"But I've got nothing to weeeaaaaar!"
Oct. 15th, 2003 08:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
geekchickToday is Pungenday, day 69 in the season of Bureaucracy, 3269.
I've got a closet we could probably rent out as a separate room. It's a little narrow, but it has a window and a door. It's also almost entirely full of my clothes. C. has about 1/6 of the hanging rack, and the rest is packed full of my stuff. Then there's the shelf, which has a bin full of my handbags and backpacks. Underneath the hanging clothes, about 7/8 of the floor area is taken up with my shoe racks and my boots. Keep in mind that this is an improvement: I've taken five full large garbage bags of clothes and two large paper shopping bags of shoes to Goodwill this year in the process of decluttering at least a bit. The really sad thing is that almost none of it fits right now, but I can't give it away since I do intend to actually be some of those sizes again. It's not entirely untrue that I have a closet full of clothes and not much to wear. Heh. My closet is the cable tv of clothing (87 channels and nothing on/8 feet of clothing on the rack and nothing to wear).
I've got a weird relationship with clothes and shoes. I have 23 pairs of shoes at the moment, and I only ever wear three pairs of them on a regular basis. I have corsets and evening gowns and big poofy skirts that don't get any use unless I'm going to a party at a con, but I'm still compelled to buy them. I buy things that catch my eye even though they may be utterly impractical, just because they're pretty, then I hold onto them for a long time. If I'm stressed, I'm likely to go shopping for new clothes if I can afford it. I honestly think that part of it (the part that isn't because I find retail therapy to be a disturbingly good way to lift my spirits when I'm down or stressed) is because as a kid I think I almost never got new clothes. After my kindergarten year, I wore a uniform to school every year until I went to college, so I never got new school clothes that weren't some godawful "plaid skirt and white blouse with a Peter Pan collar" combination. When I did get new clothes, I remember it almost always being because my cousins had a bunch of castoffs that they'd outgrown and which became the "new to me" wardrobe, however many months/years out of date they happened to be. This is not to say I didn't like a lot of what I got (I did, my cousins and my aunt had reasonable taste as much as anyone was allowed to in the mid- to late-70s) or that I'm somehow upset with my parents because of it (I'm not), just that I don't remember many of my clothes coming to me with the tags still on. I think there's an element of "now that I have money of my own, I'm getting to wear whatever I want, damnit!" that keeps me buying things like this (I don't have it, I desperately want it. Aiee! See what I mean?) or this (see previous parenthetical comment) even though I really don't have any practical way to wear them. Granted, I do also buy more useful clothes that I can wear to the office, but frankly I tend to mostly dress in jeans and tshirts to go to work these days because anything else takes a lot more time and planning in the morning. The thing is, I like looking at all my frivolous clothes hanging in my closet, they make me happy just knowing I have them even if they're rarely worn.
Speaking of clothes, by the way, maybe![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
anotheranon or one of my other costuming-literate friends can help: I have a vague idea for a Halloween costume this year, and I need panniers. Is there a quick and dirty way to construct them or to mock up something to serve the same purpose? I read a suggestion someplace that one almost could use those annoying fanny packs to serve as a child's panniers, but I think they're too small to work for my purposes. =) I'm not talking full court panniers since I do actually need to get through doors and sit in chairs with arms, plus my skirt wouldn't cover them. ;) Probably what I really want is pocket hoops.
I've got a closet we could probably rent out as a separate room. It's a little narrow, but it has a window and a door. It's also almost entirely full of my clothes. C. has about 1/6 of the hanging rack, and the rest is packed full of my stuff. Then there's the shelf, which has a bin full of my handbags and backpacks. Underneath the hanging clothes, about 7/8 of the floor area is taken up with my shoe racks and my boots. Keep in mind that this is an improvement: I've taken five full large garbage bags of clothes and two large paper shopping bags of shoes to Goodwill this year in the process of decluttering at least a bit. The really sad thing is that almost none of it fits right now, but I can't give it away since I do intend to actually be some of those sizes again. It's not entirely untrue that I have a closet full of clothes and not much to wear. Heh. My closet is the cable tv of clothing (87 channels and nothing on/8 feet of clothing on the rack and nothing to wear).
