Sign on a stall door in a restaurant ladies' room. Made me laugh.
New month, new wardrobe challenge:
As always, the heart of this challenge for me is to learn to wear the clothes I have. There's always more to want, but really, I have a closet full. I need to wear them and be grateful. This 30-item wardrobe below really doesn't seem that much like a capsule to me, even though I think that's what the challenge is supposed to be about: thirty pieces feels like a lot for a capsule. It's basically most of my warm-weather clothing.
Possibly this month will teach me what I really enjoy wearing in warm weather and what I don't choose to reach for at all, even when I have the leeway to choose it. Keeping notes will help me decide what to cull and pass along, so that I can see what gaps there are in my wardrobe – or whether there really are gaps at all. There are things I would LIKE, mind you. I'd like a pair of high/paper-bag-waist trousers, a pair of wide-leg trousers that aren't drawstring waist, and another jumpsuit/pair of overalls. But if I can get through May without acquiring any of these items and still feel good about how I look, then that I think will be enlightening.
(SATURDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE: I made it eight days without buying something. But there were some Urban Outfitters paper-bag-waist wide-leg blue pants on Ebay, just calling my name).
I am going for a lot of blue in this challenge. Big surprise there – it's my best color and a good foundation on which to build any kind of wardrobe for me. The palette is cool, subdued shades of blue and sage green, with hits of pink and a little summer white. Lots of dresses, because I love to wear dresses and am interested to see how many ways I can style the warm-weather dresses I own.
Considering mood, or image, or aesthetic, or whatever it is I want to project: natural, relaxed, outdoorsy, a little hippie-grunge, maybe, but also grownup (because I am one, folks, indisputably) and reasonably put-together. I suppose what all of this is about is finding my aesthetic and being able to articulate it, so that I can hit it consistently in any register, from dressy/occasion to hiking to hanging out at home, with all the various kinds of work a day at home entails.
30 wardrobe pieces to wear in the next 30 days
(excluding shoes and accessories)
Dresses:
1. Navy knit sheath dress
2. Navy fit-and-flare dress
3. Washed navy/indigo swing t-shirt dress
4. Blue-gray smocked above-the-knee tiered jumper
5. Blue/light indigo J.Jill shapeless midi dress
6. Bleach-dyed blue v-neck dress
7. Wild card
Skirts:
1. Blue/multi gauze maxi skirt
2. sage green twill skirt
3. Wild card
Pants/shorts/jumpsuit:
1. Sage green shorts
2. Green satiny joggers (UPDATE: subbed in sage-green drawstring pants)
3. Duck-egg blue crop jeans
4. Rose-brown jumpsuit
5. Wild card
Tops:
1. sleeveless white pintuck
2. white half-tee
3. collarless medium denim
4. light chambray button shirt
5. army green tee
6. pale blue tank
7. pink lace-hem tank
8. navy scoop-neck embroidered tee
9. J.Jill blue tie-dye swing tee
10. Wild card
Cardigans/jackets/top layers:
1. Blue duster-length
2. Green boyfriend cardigan
3. Blue flowered kimono
4. Jean jacket
5. Wild card
So: thirty items, allowing a "wild card" slot for each category. The aim really is to wear what I have, not not wear it. With the weather warming up, my outfit choices would naturally tilt toward dresses, skirts, and other lightweight items, rather than jeans or trousers. I probably won't wear anything heavier than my cotton drawstring wide-leg trousers between now and September, and it will be interesting to see what fits when that time comes. I have been gaining some weight, but am trying not to care – that is, I'm trying not to panic and stop eating. Thinking about fueling my body; thinking about being active and healthy; thinking about not making foods (wheat and potatoes, I'm looking at you) off-limits. Thinking about eating when I'm hungry and stopping when I'm not. Thinking about loving the body I have, not the body I think I'm going to punish myself into having six months from now.
Meanwhile, after wearing purple all Lent, then trying various other capsule-oriented challenges, I'm most interested in being able to make thirty days' worth of outfits without absolutely excluding anything I might find that I want to wear. I don't plan to buy anything this month, but then again, my daughter might want to go thrifting, so I'm leaving that door open. I guess anything I'd buy would count as a "wild card" choice, OR I'd substitute it outright for an item on the list. Springtime: open all the doors, let all the light and air and possibility in.
SATURDAY
May 1/Day 1
Dress 1 (navy knit sheath dress, Walmart clearance), Cardigan 2 (green boyfriend, thrifted), with pink belt and Birks. Worn to Charlotte to get my second Covid vaccine, then to walk around the lake at the park and eat Indian food. I took off both the belt and the cardigan at the park, where it was hot, and put only the cardigan back on for dinner. I also wound up braiding my hair because the day got hot, but it looked nice down for a while.
