Pix-Elated

Hi, all! I'm slowly transitioning into "spring" mode as our weather finally warms up a bit. My main requirement this year (at least so far) is  a white denim refresher. 

I ordered two pair of jeans from Zara. High waisted crops, and mid-rise baggy selvedge.  They aren't really mid rise on me, but more medium high rise, which is fine. 

1. The high waisted crops are, alas, not cropped on me. And it might be difficult to alter them because of the way they are sewn -- they have a deep seam allowance that might be tough to pick out and re-jig for the length I need. I guess my seamstress will be the best judge of that, but I've tried to show what I mean in pic 3. 

Also visible in pic 3, they have a really fun seam down the front, making them more like "sailor pants" -- a little dressier than regular jeans, in my mind. They are true optic white. 

Alas, they hit just at the top of my shoes right now, the sort of bothersome length that makes you feel you are catching them up in your shoe as you move, you know? They're a bit better with the sandal, but still not great. 

Thoughts? 

2. The other jeans are a slightly softer white. I like them but don't know what length I would go with. I'm unlikely to wear them full length and I'm not sure they work that well as crops. I can easily send either or both pairs back and try again elsewhere. My other white jeans are an off-white pair of barrel jeans from Zara. I could probably manage with two pair. 

Apologies for the photo quality. For some reason they came out as portrait so they are a bit blurry in addition to being strangely lit, as always....

Thanks Angie and Brooklyn for the great reminder that joy per wear is as important as any other metric! 

Most (but not all) of these are occasion wear items that don't come out that often, but wow do they make me happy when I do get to wear them! 

I love to find an outfit I can repeat for various occasions during a season — particularly a dressy capsule outfit. I don’t have a lot of need for dressy clothes so if I find the right combination of items that makes me feel fab and is practical, I will often repeat it again and again within one year (or up to three years). After that, I’ll typically want to find a new combination. I will continue to wear the  individual items in different combinations, but perhaps less frequently. 

Last night, Mr. Suz and I went to dinner and a play -- a rare outing, yay! Weather was pleasant and dry. I wore my trusty flocked navy menswear pants (Anthro), my mesh top from Allsaints, my silver belt from Anthro, Pom Pom London bag, and my vintage leather trench. Plus Ecco booties and Merjuri pearl earrings. 

This -- with only minor variations (e.g. the belt and the outerwear/ bag) has been a go-to outfit for dinners out and festive dinners at home since early November when I purchased the top, belt, and pants. I've worn the combination even more times than I've shown it here on the forum. I didn't plan to post today  because I know you've all seen it a bunch of times, but the subject of Angie's blog made it fit right in. 

I've done this with slightly more casual outfits, too. I used to wear my sarong shorts, a navy tee (for a column of colour) and a denim jacket on repeat for so many in -between occasions in warm weather. Ditto my two piece J. Crew dress with a denim jacket. Red velvet pants with off-white sweater or top has been a real winter repeat outfit; ditto my lilac pleather pants and the print velvet top from Anthro. 

If you do this, what have your favourite outfits or formulas been? 

My outfit doesn't conform exactly to any of the (amazing) inspo pics from Angie's blog post (all of which I really loved) but it is what I wore tonight for a shared belated birthday celebration (for me) and a big brava for our adult kid, who recently won a literary prize. :). 

 J. Crew cashmere polo (ink navy, not black, BTW). 
Anthro flocked menswear trousers (ink again, with black velvet flocking). 
Ecco boots, black patent. 
Brave belt. 
Save the Duck puffer. 
Pom Pom London bag. 

Lanterns in Chinatown, where the restaurant is located -- CNY parade here today! The restaurant is also Chinese inflected. 

I love these pieces because they are casual yet sooooo luxe in feel. While the outfit is mostly monochrome, the bits of silver, the ponyhair silver/ grey belt, and the pearls plus patent boots (and the contrasting pearlescent oyster or abalone jacket -- when I was outdoors) give it the dynamism I enjoy. Super easy and comfortable and very "me" yet also dressed up enough for a winter night. 

Thanks for looking! 

Hi, all! Well, it's no surprise -- but after my two month experiment with tonal and monochrome outfits, I have learned that I'm still a contrast dresser at heart. ;) 

Despite my low contrast personal colouring, it seems I like mixing things up. 

Or maybe I just like going to extremes?  Because here's the thing...if I do dress monochrome, I like white out. Or navy. Or red. In other words, a dark or a bright or a light. 

I can do tonal happily in greys (on the right day). I can also do it in lilacs to blue or red/s burgundies (16...though that may not seem like a truly tonal outfit, and I get that...), or variations of blue, or variations of white/ cream with a hint of grey, or berries/ reds and burgundies. 

In fact, I like all those options a lot if there is enough textural interest or shine (which, ahem, usually introduces at least an element of contrast) or if there is some tone on tone pattern. 

