12 months of thoughts
August to July, thoughts during my no-buy
This post is mainly a lot of posts from the last year, chosen because they keep track of my feelings throughout the process of actively not-buying clothes for a year. It does feel like a bit of a swiz to not actually write a post, but it’s slap-bang in the middle of the summer (and I will personally bite anyone who starts going on about autumn/fall and the days getting shorter - this is a purely social media thing, where people can’t ever live in the season they are, but have to immediately start feverishly thinking about the next one. Nobody in my real life goes around saying, “Ah, 1st of August! Almost autumn! Oh, look at the snow on the ground this February, it must be time to start getting out all those spring clothes!”. It’s marketing, people! You buy clothes for the upcoming season before you get into the season and realise you already had six black sweaters. Only me? OK, rant over).
In any case, it is a surprisingly fine summer here, weatherwise, and I keep wearing the same clothes and they are great at doing what I need them to do, but I’m not thinking about what I’m wearing beyond is it clean. Right now I am shuttling between my apartment, - where I’m doing a very slooooooow declutter - one drawer or small box at a time - and my daughter’s house, where I am dog and parent-sitting while they are all in London. The dogs (two dachshunds) are cute but no consolation for not being able to hang out with my girl. I’m not having many joined up thoughts, although I do feel that if I lie on my sofa a bit more I may have some soon.
The Insidious Longing For What I Already Have
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What I think about when I think about not buying clothes.
When I stop thinking about buying clothes as an option, it feels traumatic at first (what if all the beautiful clothes in the world stop? what if they all vanish in my brief haitus?) until I feel a kind of settling in again, a contentment with the wardrobe I have so carefully collected over these past years.
Restrain yourself
I like to think I want an easy life of untrammeled creative and financial freedom, but when it comes down to it, I thrive on challenge, and enjoy negotiating a few roadblocks along the way to living a better-dressed life.
Ode to navy.
This autumn/winter I am really not on top of my wardrobe. I’m not quite sure what the issue is, but I still haven’t pressed or steamed the winter clothes I took out of summer storage, and in any case I seem to be quite content wearing the same things on repeat.
Festive stealth dressing
During lockdown, I considered myself fortunate because as a teacher my job felt vital, and my school was absolutely on top of on-line learning. Having to turn up on Zoom every day, and connecting with everyone in my community kept me sane. It helped me to get up and dressed every day as though I was going to work, even though I was just sitting in my li…
Changing time
It’s been cold this past week. Winter is Rome is mainly delightfully cold and crisp and sunny, but every so often it gets briefly cold cold, and it feels as though the buildings just can’t warm their bones.
The Golden Age of individualism
I blame Pinterest, to be honest. Whenever I attempt to use it I find it just keeps endlessly serving the same thing up, and whenever anyone mentions it, my heart slightly sinks. Something that may be a generational thing, and is probably down to coming to social media in my forties rather than at a young age, is that I don’t unde…
Treats, but not right now.
My two and a half year old grandaughter understands the concept of a treat. When her parents go out for the evening she and I have a pizza party, the prospect of which sends her into paroxysms of delight, even though she’s not that keen on frozen pizza, and there’s no party about it (the only difference to a normal meal is that we eat sitting on the car…
Wearing my brooches
When I read this piece from Chris Maido it reminded me that I had been intending to find a way to wear my brooches. During the winter I need scarves to fling about myself, so it seemed as though brooches would be rather wasted, but I thought they would work well with my relatively weighty spring wardrobe. Weighty in the sense that the linen is substant…
Beautiful uniform
When my sister was here we watched When Harry Met Sally while eating a snacky dinner (we had had a huge family lunch). Neither of us had seen the movie for years and it held up so well. The clothes - chunky sweaters, incredibly high-waisted jeans! Harry’s denim shirt and tweed jacket! and the ridiculously awful hair, but above all, the dialogue and the …
So so true! The relentless jump to the next season, just as we’re starting to truly feel in the present one, takes discipline to resist!! Studiously ignoring the autumn (and onwards!!) displays in the homes sections here, too. Enjoy every long, slow day of summer there, Louise! 😎🌞
I love that photo, Louise! And her style!