Nothing too exciting about this outfit, frankly, but it was comfortable, and the color-blocking was kind of interesting-ish. I didn't keep the belt on, but I liked that little bit of pink with the navy dress and green cardigan. The whole ensemble might have looked sharper with my Crocs thongs, but I didn't think about that until I'd left the house and it was too late.
I would repeat this outfit with the Crocs thongs, or possibly try it with my fisherman wedge/clogs for Sunday or a night out. The cardigan is starting to get stretched all out of shape, but it's so lightweight that I can't envision doing without it in the summer – I wear it a lot even in hot weather for an extra layer or pop of color. Also, my husband likes it. His vote does count for something.
SUNDAY
May 2/Day 2
Mass outfit: #1 blue patterned gauze maxi skirt, #8 navy scoop-neck embroidered top, #5 wild-card cardigan (the shrug from last week's very successful travel capsule – I wish I'd taken pictures, but I didn't), with my fisherman's-sandal wedges/clogs. All either thrifted or old.
I included this skirt in my 30x30 list partly because it goes with so many things and can dress up or down, but also because I hardly wore it at all over the winter, even though it works nicely with boots and a sweater. I wanted to be sure it didn't just hang there neglected over the summer. I like the contrast of the light-natural leather shoes with my dark top – that formula of light-dark-color-pattern is definitely in play here. I knotted the skirt ages ago, and I still prefer the tapered shape that that move creates, so that the flowy skirt doesn't just swallow me. I tucked the front of my top into the elastic waistband, which is sitting fairly high on my waist, since my stomach has been kind of bloated lately. It's hard to keep it all even and straight, which is frustrating, but the high waist does create the illusion of length in my legs, which is helpful when you're shortish and dumpyish. And blue: always and forever my best color.
Vaccine morning-after face: could be worse. My arm is so sore that getting dressed was hard, and I scream and recoil whenever anyone touches me. I feel tireder than usual and kind of bleh, but honestly not too bad otherwise. My daughter, who had her second shot on Thursday, felt as though she had the flu, with body aches and chills and chest pain, all of which persisted for roughly 36 hours. My husband, on the other hand, felt fine after his second shot several weeks ago, and my son, who also had his second dose on Thursday, seems also not to have had any noticeable after-effects. And now our whole household is wholly vaccinated, for which hallelujah.
I like that my 30x30 list functions like the menu in a Chinese restaurant, where you order by numbers.
Also: I was very happy with my hair, in a half-updo pull-through ponytail, with a tiny little scrunchie. In fact, I'll just say it: I love my hair like this. It feels beautiful. I think it looks beautiful. The thought that I have, on looking at this picture, is that I am happy that the woman with the pretty hair is me. That thought makes me glad that I bothered to take the picture.
I had put too much gel in yesterday (Aussie HeadStrong Volume Gel, which I like very much), and wound up combing my hair all out, which I thought would wreck the wave/curl pattern. I might even have brushed it last night – can't remember now. But this morning it was all in these nice fat waves, very soft and shiny. I didn't do anything at all to refresh it – I'd been expecting to braid it or wear it in a bun, and how nice it looked as it was came as an utter surprise.
I bought a pack of these little scrunchies in a CVS yesterday, because I could tell that I was going to want to put my hair up and had forgotten to bring any hair-tie kind of thing with me. I now have large scrunchies, medium scrunchies, small scrunchies, and tiny scrunchies. I have velour scrunchies, cotton scrunchies . . . this could become an addiction. Give me all the scrunchies.
Sunday evening:
I've been feeling kind of chilled and punko all afternoon, so opted for wild-card rose-pink joggers as part of my after-Mass-collapse outfit. I didn't include them in my 30x30 list, because I figure it's going to be too warm for them, but today they felt good, with my #9 blue tie-dye swing tee and Birks.
And into the new week. I spent the first half of last week with my mother and mother-in-law: good and important, but I got no work done. Even after I was back home, on Thursday and Friday, I didn't accomplish that much toward the anthology, so this week really needs to be an afterburner. Of course, despite having done laundry, I'm also somehow drowning in laundry, mostly of the clean-but-needs-folding variety. I'm glad my kids do their own washing, but if I'm not alert (and I have not been lately), they beat me to the washer and dryer, with the result that my own loads get dumped in baskets and left . . . which I hate so much that even typing the words fills me with impotent rage, but it is what it is. I have good kids, and they do a lot, and meanwhile, my impotent rage is just that: impotent. Anyway, I will need to spend some time tomorrow folding and putting away.
