What Not To Wear

This weekend I felt like I was on What Not To Wear - you know the show where Stacy and Clinton throw away someone's entire wardrobe and start over hopefully with more flattering results.

I've been sorting through my wardrobe over the last year, trying to weed out the clothing I no longer wear and really shouldn't wear and have no hope of ever fitting into again. In the last four years, I have gone from working full-time requiring a semi-professional wardrobe through two styles of maternity clothes (working and casual) and ending at staying at home with three kids.  The wool dress pants, the dry clean only sweaters and the white blouses don't work for every day anymore nor do they fit the way they used to.  Even though the scale says I've lost all the baby weight, the remaining pounds seem to have relocated themselves. My wardrobe has morphed into jeans, t-shirts, and the occasional zippered hoodie along with a few skirts and blouses for church.

I've finally done the purge of the favorite clothes that no longer fit like they used to, don't fit at all or that I no longer have an occasion to wear.  I like to think I've been ruthless in closet, but I know there are things I'm not going to wear, but I just couldn't part with yet.

I do most of my clothing shopping at Goodwill.  I'm cheap, I like to find unusual treasures (like a print of Paris, a Rainy Day by Gustave Callebotte, sadly much smaller than the original) and I'm never really sure if I will really like something unless I've worn it a couple of hours.  Will the sleeves be too short, the shoulders too tight, or the whole thing too cumbersome and slouchy? It's hard to pay retail prices for something I may only wear once because it doesn't work with the rest of my closet.

My latest quest has been for jeans.  My style doesn't include the super-flared legs or the appliqued or the ultra-low rise  or the intentional fading.  I decided it was time to hit the 'real' stores as my husband called them.  So I went shopping like one of the people on What Not to Wear, searching through the stores for the right thing and gasping at price tags.  I found a couple pair of jeans and a top or two, so it was a successful trip.  Clinton and Stacy would approve (I hope!)

To complete my mini-makeover, I had my hair re-colored, so there were no longer an extensive number of strands that were a significantly lighter color than the rest.

It's amazing how much you can accomplish when grandparents are around. :-)