I strongly dislike myself in pastel lilac monochrome (1) or tonal with pink (11) . Ugh. If I'm going to go monochrome, it's dark or bright all the way. I am sure I could do a midtone blue as well, if I had the elements, but no pastels, please! 

I think my next little experiment will be with pattern mixing. I do this a lot but I missed it during my tonal experiment, because I was using more solids or faux solids. So it will be fun to switch things up.

Those of you who also tried this experiment, did you make discoveries about what works and does not work for you? Are some colours better for you than others? 

Thanks for inspiring this personal challenge, SarahDB, and thanks to all who joined in! 

I love burgundy but usually don't think of it as a statement, exactly. I'm not even sure it qualifies as such here. Even though my sweater is a bit brighter than burgundy, more of a cranberry colour. Anyway, this is my indoor version of Outfit #4 from today's post. I didn't have pants or a skirt with a dark red stripe, believe it or not, or even a top that could take that role, so I went with monochrome navy. 

This Pure Amici sweater is one of the oldest items in my wardrobe and it is still going strong after more wears than I can count. A fabulous NAS purchase, one I worried a bit about at the time (even on sale, it was not cheap) but wow, has it proved its worth. I love it -- it's been worn to fancy dinners and to lounge around in at home or on retreats. 

Since this is my time of year to reflect on many aspects of my life and my wardrobe, I did a more granular (and accurate) count of on the weekend of my wardrobe retirements over a period of years. If the numbers bore you, feel free to ignore or jump to my conclusions at the bottom. Writing this down as information for those who have an interest in this topic. 

Excluding footwear, handbags, gear, basics, PJs, I have retired/ recycled/ donated/ disposed of 120 clothing items between 2019-2024, for an average of 20 a year. The actual number differed quite a lot, year to year. 

47 of those items (or about 40%) were worn out, by which I mean they had irreparable holes/ wear pattern on the fabric, irreparable stains/ marks, or they had lost their shape. These items were mostly denim, tops (especially summer tops), and certain knits -- some of which were simply poorly made to begin with, and some of which had seen such hard wear over a period of years that it was a wonder they were not complete rags. 

Looking at that figure, I'm awed by those who say they never wear out their clothes. I am blessed with quite a large wardrobe. I wash in cold water delicate cycle, air dry almost everything, mend, block knits, etc. In other words, I care for my clothes. But a significant portion do wear out. Not in one year, or two. But over a period ranging from 3-6 years. 

Many of these items were past donation, although I did donate a lot of the denim anyway, because it might be recyclable in some way, or someone might cut off the jeans for shorts. (I do that myself with some but not all of my denim because my need for denim shorts is minimal.) 

17 items left my closet due to fit issues. Most of these were jeans and some trousers that no longer fit after weight changes. But some were items that simply didn't fit as well after laundering or whose fit ended up bothering me in some way. These, I donated. 

I said goodbye to a further 18 moderately to heavily worn items that were not worn out, yet had lost their interest or value for me, personally. The least frequently worn of these would have had around 20 wears over four or five years; the most frequently worn would have had more than 100 wears. But they were still in usable conditions, and I'm pretty sure someone else would enjoy them. This includes mostly coats, blazers, and jackets. 

Finally, there were 20 items that I'd never worn a lot and I knew I wouldn't wear in the future. About a third of these were older occasion wear. The rest were what we'd call "experiments" or "shopping mistakes," depending on our attitude and frame of mind, i.e. they were items I tried, but didn't end up liking, and therefore didn't wear more than a few times. 

I also wore through a lot of footwear during this period. With the walking I do, I actually wear out most of my non-occasion wear footwear and need to replace/ upgrade frequently. This should almost be a healthcare cost for me! 

Conclusions: I feel quite encouraged by this analysis. To begin with, the worn out clothes were mostly older (had been in my closet between 3-10 years and/or were bought second hand to begin with). Fit issues are fit issues -- we can't entirely control for body changes and it's useless to hang on to uncomfortable clothing. The proportion of "fails" is not that high and I am fairly quick to weed those out -- letting them go while they are still current enough to have possible value to another wearer. 

Taking this long view, for me, has been quite informative and has emphasized the value of frequent and thorough closet evaluations and edits. 

I don't care for the word "churn." I think it implies a level of carelessness and thoughtlessness that doesn't apply to people in this community, most of whom try to buy carefully in whatever ways we can and aim to care for our clothes so they last.

So along with my other edits, I'm editing that term out of my fashion vocabulary, at least as far as my own closet management is concerned. I'm also letting go of any guilt about my purchasing or editing habits. I'm doing the best I can, balancing careful husbandry with spontaneity and fun. Which means no fashion resolutions for me this year. I'm joining Helena in the "year of no fashion goals." 

How about you? 

I was so excited about Brooklyn's cotton-linen Grace Kelly tops that I did a search and ordered them (on sale!) to see if they might work for me. 