I'm also anticipating that this week will be a shakedown cruise for the 30x30 challenge. I absolutely reserve the right to change anything on my lists if it doesn't work for me. While it's helpful to have parameters, I refuse to feel restricted, especially in heady Eastertide.
MONDAY/MAY 3/DAY 3
Waking up, drinking coffee. This morning when I went to pour yesterday's leftover coffee on the pothos I've hung in the camellia tree outside the back door, I startled a little wren which had sat down to rest on the edge of the hanging pot.
Haven't gotten dressed yet (though I have a cunning plan), but am pondering organizing my 30x30 by color, rather than genre of clothing.
That would look like this:
BLUE
Navy sheath dress
Navy fit-and-flare
Swing t-shirt dress
Smocked above-the-knee tiered jumper
Indigo J.Jill shapeless dress
Bleach-dyed v-neck dress
Patterned gauze maxi skirt
Duck-egg-blue cropped jeans
Denim collarless shirt
Chambray button shirt
Pale blue tank
Navy scoop-neck embroidered tee
J.Jill tie-dye swing tee
Duster-length cardigan
Flowered kimono
Jean jacket
GREEN
Sage-green skirt
Sage-green shorts
Army-green satiny joggers (see below)
Dark army-green tee
Boyfriend cardigan
Forgot the cardigan in this photo, and goodness, my shorts need ironing. Laying all the green – minus the cardigan – out together, I notice how out-of-register the joggers seem. I might replace them with my sage-green wide-leg drawstring pants, which are more in the same color zone as the other items. Those joggers look green when worn with blue, but next to all these gray-green items, they look brown, even gold. I think I will make that substitution, because I'd like to keep my color families in the same register. In this case, I'm thinking more grayed greens. I'll photograph them all again, this time with the cardigan and the drawstring pants, and compare.
Yes, this is better. I'm going with these pieces. Joggers are OUT, drawstring pants, second from left, are IN.
PINK
Rose-brown jumpsuit
Lace-hemmed tank
WHITE
Pintuck tank
half-tee for layering
*I'm wearing the half-tee now; the pin-tuck tank is in the wash.
Here's my closet for the month, minus what I'm wearing now (see below), and two blue dresses and one white top in the wash:
All that, plus five wild cards, equals thirty. It seemed like a lot when I was first contemplating it, but hung up together, it's not a lot at all. I pushed everything else in the closet over to the side so that I could hang my 30x30 items together, by color, and now I feel caught on a hamster wheel in my brain, but we'll see how this goes.
I suppose I could have worked things out mathematically: five sets of six items, say. Or four sets of seven, plus two wild cards. Or something like that. Instead, my method has been almost purely intuitive: thinking about my closet, looking at my inventory, thinking, "I want to be sure to wear that." And then I've tweaked to bring the color register mostly in line: a lot of grayed shades, muted and soft, that I think will work well with each other, especially given that I do have the one intense dark-pink-almost-burgundy jumpsuit and five wild card slots that give me permission to shop the rest of the closet when I need to.
And I suppose it makes sense that I'd have far more blue than anything else. Why not? It's what looks good on me. Why not wear blue most days, especially if I can do it without absolutely repeating outfits? Anyway, it's May, which is Mary's month, so blue seems more than usually appropriate as a foundational color to wear.
Today is rainy and boggy and warm, definitely a dress day. My plan is to work on the anthology and catch up on all this laundry that's lying about, filling me with unutterable, exalted, and, again, impotent rage. I will have to make something for supper, too. Fortunately I think I can get a few more days out of my last Aldi order (a week ago Friday) – there's some ground meat (Italian sausage, I believe, but possibly also turkey) in the freezer, from which I can figure something out.
What I wore:
#4 smocked tiered jumper from Target, last worn by one of my daughters between the ages of 9 and 12, and rescued by me from the dress-ups box upstairs a couple of months ago.
#2 white half-tee
#4 chambray button shirt, tried both knotted and loose.
I'm not sure how great it is either way, but for now I've gone with loose, so it's more like a jacket. It's a large shirt, possibly too large to be really flattering and useful – I bought it initially just as a layer to throw on for hiking, to keep the sun off my shoulders, but then I liked the drape and color. It's tencel, I believe, and very soft. Sometimes it works great knotted with a shirt, dress, or trousers, but here, with the full skirt, it feels a little voluminous, so I've opted just to let it hang.
