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).