I've got a weird relationship with clothes and shoes. I have 23 pairs of shoes at the moment, and I only ever wear three pairs of them on a regular basis. I have corsets and evening gowns and big poofy skirts that don't get any use unless I'm going to a party at a con, but I'm still compelled to buy them. I buy things that catch my eye even though they may be utterly impractical, just because they're pretty, then I hold onto them for a long time. If I'm stressed, I'm likely to go shopping for new clothes if I can afford it. I honestly think that part of it (the part that isn't because I find retail therapy to be a disturbingly good way to lift my spirits when I'm down or stressed) is because as a kid I think I almost never got new clothes. After my kindergarten year, I wore a uniform to school every year until I went to college, so I never got new school clothes that weren't some godawful "plaid skirt and white blouse with a Peter Pan collar" combination. When I did get new clothes, I remember it almost always being because my cousins had a bunch of castoffs that they'd outgrown and which became the "new to me" wardrobe, however many months/years out of date they happened to be. This is not to say I didn't like a lot of what I got (I did, my cousins and my aunt had reasonable taste as much as anyone was allowed to in the mid- to late-70s) or that I'm somehow upset with my parents because of it (I'm not), just that I don't remember many of my clothes coming to me with the tags still on. I think there's an element of "now that I have money of my own, I'm getting to wear whatever I want, damnit!" that keeps me buying things like this (I don't have it, I desperately want it. Aiee! See what I mean?) or this (see previous parenthetical comment) even though I really don't have any practical way to wear them. Granted, I do also buy more useful clothes that I can wear to the office, but frankly I tend to mostly dress in jeans and tshirts to go to work these days because anything else takes a lot more time and planning in the morning. The thing is, I like looking at all my frivolous clothes hanging in my closet, they make me happy just knowing I have them even if they're rarely worn.
Speaking of clothes, by the way, maybe
anotheranon or one of my other costuming-literate friends can help: I have a vague idea for a Halloween costume this year, and I need panniers. Is there a quick and dirty way to construct them or to mock up something to serve the same purpose? I read a suggestion someplace that one almost could use those annoying fanny packs to serve as a child's panniers, but I think they're too small to work for my purposes. =) I'm not talking full court panniers since I do actually need to get through doors and sit in chairs with arms, plus my skirt wouldn't cover them. ;) Probably what I really want is pocket hoops.![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-10-15 06:02 pm (UTC)This is a problem? *gd&r*
I'm not talking full court panniers since I do actually need to get through doors and sit in chairs with arms
I've always wondered how women functioned in those at all, even seeing as much of them in the movies as I have.
no subject
Date: 2003-10-17 09:51 am (UTC)Yeah, since my office has a dress code. By which I mean "if you're in the office and not in the shower, you must be dressed". ;)
I've always wondered how women functioned in those at all, even seeing as much of them in the movies as I have.
I suspect it's a learned skill, like walking in high heels. Personally I prefer full hoops to the panniers, I think they look odd.
no subject
Date: 2003-10-17 10:32 am (UTC)I'll go along with that 100%.
no subject
Date: 2003-10-15 06:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-16 03:15 pm (UTC)If you need help with assembly, let me know :)
no subject
Date: 2003-10-17 09:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-15 10:58 pm (UTC)If you're up the area some time, may I suggest a team practice for the US Olympic Bargain-Shopping Squad?
Not all clothes are overpriced
Date: 2003-10-15 11:17 pm (UTC)Not all clothes are overpriced. In 2002, I went through four sizes. During that process, I was able to go to Wal-Mart and buy enough clothes to allow me to function for a few months in a new size for about $100 to $200 (depeding on whether I could get by wearing the old shirts). When I was done with a given size, everything fit neatly in a plastic bin on the floor of my closet as a hedge against future weight gain.
Btw, I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with finding pleasure in buying clothes. That is a choice, however. It's not as if there aren't inexpensive sources of "boring normal clothes." Also, one can get by with a relatively small inventory of clothes. Admittedly, the process is easier for men because there are more items of men's clothing which can naturally be used in multiple ways (since, for example, there is only one standard geometry for men's pants). On the other hand, I suspect that the real (statistical) difference between men and women on this one isn't that women need to own both skirts and pants, but that they are less willing on the whole to accept limited wardrobe variety.
no subject
Date: 2003-10-17 09:54 am (UTC)Oh, certainly! That's what I keep telling myself; I haven't had to devote an entire full bedroom to my wardrobe yet, so obviously I'm still in control. Right? Heh.
If you're up the area some time, may I suggest a team practice for the US Olympic Bargain-Shopping Squad?
That sounds like immense fun. I don't get up to the area much these days, but next time I am I'll try to warm up my shopping muscles a bit. =)
no subject
Date: 2003-10-16 01:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-17 09:55 am (UTC)(And hi, cutie! I found you by surfing through friendsfriends, hope you don't mind that I friended you.)
no subject
Date: 2003-10-17 10:50 pm (UTC)Wow, that sounds an awful lot like me. :-} I especially have a thing for cute and cool shoes, because I couldn't find shoes I loved in a size 12 until several years ago. I could never wear all the cute shoes my friends did because most of them only ran up to size 10 and I wore an 11. Then my feet expanded to a 12 in college and now most shoes only go up to 11! WTF?
Still, I have a huge number of shoes, considering that I only wear a few of them on a regular basis. I swear I'd be another Imelda if I had the money and space. ;-)