Without the shirt layer:
Birks as default shoes, and Day 3 hair in a high-ish ponytail, which just does work for me better than the low ponytail which is supposed to add such instant sophistication to the mature woman's look. Not me, babe. Give me the cheerleader pony. I need the uplift.
Would I wear this again? I dunno. That's one reason why I included this dress in my 30x30, to determine whether it really fills the "tiered floaty dress" spot for me this year, or whether it's just TOO "my daughter wore this when she was 11."
I like the pink scrunchie for a tiny pop of color on an otherwise fairly monochromatic outfit. And I like the whole soft hippie beach vibe. I can feel appropriately granola-arty-summer-vacay while folding all this laundry as the rain falls outside and the wrens complain about it.
My mother asked me again last week whether I color my hair. The answer, as I hope you can see here, is not nohow. Why is it not all silver yet? Beats me.
TUESDAY/MAY 4/DAY 4
I've been so blue lately (sartorially speaking) that I thought I'd mix it up some today with pink and green. Wearing my #2 sage-green twill skirt and my #7 pink lace-hemmed tank, with Birks (because default mode) – and because it's still a little cool this morning, though the high is expected to reach almost 80F, I made myself reach for my jean jacket, which I do not ever wear enough, instead of a cardigan, which would have been my normal default.
I like this skirt more and more, even with the big spot low down that I can't get out. As I might have said before when I've worn it, it's got either a lady explorer/missionary kind of vibe (which may be a charitable spin on "homeschool mom," but reader, I AM a homeschool mom). It's the kind of clothing item for which the word "serviceable" was surely coined. If I were the skirts-only type of homeschool mom, which I'm not, this is the kind of skirt I would wear more often than not, because the sturdy twill stands up to a lot: gardening, cow milking, nature walks. I do garden and walk as it happens, though on a city lot I'm not doing much cow milking.
I like the tank with the skirt, because pink always plays well with green, but also because the lace detail on the tank saves the whole outfit from being a little too "serviceable." A plain tee with this skirt would be unspeakably blah. A little feminine detail elevates it, while the addition of the jean jacket provides some masculine contrast with that.
It's like the skirt, while undeniably a woman's item, reads "neutral" – made for a woman, but as non-femininely as possible – while the tank reads "feminine," and the jacket reads "masculine." I don't want to argue about gender and whether or not you personally are binary; just assume, please, that I'm making use of traditionally available language, because there it is, and it says what I mean to say, no more and no less. Anyway, contrast on that level, the way items signal at least traditionally-understood gender messages, is another way of creating interest in an outfit.
The lace detail on the tank is also important because it adds pattern to an otherwise totally plain outfit. With the jacket, especially, I have that light-dark-color-pattern formula going on – actually, even without it, my shoes are dark, my skirt and top are both color and light, and the lace adds pattern. The jacket, being denim, adds a little extra subtle pattern via its texture.
All I'm going to do today is work from home and maybe go for a walk if the weather holds, but I'm happy that my clothes, easy as they really are, work together to make something subtly interesting and, I think, flattering to me. As much as I want pencil skirts to work for me, I really feel better in some kind of A-line or flared skirt with a definite waist. This skirt is longer than the current midi fashion, but I don't care. It's a comfortable length for me.
Day 5 hair worn down. I was going to put it up, but it felt better this way. I didn't try to refresh it or anything, just combed with a wide-toothed comb, tweaked my bangs with my fingers, and let it go.
What shall I wear tomorrow . . . maybe I'll make myself opt for pants, since I've been wearing skirts and dresses. Just for a change, for kicks, for fun. We'll see . . .
UPDATE: After dinner, my husband proposed that we wander round to the brewpub, so we did. I wore this outfit. Felt fine. Played hair-band-music bingo. Did not win.
WEDNESDAY/MAY 5/DAY 5
Sunny, 80F, a day with (so they say) no rain.
As of 1:15 p.m. I have:
*read the day's Mass readings
*washed my hair
*gone for a 2-mile walk with my husband
*placed an Aldi order
*responded to a question in an online homeschool group I moderate
*done some laundry
*trimmed some overgrown grass and transplanted some moss.
Giving over the afternoon to literary work, now that I've got all that out of my system.
And what am I wearing for it all?
#2 sage-green wide-leg drawstring pants, #1sleeveless white pin-tuck top, tan fake Birks, to give the Floridas a rest.
As you can see, this white top is a little see-through, so I always have to add a camisole under it. Not doing a top layer today – the weather's really warm, and I'm not planning to go anywhere. I have wondered how my blue kimono would look with this ensemble and might play around with that later, but not now.
