Positive and Negative

I forgot to do the final part of the Week Seven tasks:

HEART: Name one positive thing you intend to do for your image/self-image/look and one negative thing you vow NOT to keep doing.

The positive thing I am doing to trying to improve my posture. After all the “head up high, tummy in, pelvis under” advice over the years, a simple description in Tim Gunn’s ‘A Guide to Quality, Taste and Style’ finally made it easy for me to put this into practice. In this book, he talks about the ‘Bistro Position’, which is the way you hold your body when squeezing between tables in a packed restaurant. It was a lightbulb moment for me and I am reminding myself to adopt the Bistro Position whenever I remember. And it’s true, good posture does make a world of difference. I aim to keep plugging away until it is second nature.

The negative thing is that I am going to stop assuming that all the photos I see in magazines are real-life images. Wende’s links to Jezebel really opened my eyes to the reality of photoshopping. I never knew…

Leftovers - WT Week 7

I’m going on holiday tomorrow so I thought I’d whizz through WT Week Seven today.

Party Clothes

I bought a new dress last week:

As usual, the photo doesn’t do it justice. The colour is a sort of warm mushroom and it has more of a gentle sheen than the glitz in the photo. Also, it was reduced to £9. I bought it to wear to a friend’s wedding in June, but I think it will also be a good standby posh dress for emergencies.

I have also decided that the peach lamé number still in my wardrobe will go on eBay when I get back. I’m more curious to see if anyone wants to buy it than the cash it might generate.

Exercise or Sports Clothes

Yeah. Um. I dusted my trainers (translate: sneakers) back in Shoes Week. I also have a navy blue Speedo swimming costume and just checked to see if it had been eaten by moths and it’s OK. The only time I will ever wear it is when I have the opportunity to play at a water park with slides and rapids and stuff. I love those, but I hate swimming.

Oh, but I did buy some new walking sandals last week for our holiday (we’re going walking in Madeira):

They make me bounce like Tigger and are very supportive. I love them.

On the walking holiday front, I did have a crisis last week about what to wear. As you know, I’m quite overweight at the moment and I half-heartedly tried on various items of outdoorsy gear in shops before having the startling revelation that all I needed was the shoes. I plan to follow our Victorian lady foremothers and walk in skirts and dresses. The shoes look a little weird with dresses, but who’s going to complain? Sartorially sensitive mosquitos?

Uniforms, bridesmaids dresses, etc.

Nope.

Luggage

All sorted. One wheely suitcase. One weekend bag. One little rucksack. One giant rucksack ready to hitchhike round the globe.

Umbrellas

I just counted and we have five in the house. I think there is also one in my car. This is fine by me as I like to keep a little stock of them. I’m forever leaving them places and it’s also good to be able to send guests away in a sudden downpour with their own brolly. 

Phew! All done. That was easy.

General Update

On the work-at-home wardrobe front, I spent Saturday at the sewing machine doing fixies and alterations and finishing a jersey top I was making. I’m also knitting a wrap kind of thing at the moment and I’m not sure it will be finished by the end of next week for the Great Unveiling, but I’ll give it my best shot.  

The perfect accessory

After all the soul-bearing and vein-emptying of the past week, I think it’s time for a little levity. I was saving this for Accessories Week, but have decided to upload it now.

Oui, c’est sexy.

(From icanhascheezburger)

Why WT matters to me

Colleen wrote a brilliant Centenary Post today. I especially liked her penultimate paragraph, which mirrors my own feelings about the whole AT/WT thing. I’d like to add the the dialogue about why this all matters by posting a little quote.  

What is a closet, really, but a catalogue of the different personas we have auditioned and discarded? Hanging there in our closets are reminders, both good and bad, of who we are, who we’ve been and who we’ve hoped to be. No wonder things can get a bit muddled.

… Closets are often where we hide things: skeletons, forbidden loves, terrible birthday gifts we couldn’t return. It is for this reason that deciding what to wear while staring into those murky depths can be not just daunting, but emotionally exhausting as well.”

