Katherine wrote a great piece that made me think – The Future of Our Luxury and talking about how she recently bought an Hermès bag and it just sits there, languishing in the closet.
I read it, and thought that it perfectly described how awkward this love affair with style is.
It is strange.
I have felt a pull towards luxury and buying a piece of history (e.g. vintage Chanel bag) or a beautiful item, but also repelled by it because what’s the point?
I am buying beautiful pieces with nowhere to wear them or to enjoy them except at home.
Especially during this pandemic.
This made me think — enjoying these wonderful pieces at home, is not as enjoyable as wearing them out for the pleasure of .. well others. Myself, AND others, especially the connections you make with other women who compliment you, etc.
It sounds so strange – wearing clothes for strangers to admire – but I also do enjoy wearing these items and feeling different when I wear them and in how I feel.
So it brought me to my second train of thought – I don’t really need to feel ‘different’ at home. I am at home, basically not working, lounging around, and I don’t need to feel like a boss of anything.
I am only in loungewear, so it seems pointless you know? Even with beautiful purses and jewellery – I have nothing to carry in them, because I am not going anywhere that needs me to carry anything.
A lot of people are thinking that they also have a lot of clothes, in fact, maybe too much. I haven’t reached that point yet. I still enjoy and love my items, and I’ve always known I have had more than enough beautiful things, but it seems sort of … like a time delay.
I am getting new beautiful things to do what with? Watch them lounge in my closet?
So I haven’t been shopping as much, to be honest. I have been lackluster in getting excited over new items.
This time delay of when I can actually wear my new items out and about, doing my thing… is going to come when?
A year? Two years?
This weight and stress on my brain, makes me just shut off any kind of style switch I may have had before, and allows me to wear the same leggings and shirts for days in a row.
The only thing that has sort of jolted me out of this, is if I am forced to do outfits and style posts for the blog or Instagram, like my most recent – 18-piece Capsule Workwear Wardrobe because I picked out 18 pieces and then thought up of interesting ways to layer and pair them together to create over 100 looks.
That’s it. Taking photos of outfits that don’t actually go anywhere, is the extent of my style flex these days.
I guess I could just organize my closet following these guidelines.
I am not sure I am even going back to the office any time in the future
As it stands.. I am not sure I will even go back to work. A lot of my contract work can be done remotely, and in light of COVID-19, companies are far more lax in letting you work from home rather than having you go into the office.
Do I really even need more workwear? I likely don’t even need what I have now.
Can I even take the workwear I have now and make them ‘casual’ without heels?
As I don’t know what my work situation is, it seems moot to have a wardrobe full of workwear (or buy new pieces) when… you don’t ‘work’.
The only thing that I am thinking about, is I did mention I would like to start a non-profit in the future. I was thinking very strongly along the lines to creating courses and non-profit educational materials for elementary and high school students, to teach them about personal finance and financial literacy.
In those cases, I am not going to “work” but I am definitely going to be able to dress up in more than just jeans and a top if I wanted to.
But I may start a non-profit in the future
I am not going to ditch all of my workwear – I don’t know what my future holds currently, and best not to make decisions when in the midst of a pandemic and holed up at home in a rut, but it is an idea I have been thinking about as a ‘project’.
The thing is I don’t even know where to start. How would I give talks? Where? To whom? In what venue? At libraries? Do I need to do it in French too, as I am more an Anglophone? How would I even get people to trust me if I don’t reveal myself?
So many questions I need to puzzle out. I am not even sure I want to take it on my own as I am also a bit of an introvert (I’m actually both an extrovert and introvert, we are called ambiverts), and I am not sure I can handle dealing with people.
And as a non-profit, how would I fairly get compensated for time and materials without ‘cheating’ the organization I start?
I won’t be doing any of the following however, until after Little Bun is well into secondary school, maybe off to college, so that is 12 years off. It’s a future project I may start.
Anyway, all of these questions swirling around my head, bring me back to my wardrobe, and standing in front of a closet full of gorgeous pieces thinking — I have all these beautiful things to wear and nowhere to go. And yet I still very much enjoy style and fashion and WANT to buy/wear more/new-to-me pieces.
