You know, Abbey is very eco-conscious. She worries about wasting water and about having the heating too high. She buys organic beauty and cleaning products and tries to buy locally grown food.
I don’t do any of these things. But the one thing I feel quite strongly about is clothes.
I can never understand why we feel the need to buy new clothes every time the weather changes! And then, these clothes are somehow unsuitable for exactly the same weather next year because the colour is wrong and the style is so last season. What? It’s just crazy to me.
For some reason we feel that our clothes will help other people see us the way we want to be seen. If I wear a suit, perhaps they’ll take me seriously. If I wear pink, perhaps they’ll think I’m friendly. My red dress makes me looks confident. My hoodie makes me cool and approachable. My hipster sandals make me young. My torn fishnet sleeves proves I’m nothing like my mum… or whatever.
And apparently, it kind of works. We all make subliminal judgement of people based on what they are wearing. She’s flamboyant, he’s sophisticated, she’s frumpy, they’re cool. So perhaps what you wear to a meeting, to a gathering, or to give a presentation really does matter.
But why do we depend so heavily on something so superficial to tell our story? Clothes started out a necessity. We needed something to keep us warm and relatively dry.
And now, we spend hours each morning trying to work out what in our wardrobe most represents how we want to be perceived that day. What will make us feel special? Different? Represent us as an individual? And in our attempts to carve out our individualism, we all just choose a box to fall into. Preppy. Hipster. Bohemian. Punk. Rocker. Vintage… the list goes on.
As you know, I did a major clear out of my apartment a few years ago. And I followed the Marie Kondo technique. I picked up every item of clothing I owned and asked myself if I felt joy when I looked at it. If I did, it went back in the wardrobe. If I didn’t, it went into recycling.
So much of my wardrobe didn’t spark joy! Why did I have it all? I felt terribly guilty as I took bag after bag of non-joyful clothing outside. But when I got back and looked at what was left, I truly did feel joy! The things left in my wardrobe were the things I absolutely adore wearing. I don’t know why. There doesn’t seem to be any deep psychology behind it other than these clothes make me feel happy. Every time I wear them.
So surely these are the clothes that truly represent who I am and tell my story most accurately. What better way is there to attend a meeting, meet new people, give a presentation, sip tea with friends?
Of course I buy new clothes once in a while. But this comes much more out of need than it used to. And I plan to keep it that way. Not least because, it makes deciding what to wear each day so much easier!
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