That’s from Tim Gunn’s ‘A Guide to Quality, Taste and Style’ which I bought on Wende’s recommendation. It’s the last reference to ‘emotionally exhausting’ that sums up why Wardrobe Therapy is important to me and why I want to answer the difficult questions, replace Velveteen Rabbits, buy lipstick and what-have-you. I want to be able to just get on with things and rid myself of this particular emotional exhaustion once and for all. My aim is to feel good and confident and ‘my best self’ in my clothes so I can then forget about them and use the energy currently expended on daily sartorial mithering on better things.

Me, me, me, me, meme

As of 10.30 pm on Friday night, I am now completely up to date on my work. It feels great, especially as I went one better and got completely up to date on my volunteer tasks yesterday. So now my brain is completely free for thinking about important stuff like WT.

So here are my answers to Wende’s meme:

What accessories do you wear everyday?
Wedding ring: one plain, gold unbroken circle. (Yup, I cut and pasted the whole thing from Wende and then realised I didn’t have to change this answer.)

What is your beauty routine?
I’m with SCB on the ‘don’t have one above basic hygiene’ front. I wear moisturiser every day and a little squirt of perfume. I do own make-up but don’t like the feel of it on my face particularly, so only wear it for special occasions. Having said that, I have started to notice that the whole naturally dewy youth thing has begun to deserted me, so I could do with a bit of daily help. Various problems I have with make-up are: very sensitive skin, wandering hands (which will smear and remove eye make-up within hours of putting it on) and super-pale skin which leaves me prone to looking like a circus clown if I actually let the make-up touch my face instead of just wafting the brush in its general direction.

What was the last item of clothing (for yourself) that you purchased?
I went shopping yesterday and bought another pair of trousers for my work-at-home wardrobe and a pack of dye to make them black. I would have bought two pairs, but they only had the one left.

Do you use a dresser, closet, or both?
Neither. I use a ‘chest of drawers’ and a ‘wardrobe’.

What type of earrings are in your ears right now?
None. My ears are pierced and I believe that I do have some earrings somewhere, but I never wear them because dangle earrings annoy me and my wandering hands twiddle with studs until my ear lobes hurt.  This fidgeting thing is a real pain, but I can’t control it. As soon as get deep into thought, I twiddle, smear and fiddle without realising it.

Do you wear glasses?
Yes, but I also have contact lenses which I wear occasionally.

Do you wear makeup?
Yes and no (see above).

What is your favorite perfume?
Lolita by Lolita Lempicka. However, I don’t own any of this - I just indulge in a little squirt whenever I pass a perfume counter that sells it. I’m still working my way through a bottle of Jean Paul Gautier Classique which is OK but doesn’t thrill my senses like the Lempicka one.

Is your motto “quality over quantity” when it comes to clothing and accessories?
I would like to to be, but I’m not quite there yet.

Do you wear rain boots?
Are those wellies or the little things that you wear over your regular shoes? Either way, no.

Do you wear socks or slippers when your feet get cold?
Both. When my feet get cold, they stay cold. In the depths of winter I have a little routine after coming in which involves sticking my feet in a bowl of hot water (or having a hot bath if I’m chilled all over) before putting on three layers of footwear: a pair of normal cotton socks, followed by fluffy bed socks, followed by slippers (mine are a bit like Ugg boots). Then I park my feet in front of the fire. That just about gets the heat back to my poor little toes.

Do you have a set of travel luggage?
No. But I did buy a wheely suitcase a couple months ago. It’s fun to feel like an air hostess, but I still have my massive backpack stored in the loft in case I need to make a rapid escape over the mountains.

If you are married, did you wear a veil with your wedding dress?
Nope. This bride wore brown - a long chocolate brown velvet dress with a matching frock coat (it was a winter wedding and I also wore woolly tights). A veil would have been a bit weird with that ensemble.

Do you wear a watch?
When I go out of the house, yes.

Do you prefer zippers or buttons?
It depends. Buttons on coats and shirts. Discreet zippers for skirts, dresses and trousers (and bags).

By the way, I’m really confused where we are on the Wardrobe Therapy front. This is an alternative Week 6, which I believe we’re doing in the original Week 8, but Wende also says that this alternative Week 6 is to replace the current Week 8 because we all got an ‘F’ for Week 5. Does this mean it’s Week 6 or Week 7 now? Anyone got any idea? I’m lost.

Aaargh.