Washed my hair and have let it air-dry. It's still a little damp in these photos, but almost there.
The top is thrifted, from last year or the year before. As I have mentioned before, I've had these pants, bought new at Target, since roughly 2006. I love the soft, washed, grayed green – it always feels good and right to me, like putting on a sigh of relief.
I did adjust the lighting in the middle photo here, but not the others. I think I'm going to stop doing it altogether. I started because I was afraid colors wouldn't show up well, but I think everything looks truer (and less yellow) when I just let it be. I don't otherwise use filters, and I generally don't enhance the lighting, even (unless a photo is really dark), for a close-up of my face. I try to make what you see here as close to what you'd get in real life: Truth In Advertising.
Anyway, the change from dress/skirt to pants has been nice, and it's also been pleasant to have a couple of days of predominantly green outfits, rather than blue, just to shake things up. I am feeling glad that I chose mostly soft, washed colors for this 30x30 capsule, and have been wondering whether I could purge out the last of my brighter pieces (bright pink tiered skirt, for example). I feel so much more me in these muted shades, though I also like the intensity of my dark-pink/rose-brown jumpsuit, and of darker royal blues and navies. "Intense" rather than "bright" is a good distinction, I think, or maybe "saturated" vs. "bright."
Meanwhile, I can look at the rest of my closet, all the things I didn't choose for this 30x30, and identify things I could have chosen that would work well with the pieces I did choose, and this too I think is helpful as I consider how to shape my wardrobe into a coherent system that gives me a lot of choices and flexibility, but works because it is coherent, with no stray ends. I don't count formalwear as "stray ends" – though I have repurposed one special-occasion dress as a slightly toned-down date-night dress, I'm fine with having three dresses that I could reach for should I need something out of the ordinary, and that don't get the same level of regular wear as my ordinary wardrobe. I certainly don't need more than three dresses in that category, but it's nice to know that I have them. At the same time, what I want is for everything else to give me ready-to-go outfit options for any normal occasion I might encounter.
I could, for example, switch out these tan sandals for my fisherman-sandal wedges and add my long, clean-lined blue cardigan, and be dressed to teach a class or go out somewhere a little nice for dinner. Or I could add my denim jacket and wear my Birk Floridas for a different, slightly grungier vibe. Not going to try all that out right now, but the possibilities are there, just in this very basic core outfit, which in the meantime is soft, cool, breezy, comfortable, and casually effortless without being sloppy. Thumbs up, me. Now go to work.
THURSDAY/MAY 6/DAY 6
My half-birthday. I'm exactly 56 and a half today. Hooty hoot.
Sunny but cooler after some late-night showers. Continuing with wide-leg trousers, which other than shorts are the ONLY trousers in my 30x30 capsule. (UPDATE: No, I tell a lie. I did include my duck-egg-blue crop jeans, which I must remember to wear. I haven't worn them much since I got them, and I do like them). Today it's the rose-brown/dark pink/whatever you want to call it jumpsuit, which I normally wear belted, since I removed the elastic from the waistband, but am choosing to leave loose today. Adding my scoop-neck navy embroidered top from Sunday's outfit underneath.
Here's a close-up of the top I'm wearing underneath – I keep referring to it as "embroidered," but the embroidery doesn't show up well in photos (and not at all in this outfit – I was really going for the neckline and cap sleeves today). The flash washes the color out a bit, but it is fairly faded by now, after years of wear and washing. I bought this top in the juniors department at our local Belk store, probably ten years ago, and I have loved and worn it much.
This morning is relatively chilly, rebounding from a low of 45F to somewhere in the low 70s. I'd thrown on this old charcoal-gray hooded cardigan, not on my 30x30 list, over my nightgown when I got up this morning, and I've put it on again for now, just to keep warm.
I believe this cardigan is of Target origin. It's pretty obviously acrylic and quite pilled by now. My oldest daughter got it at Goodwill when she was still in high school; for reference, she graduated from high school in 2011. When she left home, she left the cardigan behind, and it made its way into my closet. It's not a good cardigan by any normal measure, but from a distance it's not too awful, and it is a handy warm layer to toss on around the house when I need one. I also just like hoodies. In all honesty, I should add it to the outbox – should have added it to the outbox years ago – but it does serve a particular function that I'm not sure any other sweater I own quite does. It's a sweater I can wear and totally not care what happens to it, and it's at least one degree more flattering than the standard sweatshirt as a layer added for warmth.
