Goodwill (Wardrobe) Hunting

 I'm taking a break from talking about used clothing this week to focus a bit on history. I recently saw a photograph of women from the 1920s, and it occurred to me what an amazing transformation had happened for women's clothing in just 30 years. Here's an image of what women wore in the 1890s. Note the long sleeves, high necklines and rear bustles. These outfits would also have required a corset underneath and petticoats. I found this image at ThisVictorianLife.com .  The couple who runs the site wears Victorian-era clothing in their everyday lives. Here is an image of what women wore in the 1920s. Note the (relatively) high hemlines, short sleeves and more contemporary necklines. Also note the low heel on the shoes. I found this image on a Pinterest page. While I personally prefer clothing that's a bit more figure-flattering, imagine the freedom these women from the 20s experienced compared to their 1890's sisters! Have things changed as much 100 years later? Ma...

 I culled my closet a couple of weeks ago, inspired again by Courtney Carver's Project 333  to limit my clothes only to what I intend to wear over the next (in my case) four months. Everything else got put into drawers or taken to an unused closet upstairs. While I'm sure I've gotten some things wrong (I just haven't figured out what they are yet), it feels like a revelation to walk into my closet:  Not too much, and not too little, it's exactly enough. The "Fulfillment Curve" from Your Money or Your Life (Dominguez & Robin) What does having "enough" clothing look like? When I left my job as a financial advisor, I no longer had "enough" clothes. I had plenty of clothing for meeting with clients in person; I also had workout clothing and a couple of more formal dresses. But I didn't have anywhere near enough clothing to meet my new daily circumstances of hanging around the house, meeting with a friend or running errands. I'v...

Confession:  I have only rarely tried to purchase jeans used. My preferences are usually so specific that I despair of ever finding that needle in a haystack. But having recently done research on how devastating the manufacture of denim is to the environment, I thought I would rescue  a pair of jeans from my local landfill if I could. Here are some steps you can take to locate your own great pair of used jeans: Don't just shop I didn't properly prepare when I first went shopping. I naively assumed that if I just tried on a bunch of jeans I'd eventually find a pair I liked. That might work in a more traditional store that offers new clothes, but I didn't find this approach helpful (plus, as I write this, we're in the middle of a pandemic, and you may not wish to try clothing on at the store). After visiting my local consignment store first and trying on nine different pairs of jeans, only to strike out, I got more strategic. Review your criteria I reviewed the tags ...

When I was a senior in high school, rumor had it that the student who won the "Best Dressed" award wore a different outfit to school every day. As I've noted before , I went to high school in a very wealthy community  (the link takes you to images of some of the mansions there), so it's entirely possible that the rumor was true.  How often do we believe that the only way to really dress well and win compliments on our appearance is to have lots of nice outfits, with an emphasis on the "lots"? Less is more Courtney Carver, author of the blog, bemorewithless.com , created a minimalist fashion challenge called Project 333 . This challenge asks you to select 33 items to wear - including your shoes, jewelry and other accessories - for the next three months, and give away or box up everything else until the next three-month period. A self-confessed shop-a-holic who used retail therapy to de-stress, Courtney found that having lots of clothes created more stress, a...

If you've been following this blog, you know that I advocate shopping with intention. I want you to banish any lingering habit of shopping for your clothes recreationally, and encourage you to instead shop with a plan and a list.  I also want you to consider purchasing used clothing for maximum quality at the lowest possible cost. I understand that, for many of us, this could be a big shift in behavior! The best way I've found to shift habitual behavior is with small, tortoise-like steps that can disarm our resistance to change. Marrying a Tortoise When I was in high school, I was a terrible procrastinator. Worse, I was rewarded for procrastinating by getting good grades even when I studied for a test or wrote my essay the night before it was due. I would let assignments and commitments hang over me and then try to complete them in a flurry of activity at the last moment.  Fortunately, I married a man whose approach is the exact opposite - a tortoise to my hare. It took awhile...

I've been slowly revamping my wardrobe, moving from a professional one to a more casual wardrobe. I got through the hot summer months here in Phoenix, then it was time to plan ahead for cooler weather.  In a previous post, Curate Your Fall Wardrobe in Three Steps , I set up a shopping list of things I wanted to purchase for my fall wardrobe: A nice jean jacket - $15 - $20 Dark-wash (nice) skinny blue jeans - $10 - $15 (I might need to purchase new) Two to three heavier-weight long-sleeve tops - $5 to $8 each Mid-weight jacket, sweater or poncho for colder days - $15 - $20 Leggings to go under black t-shirt dress (I'll likely purchase these new): $15 I figured I would spend between $70 and $94 over the course of the two months. Reality diverged a bit from plan (as it always does), and I had a few fails, discussed below, but here's what I purchased and for how much: Midweight jacket purchased half price at Goodwill for $4.45 Two heavier-weight long-sleeved tops purchased at G...

One of my favorite bloggers is Paula Pant, who created the blog, Afford Anything . The link will take you to her "Start Here" page, which lays out her philosophy, but in a nutshell:  You can afford anything you want - but you can't afford everything . This means you need to pick and choose. What will you focus on? Paula chooses to spend as little as possible on things that aren't important to her (such as her car), and instead spends lavishly on travel - she had saved enough money in her twenties to take off for three years of international travel. We can apply this same mindset to our closet. I just read The Curated Closet: A Simple System for Discovering Your Personal Style and Building Your Dream Wardrobe  by Anuschka Rees (available at your local library). As the title implies, her prescriptions are very practical, and she includes lots of exercises to help you identify your personal style, choose from a limited set of colors and figure out what's missing fro...