Orchids: not really as hard as you might think. If they were that hard, I would not have any blooming in my house.
The Great February Dress Countdown:
Audrey: 5 days (including 2 days worn under Willow --- looks like more here because in some instances I tweaked my outfit to go out at night, but wore the same dress all day and night)
Camellia: 3 4 days
Whoops, one more Camellia outing that I missed: that is Camellia, not Maggie, under that red skirt on Mardi Gras.
Fiona: 5 6 (?) days, I think. I think those are two different days with the blue cardigan.
Maggie: 5 days (including 1 day worn under Willow):
Sierra: 4 days
Willow: 8 days (including 2 days worn over Audrey, 1 day worn over Maggie)
And the clear winner is . . . well, I hardly need to announce it, do I? Willow, my new dress this past month, beat her sisters fairly handily. But not too handily. Camellia came in last, with only three wears. Surprisingly, I wore Sierra, my long-haul favorite, only four times.
But all in all, even with some fluctuations, I'm wearing my stable of dresses pretty consistently in rotation. Nothing is getting neglected or forgotten about. There's nothing I'm not reaching for here, among dresses, anyway. Shirts, for instance, are another story (but the new skirt coming in April should really help me wear that part of the closet more. I can wear my linen, cotton, and bamboo shirts, but still be wearing wool).
One thing I am glad about is that although there were a couple of phases where I wore the same dress multiple days in a row, no single dress is taking a particular beating in terms of wear. I have had to wash things --- Willow, in particular, tends to pick up spots, thanks to her pale color --- but I'm not washing any one garment that much. If I were more assiduous about wearing my apron, I might be able to go a whole month without washing any dresses. In fact, that might make a nice goal for March. One way to reduce my laundry load overall is to extend the time between wearings for any given item, which generally --- barring unforeseen disasters --- works out to mean that that item is just a lot slower to need washing. This reduces water consumption, energy consumption, and wear and tear on my clothes. It's why I wanted six or seven dresses, actually, though I'm counting the skirt I've pre-ordered as Dress #7 --- so that I could spread out wears, and thereby hopefully get more wears between washes for each individual dress.
Anyway, although I can look at my style album and see patterns of wear, it's interesting to count up the days. Maybe I'll go on keeping track of this, because it would be interesting to note when I hit a hundred (recorded) days for each dress. Camellia obviously has been through a hundred wears and then some, and I haven't been keeping track since I got each dress, but what if I said to myself that I'm starting a 100-day challenge for each dress NOW --- not to wear the same dress for a hundred days, but to see how long it takes me to wear each of these dresses a hundred times? That could be illuminating in its own way.
It would also be kind of in keeping with my theme for this year, which is to wear wool daily for 365 days. In reality, I had been wearing wool almost exclusively since the summer of 2021, but until the first of January of this year, I hadn't been keeping track of that data. This year, that's my focus. "Wearing wool" doesn't have to mean "wearing Wool&," though practically speaking, that is pretty much what it means. There could be a day in the summer, though, when I wear all linen --- but a merino bralette underneath. I guess that could count. Or when I wear a linen skirt with my Poshmarked vintage 90s merino/cashmere/silk tank. Not Wool&, but still wool. I would count that. But with six dresses and a skirt from Wool&, I really could do a year in that brand.
Anyway, I don't know why I'm this interested in these patterns, but I am. I guess I expect them to tell me something about myself, but who knows what that would be? I'm just tracking them, and I imagine reasons and revelations will occur to me, at least in hindsight.
Out of curiosity, I went back to January, and here's what I found (didn't have Willow yet):
Audrey: 7 days
Camellia: 4 days
Fiona: 5 days
Maggie: 7 days
Sierra: 8 days
I think this is right. I counted as carefully as I could, given that I posted multiple pictures for lots of days, and it was sometimes hard to tell whether two consecutive days were the same day (and I just changed some of my outfit) or different days. Mostly I can remember what I did, but this still might not be entirely accurate. And I have no idea if the math works. I'm counting, not adding.
BUT this was more or less January. Again, the patterns are interesting. A lot more Sierra in January than in February. A lot more Audrey. It was a lot colder in January than in February, which explains those two dresses, which are very warm when you need them to be, and good for layering. I wore Maggie just as often as I wore Audrey, though, which is interesting. That might be the most wears that particular dress has had in the entire time (almost a year) that I've had her.
At any rate, again, while there are fluctuations, and some dresses are getting more wear at this time of year than others (see: Camellia), I think this all checks out. There's no dress I'm not wearing. There's really not dress I have to make myself wear. Each dress is getting worn in a variety of outfits, not always Team Basic. Again, the time of year has a lot to do with that, since I'm almost always wearing multiple layers for warmth.