Day 2 hair, waves combed out with wide-toothed comb. If they seem shapeless, I might mist them later with water to refresh and restore a little definition. Liking my bangs styled completely to the side – when I washed my hair yesterday, I just didn't bother separating my bangs from the rest of my hair. I had thought that this outfit might call for more restrained hair, in some kind of updo, but I think the balance is okay as is.
Wearing the same tan fake Birks I wore yesterday: an impulse buy in Walmart last March, but I've been glad I had them. Last year they were virtually the only shoes I wore, day in and day out, until it got cold enough for boots.
Speaking of cold enough for boots, it's autumn in Australia, where some of my favorite Instagram style accounts live. But looking at Bron Gets Dressed today, I'm thinking I might consider a denim-on-navy spring look for tomorrow . . . I always love the way she looks, breezy and casual and cool, in colors that speak to me. We have opposite body shapes, which means that some of the clothing shapes that work for her are not going to work for me, but her color choices absolutely do work for me, and the vibe is one I'd like to achieve in my own clothes.
This little post from Nat Tucker also might explain why my light-pink joggers (last worn the Tuesday after Divine Mercy Sunday) just have not been working for me. I'm not part of her paid program, and don't entirely understand her color-type distinctions, but given what I know about myself and what I observe about her and people in her program, I would guess that she would "type" me as a "hair," which seems to mean: cool pink skin tone, low contrast. That translates into soft, grayed, blue-toned, muted-though-sometimes-saturated versions of already-cooler colors: burgundy or rose-brown rather than bright red or hot pink, for example. Some of it is what looks good with your skin and overall coloring (tone, but also the level of contrast in your hair, skin, and eyes), and some of it is your personality: are you softer and more low-key, or bolder, edgier? To a great extent I know what I look and feel good in, and I know what grates on my nerves when I wear it. There's something to being nudged out of your usual comfort zone (that's what these challenges are good for), but if you're just uncomfortable, or feel not yourself, in a color, style, or combination of elements, then it's good to pay attention to that and to try to work out why you feel that way.
For me it's:
*loud colors (I am not that retiring, but I'm not a loud personality)
*a lot of high contrast, like black and white, black and red, etc (literally raises my stress level)
*anything overstated, like a big poofy infinity scarf or "statement jewelry" (I am easily overwhelmed by my clothes – I have a relatively small face with small features, even though I'm an average-sized person, and it's very easy for me to look and feel that my clothes and accessories are wearing me, instead of vice versa).
Relatedly: years ago I did a free mini-course offered by the Dressing Your Truth program – a little too woo-woo for me, ultimately, but a number of ideas from that program were helpful nonetheless. Like every style or program ever devised, I imagine, DYT categorizes you as one of four types (DYT's are numbered, 1-4), whose parameters are based less on your coloring than on the lines and curves of your body and your supposed "energy," which might be another way of saying "personality."
Apparently people often agonize over what type they are, but it seemed obvious to me from the get-go, and still seems obvious to me now, that as far as those ideas pertain, I'm a Type 2: associated with fluid lines (an associative, meandering, sometimes indecisive but never random or chaotic thought process, for example), with words like subtle, relaxed, even romantic, and with muted, grayed colors. Look at my syntax: there's my personality. There's my particular mind at work. Meanwhile, if you google "DYT Type 2," you pull up no end of blogs and mood boards devoted to the style that the program associates with this "type."
While I'm not into the romantic end of that spectrum, with ruffles, I am here for clothing with flowing lines and fluid drape (like my sentence structure), clothing that tilts a little hippie-bohemian without being in-your-face about it, clothing with subtly feminine details, clothing in muted, calming, subtle colors. Considering that program's ideas, even if I don't get into the whole energy-typing/energy-work scene, has helped me understand why I'm naturally attracted to certain kinds of clothes, and why I can just not bother with styles that are very tailored, or pointed, or crisp, even if they look fantastic on other people. The color guide was pretty on-point as well.
What Nat Tucker's Make It Look Easy has shown me is how my own coloring, as well as my personality, can guide me to good choices. There's just a lot of consonance between these two programs, though on the face of things they're entirely different. Both, incidentally, seem to encourage a certain look – after a while you notice photos of groups of women all standing together (because they're a community now!) and wearing variations on a handful of themes. With DYT Type 2, it's the ruffly drape cardigan and the infinity scarf. With Nat Tucker, it's certain tops (very drapey, tucked at the front), skirts, and trousers, which everyone has bought from the same store. In the latter case, especially, I REALLY like the clothes and wish I could go shopping in Australia and buy them all. To me those clothes hit the sweet spot of comfort, ease, clean lines, and delicious colors. But you do notice the tropes. I'm not trying to look like a trope – in fact, I'm actively trying NOT to look like a trope. What's important, ultimately, I think, is how you, where you are and who you are, can translate the useful ideas into what you have in your closet and what is available to you to buy as you need it.