Alas, 'twas not to be. The green (which is gorgeous, by the way, and I think suits me -- though you can't really tell it is green in my photo, it's a lovely dark forest) is the correct size, but proportioned wrong for my short body. The neck part is much too tall (it might be hard to tell from the photo, but I assure you, it's true) so the back sort of sags, while the bust was snug, and the bottom part of the wrap was also snug because it was coming down too low over my shortish waist. 

Meanwhile, the white one had a defective zip, so I couldn't even try it on. :(   I am sad, because they could have been perfect for me. But such is life. 

I also tried a skirt -- a version of which I had in the 90s. I love the idea of this (cotton-linen, gored) and don't even mind the colour (though I might have dyed it) but the fabric was too thin and didn't feel like good quality. 

Finally, a pair of oyster white PJ style wide wale cords. Like the top, these are technically the right size (though a bit long) but I don't like the fit -- too snug in the thigh, just not comfy. So back they go. 

Onwards! But I do encourage others to try the tops if they are of interest -- on the right person, these would be fab, as we've already seen! I think if I were even an inch or two taller (or longer waisted) this would have worked great. 

I felt really happy with my closet in 2024. I never stressed out about what to wear, shopping was easy and fun (both in person and online), I didn't feel the lack of too many HEWIs,  and most outfits felt true to my moniker of laid-back luminous garçonne. 

While I did not track wears this year, I have a pretty good handle on what I wear (workhorse collection) and what gets worn less frequently (my less frequently worn items here, with analysis in the notes for those who like to dig deep.) 

My wardrobe is currently sitting at 156 items. That number includes coats, footwear, bags, and all clothing but not gear, PJs, hats, gloves, undies, scarves, or jewellery.  (Scarves function more or less like "soft" jewellery for me, except the outdoor kind.) 

I consider that figure on the large side (for me). My sweet spot seems to be between 125 and 150 or so -- fewer and I lack for options in specific roles/ seasons and miss the "play" element of dressing; more and I feel overwhelmed.

I do have the room to store what I own, and, as you can tell from my collections, I do wear everything apart from a few special occasion pieces. And even those get worn a few times per year. 

54 items (or about 1/3) are 5 years old or more. 
72 items are between 1-5 years old.  
30  items (or about 1/5) are new this year (and I retired/ passed along 34). 

Is this, or is this not, too much churn?  Or too large a closet? I know there is no answer that applies to everyone. How many of those purchases are from sustainable sources? How many were second hand? Where are the donated clothes going? What else is one doing to reduce one's carbon footprint? These are some of the questions we might ask ourselves. 

I am mulling about the French 5 piece or even (gasp!) 5 pieces only next year...but I am quite sure I'm not ready for the latter. I am not as happy with my thrift/ consignment options here as I was in Vancouver -- i've been out investigating the stores, and while there are quite a lot of them, I haven't been wowed by the quality or options. At least not so far. I know that you need to make a habit of dropping in. 

Anyway. While the ethical issues remain unresolved in my mind, what is clear is that I had a lot of fun with fashion and I loved being able to dress for whatever presented itself!

Here were some of my favourite outfits this year. Thanks for looking! And for any thoughts you might have. 

Or, what I wore to look like Santa....  :; 

This is my last purchase of the year and I thought I would review it on the off chance that anyone is in the market. Earlier this year Angie mentioned that the Athleta puffers were looking good. When this one went on sale for half price and I also had some rewards $$, I decided to pounce -- and get it at approximately 1/3 original price. 

It's the Downtown puffer. And I really like it! For me, the colour was one of the main draws.  (A white coat is really practical for me because I walk in a dark suburb in the night throughout the winter.)

Features that add to its appeal: 

• Removable hood. 
• DWR coating (which works -- I was out in the rain all afternoon and did not get wet.) 
• Pockets lined in flannel. 
• Deep side slash pockets. 
• Inner pocket for phone. 
• Two way zipper; zipper does not catch. 
• Zippers on the sides to open it further for movement. 
• Cuffs. 
• Knee length (good walking length). 
• Washable.

It is only 550 fill down, so lighter weight than some, but it feels quite warm without being heavy and some reviewers in Minnesota said they thought it would work for their winters. 

It's a bit fitted through the waist, so not entirely in line with the trend for looser, sack like puffers -- but the side slits make for ease of movement. I suppose I could have sized up for a looser fit but it would have been too big in the shoulders and too long in the arms, so I went with my usual size.  

It comes (or came) in white, a lovely dark green, black and a bright tomato red. Might be sold out now, but might also show up in stores via returns. 

Happy holidays, all! 

PS...while I did get a comment or two about looking like Santa while wearing this, what I got most often was compliments on my pants -- thus proving our earlier point about red standing out more against a contrasting colour than it does in an all-red outfit! ;)