And again, no one dress is getting worn so hard as to shorten its lifespan. Camellia's lifespan will probably be shorter, from here on out, because that dress did get worn so hard early on, but so far she's still going strong. She may very well be more firmly relegated to "play dress" and "outdoor" status this summer, since I've already hiked in her a lot --- this saves some of my newer dresses from more stress, though there's not one (except maybe Audrey, because of the length) that I wouldn't walk up a mountain in on the spur of the moment, if that's what I happened to be wearing. (I'd actually considered getting a new Camellia this summer, because I like that dress so much, and I'm attracted to the spruce green . . . but I pre-ordered the Francis skirt instead, and am hoping that that's going to be a real star, especially in terms of giving me opportunities to wear shirts I own and love).
Anyway, I'm getting a little obsessive about this, but it all checks out in my mind. I don't think I want more dresses than this. A two-week rotation would be a little much. With the new skirt, I'll have a solid one-week rotation, where I wouldn't have to wear a given dress/skirt/outfit more than once a week, even though I could. In warmer weather, I might find that I do repeat my sleeveless and short-sleeved dresses more, and don't wear my longer-sleeved dresses . . . but that's to be expected. That would still leave me --- assuming the weather is really hot, and I really can't stand even 3/4-length sleeves, but I don't know that this will be the case --- Audrey, Camellia, Maggie, Sierra, and the new skirt with an array of tops --- to rotate through in the hottest weather. This would be a time when I really will be most Team Basic, because nobody wants layers in the heat. There won't be as much scope for outfit variations with a single dress . . . but that's okay. Not that I mind repeating dresses at all, but there will be plenty of opportunity for variety, and for dresses to rest between wearings. It'll still help extend the time between washings for any given dress, because said dress will have time to air, and won't get dirty as fast to begin with.
This feels like a sweet spot to me. Not more than I can wear, but enough to wear that I'm not bored or at a loss, and I don't wear my clothes out too fast because I'm wearing the exact same thing all the time. It's not minimalism per se, but (again, again) that was never my goal. What I have going here: THIS is my goal.
So, wow, glad we got all that sorted out.
And finally, wearing TODAY:
Since she was the most-worn winner for this month, here's Willow again for an astounding 9th day of February wear. Our projected high today is an equally astounding 77F, and I'm dressed for it. Let the pallid legs see the light of day, say I. And it is funny: in the fall, I'm dying for the temperatures to drop enough for leggings, tights, cardigans, and scarves. But let us get through Christmas, and almost immediately, as the year turns, I'm ready to strip it all away, and just wear as few clothes as possible (and still be covered).
I might not wear Willow in the very hottest weather. It'll be interesting to discover whether I can stand sleeves at all in the heat or not. But so much about this dress really does tilt toward sunshine and springtime, if not high summer. It's . . . kind of a short dress, for one thing. I think the length is pretty analogous to my Camellia's, though I need to hang them up next to each other and really compare. Camellia, too, is a medium regular length. I don't know whether Willow feels short to me because everyone talks all the time about how short this style runs, or whether it is actually, objectively, a shorter dress. It might also feel short to me because two of my swing dresses, Sierra and Maggie, are long lengths.
Mind you, I'm not complaining. I like the variety. And for warmer weather, especially, a little less fabric is welcome. This is why God in His infinite goodness and generosity has given us bike shorts.
Also, gosh, I just love swing dresses. Maybe I look as though I'm wearing a sack? Or a nightgown? I don't care. I never liked bodycon clothes anyway. Or even, especially, any grownup-lady clothes. I like dresses that allow airflow up and down my body, that skim my body and suggest my shape, without flaunting it. Even when I was young and thin, I really didn't like form-fitting clothes, and did like soft, swingy, flowy shapes. Maybe, objectively, I have no taste and look frumpy all the time, but whatever. I embrace it. When my daughters were tiny, I loved the soft Hanna Anderssen play dresses they wore, and I always wanted a version of same for myself. Now that's what I wear virtually every day, and I am happy with that. I can live my life in comfort, in clothes that let me be active --- but I'm still wearing a dress, so it looks as though I've made some effort. It's never a nothing outfit, even though my stress about getting dressed is at zero. What's not to love about that?
Meanwhile, as much as I've enjoyed all the outfit varieties I've come up with in the last month (usually as a way of keeping warm outdoors), I am enjoying just the-dress-as-she-comes today, on this balmy last day of February. Tomorrow we turn the corner into March and the coming of spring for real and official --- though it could snow on the Spring Equinox, who knows? But let the day be sufficient unto the day.
This really seems like about enough selfies to be going on with. Now I'd better go do something productive.