Both of these programs have helped me to be judicious in my thrift shopping. More and more, especially in person, when I'm handling the clothes directly, I can tell by a glance and a feel whether I even want to pull the item off the rack. I know whether it's my color. I know whether it's my texture and drape. As much money as I have spent in thrift stores in the last decade, I'd have spent a lot more on items I wound up not wearing, had I not put myself through these courses and considered my clothing in light of who I am, body and soul. I still don't think of myself as that well dressed, but I'm a lot closer to that ideal than I used to be. And I'm a lot better at buying clothes I will actually wear.
ANYWAY, all things considered, I think those joggers of mine are just too candy-pink. I bought them online (always a risk, because colors too often don't display accurately), thinking they'd be blush, a shade softer and more muted, but the color is really just kind of white-based and clear – like hard candy, almost brittle, even though it's sweatshirt material. That's how I feel the color, anyway. It's been illuminating to compare how I feel in those joggers, as opposed to the rose-pink joggers I bought in my last Goodwill haul. Joggers are probably never going to be that kind to the pear-shaped, trend though they be . . . but the difference in vibe, for lack of a better word, is notable. One pink is right for me. The other just is not.
That leads me to consider my pink lace-hemmed tank . . . I should put the two together and compare. The pinks are very close, though not exact. Yet I like the tank. Maybe other things about it – the neckline, the length, the lace trim, the feel of the fabric – mitigate against its not being really my perfect shade? I don't know . . .
Meanwhile, I suspect that my J.Jill ramie pullover (last worn on Wednesday of Easter 3, in the Spring in My Closet Challenge), which I've had for so long, does work all right for me because it's a pink right on the edge of purple. But I might have to think about that. As long as I've had that pullover, I have not worn it very often, and I should pay attention to why that is.
In any event, I just bought the joggers in January, so I'm not ready to get rid of them yet. There is a sunk-cost thing going on in my mind, and I think I can probably cope with them as loungewear/pajamas okay. I can also find color combos that maybe play down the candy-ness. But the idea is instructive. I'm also thinking hard about my bright-pink tiered skirt (last seen on Thursday of Divine Mercy Week, during the No-Boring-Clothes challenge). Just not sure about it. I'm not sure I ever feel that at home in it. I might chuck it in the outbox for a while and see how I do without it even as a wild-card option – it's not part of my 30x30 anyway, but I could use the hanger, and it would be instructive to subtract it, visually, altogether, from my closet.
Here's another navy-on-navy look, again autumnal, because that's what season it is in Australia. I would not wear a scarf this time of year – I love the idea of scarves as year-round accessories, but in practice, unless the weather calls for that extra layer, it always feels like too much bulk on me. But navy is my good dark neutral. Even in the springtime, with the weather so warm, I could layer with more navy or denim, and do a tan shoe for contrast. That might be what I try tomorrow, with either my fit-and-flare or my cotton-knit sheath dress from last Saturday, at the top of this page.
Before I close out this installment and go to work, I want to add that one of the things I enjoy about doing these challenges is that they push me to wear more things I own, and to consider wearing them in different combinations than I would have come up with myself. My outfits, I realize, have been hit or miss, but taking all these pictures does show me what's a hit and what's a miss. The pictures also give me a way to consider how a "miss" could be tweaked into more of a "hit." I guess there are people who are naturally good at this kind of thing, just as there are people who can look at a room and know where the furniture is supposed to go. I am not one of those people, either kind. I have to rearrange the furniture endlessly and live with it. Apparently the same is true of my life with my clothes. I have no idea whether anyone else is reading this blog, but if you are, I hope my record of this process is of both interest and use to you.
Three essays left to write for the anthology project. This week my research subject is former U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith.
FRIDAY/MAY 7/DAY 7
I typed "Thursday" and left it there for a while, if you want to know what the day has been like so far.
Outfit of the day: Best Dark Neutral
#2 Talbots navy ponte-knit fit-and-flare dress (with navy crop-top for coverage – I didn't list it as a separate wardrobe piece, because I just consider it to be part of this dress): thrifted
#4 jean jacket: thrifted
Tan fake Birks: Walmart impulse buy last year
Gold glass ball earrings, gift from my husband
I virtually never wear yellow, but I love these little ball earrings in gold glass, which my daughter helped my husband choose for some gift occasion several years ago. I'm not a fan of the Big Pop of Color with neutrals, but I can go for the tiny little contrast-pop, and yellow, being blue's complement on the color wheel, is an obvious choice.