As it seems to be the week of “one step forward, two steps back”, I thought I’d share a little bit of the chaos round here:

Yup. That’s a shed. In my sitting room. Hopefully it won’t be there for too much longer as the tree surgeon is coming on Friday to give the tree which is in the way of its new home a haircut,  so we should be able to assemble it over the weekend.

Nevertheless, it does sum up how things feel around here. I’m struggling to keep control. I know what I’m meant to be doing (for example, that shed is part of a larger decluttering plan that should reap enormous dividends) but everything has descended into chaos.

Meep.

On the wardrobe therapy front, I’m so glad I am restricting myself to just the work-at-home wardrobe, but even that is proving to be a bit of a challenge. As predicted, all the ‘who do you think you are?’ and ‘what makes you feel beautiful?’ questions have got me running for the hills (which is probably why I’ve been silent for a while). But I’m plugging on with the practical things and am on target to unveil a complete work-at-home wardrobe by the end of this round.

Unders and Overs

I’m way overdue a Wardrobe Therapy update - sorry about that. I haven’t been slacking, just incredibly busy. This week it’s underthings and overthings. I can dispatch with the former straight away, as all is absolutely fine in that department. For overthings (jackets, etc), I am restricting myself to top layers for my work-at-home wardrobe which is, after all, the focus of this round of WT for me.

As I have nothing to pile, I have identified that all I need here are two big slouchy cardigans. I looked around the shops, but couldn’t find anything that fitted the bill in terms of joyous colours, so instead bought wool and have been knitting away. Here is a sneak preview of the first one:

It’s big and chunky, and is a bit too warm for summer, but it ticks all the boxes in terms of comfort and joy. I would never wear it out of the house (or rather past the garden gate) but for private, work at home time I think it will be perfect. The colours make me smile and feel creative and the wool is so, so soft (it’s Adriafil “Friends” in case you are interested).

The second cardigan is going to be much less chunky and probably a drapey shawl cardigan of some sort. I’ve bought a load of Rowan Summer Tweed for it, but haven’t decided on a pattern yet.

In other WT news, my copy of the Ottobre Woman pattern magazine arrived at the weekend and I spent Sunday making the first of my tunic tops. I’ve got to buy some more thread when I’m in town tomorrow to finish it. It was my first attempt making anything with jersey fabric and it’s not perfect, but should be OK. Hopefully my second attempt will be better. I’ll post photos when it’s finished!

I also stumbled across a great pair of work-at-home trousers in a cheapy clothes shop yesterday. They are fake jeans with elastic at the back of the waist. They sound horrible, but the fabric is so soft and below the waist/crotch area they look just like normal trousers. And they are so comfortable - perfect for working at home. I’m going to test this pair for a couple of days (I need to take them up by about an inch first) and then maybe grab another pair to dye a different colour - charcoal perhaps?

More Piles

I am determined to finish Wardrobe Therapy this time round even though, as Wende points out, it’s a bit slow going at the moment. So here we have shoes and bags.

Piling my shoes was fairly easy, as I’m pretty fussy when it comes to buying shoes. They have to be comfortable and fit well, otherwise they don’t come home. My main problem is wearing things to death. This is my complete shoe collection (which, since this photo was taken, is now considerably smaller):

Back Row (left to right):

Three pairs of heeled shoes, hardly ever worn, each pair bought in panic just before a smart occasion. I’m not going to get rid of these, as I don’t know what my shoe needs will be once I put my More Dresses Plan into action. So I just dusted them and put them back.

Trainers. Ha! These were so dusty. Again, these have been stored away as experience tells me that I will need to wear them again for some sort of self-enforced exercise blitz and I don’t want to have to go out and buy another pair, when these are perfectly good (after all, they have hardly been used).

Brown shoes - completely rabbity. (Gone)

Front Row (Left to Right)

Black sandals - very useful and got compliments last summer despite their age, so I’ll hang on to them.

Ancient Birkenstocks - completely rabbity. The picture doesn’t do their rabbitness justice. (Gone)

Red Sandals - these are actually a purchase from last week to replace the Birkies. Unworn Hush Puppies from a charity shop for £3. Very comfortable and perfect for my work-at-home wardrobe as well as to wear with skirts and dresses.

