NUTSHELL

This is still a good place to start if you decided to go thrifting.

I buy something new if it’s the piece I have decided to splurge on, that is a classic that will go down generations, and find the best offer, like my Large FENDI Peekaboo.

If it’s something more trivial or a staple (we don’t call anything basic here) it has to go with at least 3 looks/occasions.

Where I am radical: no way it will have any polyester content and, before I go buy something new, I have already chosen who’s leaving. Usually she is nice, sometimes cute, but didn’t make it in any looks at all or enough to be on rotation for the season. That is the definition of unworn, but I try to be nice and not tell her and just send her on vacation to a better life in somebody else’s armoire. No harm or bad feelings, not all doughnuts are born with the hole (that’s a poorly translated Italian idiom, but you get the gist).