This dress does literally everything I was talking about yesterday. Despite the structured fit-and-flare shape, the material is soft and flowing and comfortable. I don't feel constrained by it. I think the more rounded neckline the crop top provides is actually more flattering than the low vee-neck of the dress, but I have worn it that way. I'm also far more comfortable with less exposure up top. If the neckline's a little high now, worn this way (back to front), the necklace creates a line that balances the face. I'm happy with that.
SATURDAY/MAY 8/DAY 8
And on the eighth day . . . I washed my hair and dressed in more layered blues, light ones this time, mostly, but with denim again.
Thrifted duck-egg-blue crop jeans (Vera Wang), thrifted pale blue soft tank with neckline detail (no label), thrifted 9West collarless denim shirt (a HUGE favorite in my wardrobe since I bought it last fall), thrifted Birkenstock Floridas, cheapo Walmart pink belt.
It's a relief to put on some trousers marked "Size 8" and find that they still fit. I am hippy, no way around it. Possibly wide-leg trousers would be kinder to me than these are. But I have these crop jeans, and I love the color, and they do fit, which makes me pretty happy. There's hope for all the other jeans currently hanging in my closet, which I'm not wearing for this challenge.
Things I like about this outfit:
*It's blue, and shades of blue that especially make me feel good, i.e., muted
*Layering blue on blue makes blue a kind of neutral
*"Column" of low-contrast lighter blues overlaid with the longer vertical line of the darker denim shirt – a nice effect, different from a jean jacket, and probably kinder to the ole pear shape
*Detail at the neck of the tank: subtle, but keeps it from being too masculine or plain, in what might otherwise read as kind of a "masculine" outfit. I think the fluidity of the denim shirt mitigates against that reading somewhat, as does the softness of the colors.
My hair's still wet, but as it's a washday, I'll almost certainly keep wearing it down. I think the movement of my long wavy hair will also add a more feminine note without, I hope, being too much volume and therefore out of sync with the feel of my clothes. I often have felt that way when I've worn joggers, but then if you've read this far, you know already that I have other problems with the joggers I own.
As you can see by the dimness of the room behind me, it's an overcast day, though the high is supposed to reach 72F. I've been putting off planting tomatoes and peppers, as our nighttime temperatures have routinely been in the 40s. I'm not that ready for the swampy hot nights of midsummer, but it's May, for heaven's sake! The weather could be a little warmer, and I would not complain.
I was happy yesterday to receive housing confirmation for my summer fiction residency: as I had hoped, I'll be "in house" on the college campus, where I can walk to Mass daily but otherwise have privacy to work on my novel, punctuated by editorial sessions. I'm looking forward to this for all kinds of reasons – but you know I'm also starting to think what clothes I'm going to take for two weeks! "Fiction Residency Capsule Wardrobe" will be a thing. It'll be late July in North Carolina: HOT. But I'm going to want to psych myself into working, which means I'll want to look a little bit professional, even as I'm going to want to be comfortable while I work.
The protagonist of my current novel is not especially into clothes, though she does notice what other people wear to some degree. I have a draft-in-pieces of another novel whose protagonist (or one of them; it's an ensemble affair, for which reading Trollope has been very helpful) has been sent home from a convent, but prior to religious life worked in the art world and was extremely conscious of her wardrobe and her aesthetic. That has been fun to write, and I look forward to revisiting that novel once I tie off the one to which the summer residency will be dedicated. I certainly HOPE that one will be finished once the residency is done. Anyway, I note that Barbara Pym, among other writers, had an active interest in clothing which turns up in her novels – so there.
Anyway, that's the week that was. In terms of the May 30x30 challenge, it's been a good week. I solidified a basic wardrobe around two colors (blue and green), with a third (pink) for contrast and interest. I've enjoyed what I wore this week, with the possible exception of Monday's rather out-there dress, though I'm not going to take it off the list just yet. I've enjoyed what I wore, furthermore, without more than scratching the surface of its possiblities – good news, since I have 22 days left.
I might begin to replace my five wild-card slots with specific items. We'll see. That could be my project for the coming week. On the other hand, it's been good to have some flex spots, especially as the weather can't decide how warm it wants to be.
Tomorrow is Sunday, a new week, still beautiful, joyful Eastertide, though we're almost to the Ascension and Pentecost. It's all my favorite time of year.