Teal shoes - a torture device. Very cheap. Very uncomfortable. (Gone)

Red shoes - old favourites and deeply loved rabbits. They are a shadow of their former selves and let in water. I have ordered a pair of these shoes from Lands End (in dark brown) to replace them and the brown ones behind them as errands/walking shoes. However, I realised just in time that I did need some shoes to wear while splashing paint around, so the rabbits are will live to see another day (albeit a grumpy, DIY-sweary day).

I’m not going to do any analysis for now because I think all my basic shoe needs are covered, although once I get the rest of my wardrobe sorted, I’ll probably want to refine my collection.

So, on to bags. This is a sad sight (and sorry about the lousy photo - I would complain about the spring sunshine, but don’t want to anger the gods):

The one I use every day is the brown leather one on the far right. I bought it a few years ago when it was an ageing vintage beauty. Now it’s just knackered and I have to find another one to replace it. It’s also a little bit bulky, and I would like to find something flatter. I do have trouble choosing handbags, because I’m not the sort to swap stuff from bag to bag on a daily basis, so I need one that will cope with everything. I may force myself into action by getting rid of this one today and using the black one on the back row until I get a replacement.

The one behind it is a homemade green schlepping-to-clients bag, which is OK but not very exciting. The black one next to that is OK, but again a bit dull.

I love the red old lady bag next to that, but the short handle isn’t practical for everyday use and I’m unsure about what to do with it. I may cheat and say it’s a winter bag and delay the decision until the autumn.

Finally, in front, is a great casual bag, a gift from my brother and his then girlfriend a few Christmases ago. Not only is it a great size and shape, it has novelty value because it is actually constructed from one big zip. In fact, when I unwrapped it, it was just a big zip with a label attached saying ‘Zip me!’. It’s fun.

Speed Piling - Part One

Even though I’m concentrating on my work-at-home wardrobe, I’m still going to whizz through the other piles, if only to clear a bit of space and get rid of the stuff that is completely useless. Here are the results of this morning’s piling:

Trousers

Only two pairs of trousers escaped the cull. The first is a plain pair of khaki trousers, which are frayed and rabbity but the perfect cut for me (photo below). I’ve put them aside so I can take them apart to make a pattern for cloning. The second is a pair of jeans I bought in February, which need taking in about 6 inches(!) around the waist, but are great on the thighs.

The throw away pile consisted entirely of Torture Rabbits (clothes that are both torture to wear and worn out - am I the only one with this category?). A quick analysis suggests I should avoid the following in future trouser purchases: linen (I’m not a fan of the crumpled look), anything without a proper waistband (i.e. elastic or tie waists), side pockets (which always gape due to my curves) and noisy fabric.

Dresses

I have a lot more dresses than I thought - a few which I love but don’t fit into, some boring, some unflattering and one which startles me.

Rather than post lots of pictures of dresses, most of which are destined for charity, I’ll just post a few highlights.

In the unflattering group is this purchase from last year:

It makes me look and feel like a potato. The deep v-neck with gathers doesn’t help, but the main problem is the fabric - it’s a very fine jersey and is too clingy and drapey and generally unflattering. I’m going to see if I can recycle it to make a pair of yoga pants for my work-at-home wardrobe.

Next up, in the love-but-don’t-fit-into category:

The colour and pattern are truly joyous for me. It’s jersey, but quite a thick jersey, so not too clingy (when I’m a bit slimmer). Even though I have no use for it right now, I can’t bring myself to get rid of it, so I’m going to file it away under ‘too small’ in my wardrobe.

Finally, the startling dress:

It’s peach and sparkly. It’s a cocktail dress. It’s missing its zip. What on earth is it doing in my wardrobe? There is something about this dress that I love (perhaps simply that it’s vintage) and I’m torn about getting rid of it. However, in all my thirty-five years I have never been invited to an occasion for which this would be appropriate attire. In fact, does anyone have any suggestions as to what such an occasion might involve? It really has to go. I think I’ll take it to the vintage dress agency and see what they think. (Alternatively, there is a fellow WT-er who I think would look amazing in this and who has the sewing skills to do the necessary alterations- you know who you are, LS! - and if they would like it (for the cost of postage), it could easily be parcelled up and sent across the pond…)

It is spring, isn’t it?

It’s beautiful out there this morning:

But, snow? In April? Freaky. It makes my new work-at-home purchase look distinctly unseasonal: