Festive stealth dressing

Dressing for the apocalypse, and wearing the damn clothes.

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 living room, and at some point, I decided to properly dress up for it, under the IG tag #dressingfortheapocalypse.

I hate when someone asks me my favourite film/song/fashion icon/whatever, because I don’t carry that information around with me in my head. I tend to not feel very inspired by any one thing or person, but things strike me and then go into a big melting pot which then somehow may be echoed in what I wear.

There is an exception, though: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. Great TV, and absolutely gorgeous costumes. I do credit this series with waking my wardrobe up: I realised how much I wanted to wear all the clothes, all the time. It has been several years since I watched it, but it’s still the closest thing to inspiration I have.

It’s not that I want to copy the outfits, but watching a fictional character from the late 1920s scale a building in button boots while carrying a gun in her perfect evening bag made me realise that what I really wanted to do was wear all my beautiful clothes, all the time.

There is a point where buying for your fantasy life can work, but it’s a fine line. My fantasy self who sits around the house in lovely lounge wear is not my real self who prefers to not have lovely lounge wear covered in cat hair. I have learnt to ignore this alter ego, although there are a few of her outfits still hanging around. My fantasy self who fell wildly in love with the costumes in the 2019 production of Little Women took over during lockdown to the point where I bought a sewing machine, made various lovely dresses, and then remembered that I don’t like wearing that kind of thing. At which point the Miss Fisher fantasy self kicked in and I made everyone Liberty Tana Lawn kimonos.

A little while ago I wrote about how one’s style is not necessarily one’s taste, but with any luck taste informs style. My taste tends to be for a practical sumptuousness and it gets to come out and play at this time of year.

My aim in building my wardrobe over the past years has been to future proof it. I want to realistically have all likely events in my life covered and not worry about the unlikely ones (going to a black tie ball, sitting cat-free on my sofa, etc). Before buying something, I don’t bother trying to make a set number of outfits with it (I like outfit repeating), I just ask myself if I’ll still want to wear it in 10 years time, and try to imagine myself wearing it at work, with family, or going out.

Getting dressed in December, particularly towards the end of term, has mainly consisted of wearing a lot of velvet, some sparkles, and silk shirts for layering. All of which - with the exception of the gold paisley skirt - are things I also wear in November, January and February, because - again with the exception of the skirt - they are all things I could potentially scale a building in, as well as eat a large lunch.

First pic, top to bottom: Liberty pyjama shirt, Liberty Pyjama shirt, Phoebe Grace shirt, gold paisley skirt a friend gave me years ago, Tibi velvet pants, Toast velvet skirt, Agolde velvet jeans, Paige silver jeans. Everything except the Agolde jeans is pre-2020

I wear this sumptuousness with sturdy boots and sturdy knitwear, because to wear the beautiful things, I have to make them work for my actual life, and that requires a lot of walking, and an overwhelming need not to feel cold.

I really love the juxtaposition of the practical and the beautiful, and I love the plain black leather boots and the sensible knitwear just as much as I love the silk and velvet. I like shaking up the formality of the dressy pieces with the practical, and vice versa.

Taking myself out of the clothes-buying game has made me more aware of what I really enjoy about my wardrobe, and the longer I go on, the more content I am. Where previously I would have been justifying future purchases to myself - I love wearing silk shirts/velvet bottoms, therefore I need more of them! - now I’m just really enjoying wearing my old green velvet skirt, which I have probably worn for the past two Christmases, and will undoubtedly wear for several more (it has pockets and an elasticated waist, both invaluable for festive occasions).

I enjoy noticing how I use my footwear to ground all my outfits, from dresses to brocade to jeans. I’m interested to observe my absolute lack of interest in shaking up my basics - I’ll wear the same coat and scarf and carry the same bag, with the same pair of boots, almost all the time, and then I’ll start wearing and carrying another iteration of those objects, every day. This is different from only owning one iteration of them; my fantasy minimalist self would have one of each, my actual self hits on a formula she loves, and wears it incessantly until she hits on another formula.

What really makes me happy is the knowledge that I already have all the clothes I need, not just for practical everyday dressing, but for when the occasion or the soul demands more. I can do festive dressing in a way that feels true to myself - for Christmas sweater day I wear a fairisle, that I also wear on any other day I feel like it. I have clothes I only wear on occasion, and I appreciate the ritual of putting on my “best” when I want to wear them - the clothes themselves aren’t any better than anything else, they are just things I love but am less inclined to wear all the time. And I also love the ritual of getting dressed on Christmas day - in pieces that I may or may not have worn to work the week before.

The feeling of wearing something special doesn’t come from wearing something new, or specifically occasion-appropriate, it comes from wearing something I love, which is suited to everything I will need to do while wearing it.