Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Cleaning Out My Closet

Last week, we finally took our winter clothes out of storage. Fortunately, we haven't taken our summer clothes back to our storage building b/c New Orleans had a record high temperature of 88 degrees yesterday. So unfair. But anyway, I took advantage of having all of my clothes in one place and cleaned out my closet and bagged up a bunch of clothes for Goodwill. Apparently, I'd already done this with my winter clothes because I didn't end up culling many of them- but I had a lot of summer clothes that just don't make the cut anymore. It's a great feeling to be organized, at least temporarily!
I've been feeling really dissatisfied with my wardrobe lately, and although I think part of that is due to being at the end of a season (I'm sick of my summer time clothes and looking cute in transitional weather is always a little challenging) but I also think that the proportions of my wardrobe are out of whack.
What I mean by that is that a disproportionately large percentage of my clothes falls into a "casual/weekend wear" category (And by that I don't mean stylish going out clothes, unfortunately. I mean jeans and t-shirts.), while a disproportionately small percentage of my clothes could be classified as "work clothes" even though I spend more time at work than I do being seen on the weekends. (I think that I have an appropriate percentage of lounge wear/PJ's/ workout clothes and dressy dresses at least.)
I've been feeling like my work clothes are especially boring and frumpy and I'm starting to think that I legitimately need to at least get some more work tops. I really like the way dressy knit tops fit me, especially if they have a band at the waist, but I don't have very many of them. Button downs don't fit me very well compared to knit tops and I really just need to give up the pipe dream of having a fitted shirt that doesn't gap where it buttons up.
The catch is that it's really easy to buy a knit top and decide it's more suited to jeans than dress pants and relegate it to the t-shirt drawer. The other catch is that practical knit tops aren't exactly thrilling.
My dress pants aren't anything to write home about but they are comfortable and they fit. Also, I'm pretty discouraged about the state of dress pants in general after trying on the horrendous ones at the Gap last week. It wasn't pretty.
Also, I am seriously not allowed to buy any more Jcrew or Banana Republic casual T-shirts b/c I have a zillion of them.
And yes, I am a completely boring dresser. Does anyone want to be my personal shopper?

Any tips on how to spice up my wardrobe? I need all the help I can get!

3 comments:

  1. The only button down I've ever found that does not bunch and gap had hook-and-eye closures all the way down the front, which sounds like it would be a pain, but was not too much worse than buttons. It kept a very clean front line, and I'm sure it was from either Banana or Limited (those being the two places from whence all my work clothes came).

    I also hate button downs. Wish I didn't, but I hate ironing (and don't do it well), and they never look right. If they're big enough not to bunch and gap, they're too bulky.

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  2. I don't think I'd be a good personal shopper for you but I'm an excellent shopper in your closet! Save the leftovers for me...I'm coming home for Christmas! :)

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  3. Ginny, I'm the same way. If they don't gap in front, they just make me look really boxy. It's so frustrating! I guess I need to either get my too big button downs tailored or learn how to tailor them myself!
    Kristi, I'm actually probably going to Seattle for Christmas, although nothing is set in stone yet! Once I figure out my holiday schedule I'll let you know. Hopefully our paths can intersect!

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