Welcome to the “clothing” edition of the Simple Living Challenge. This is an area that I really want to get under control!
The justice/environmental issues surrounding clothing are vexing to me. The best thing to do is to buy used clothing; however since I’m a plus size this is a challenge as many resale shops don’t carry plus sizes. Organic/fair trade? Plus size seems to be limited to organic cotton hoodies and tees. Not exactly work wear.
So my personal philosophy is to try to buy as little as possible for right now. When I get skinny I’ll try to find more sources for organic and fair trade clothing. At one point in my life I thought I would sew all my clothes, so I did quite a bit of research on wardrobe capsules. Jennifer Skinner used to have a website which appears to be down now (you can still check out her blog though) in which she suggests always having two tops for each bottom, and about a week’s worth of bottoms and two weeks of tops. I love her method because she doesn’t try to make EVERYTHING matchy-matchy, but it’s still fairly versatile.
I cleaned out my closet in January and it was so nice to have that template. I chose my top 5 best fitting/favorite dress pants and realized I needed another pair. So I put that on my list. I had 10 tops in rotation, but really wasn’t in love with many of them so I knew to keep my eye out for inexpensive work tops. Also a dress or two to throw in the rotation just to keep things fresh.
It was so freeing to be able to let go of ill-fitting clothes! And having the wardrobe always in mind as a whole makes me feel less guilty about giving away those that aren’t in my “top 10” list.
What are your wardrobe planning tips?
This post shared with I’m Lovin’ It ,Frugal Friday, Works for Me Wednesday
Forgive my tirade but… I work with our church youth group. The adults thought it would be fun to take the girls on a thrift store shopping spree to make a game of finding a fashionable outfit for less. The girls absolutely declined. Instead they took us to the mall where I was blown away by how much they were spending on clothes. What’s amazing to me is that they complement my clothing all the time and unbeknownst to them, it’s 90% secondhand.
I would really like to have a sit down with them one day and talk about the proud heritage of the modern mennonite church. A church that was founded on living (and dressing) common, humble like our Lord, who could have crowned himself with jewels and worn a splendid robe but was swaddled in rags and laid in a manger. I would like to tell them that the old order plain coat was the traditional common man’s suit when the church decreed that every member would wear it. The prestigious men and aristocrats wore lapels and the church saw no reason for Christians to waste their firstfruits on this show of wealth when so many were hungry and poor. Later the plain coat became a symbol of the church, it’s intent forgotten. It became so old-fashioned that it cost an arm and a leg to have one tailored. A common suit could be found at the local thrift and consignment stores, even at the local designer boutiques for less than a plain suit but any Mennonite caught wearing one would be excommunicated. So a new church was born, founded once again on the principles of humility and modesty, with the idea that to pay more for a symbol, status or fashion, was vain hypocrisy and that the church had better things to do with it’s money. It was not uncommon in the 40’s to see a modern mennonite wear jeans to church. Why? Because this was the common working man’s suit. It was all he needed. Today, I fear that many people wear their showiest clothes to service. It is no wonder that our Youth have forgotten their heritage and would rather pay top dollar to be the most fashionable girls in school.
Again, please forgive my tirade. I could go on and on about this! My grandmother is a plus size too. I’ve had luck finding cute things for her on ebay. You could also try craigslist or freecycle. Our Goodwill also has a plus size rack. I think having a few good bases to mix and match is really helpful.
I wish you lived nearby because I would love to talk with you over a cup of coffee! I so resonate with what you’re saying. One of the principles from Doris is Nonconform Freely – I think that is very difficult for teenagers. I know it took a crisis in my life to open my eyes to the fact that the only opinion that matters is God’s.
This post makes me feel a little bit guilty because I’ve been a most conspicuous consumer of clothing lately. I’ve been buying shoes mostly, but with shoes comes the desire to match them with something and since I still have a lot of weight to lose, I will eventually have to replace whatever I buy now (except for the shoes, hopefully). On one hand I feel justified for investing in my wardrobe because for so long I wore the same five outfits to work. I had one outfit for each day and my rotation included jeans on Friday which I would then wear during the weekend because I only had one pair that fit. Right now I am happily re-discovering many items of clothing I’d long since grown out of, but I also realize I do not need 25 pairs of shoes. It’s been getting out of hand, so a little guilt might do me some good.
I have one pair of dress/business casual pants for each day of the work week with one or two tops that complement each pair. I still only have one pair of jeans that fit but hope to be able to zip up my next two pair in another ten pounds. Right now I’m sitting pretty well with my winter wardrobe but may need a few more tops for summer. I do wish there were more plus sizes in resale shops. I would definitely shop for more second hand items if there were.
Oh no, I didn’t mean to make you feel guilty! I too have only one pair of jeans that fit . . . luckily I feel you can wear them a few days without needing to wash them. I can’t wait until I’m at my “permanent” size.
I recently lost some weight. I had two total knee replacements in 4 months which helped get me started! (Not the way I would suggest weight loss.) I decided to go through my closet and get rid of all the unnecessary things I owned and all the things that were too large (for once!) I literally had to buy a new skirt, so I went to the Salvation Army and found a black one for 1/2 price. I think it was $2.50, and it fits me perfectly! It is the only skirt I have. I went to Sears and bought a pair of black slacks. They are the only slacks I own. I have a black sweater and a white sweater and several colored tee shirts that I wear with them, so I don’t look like I am wearing the same thing all the time! I have a few blouses. I had a gift card to Target and bought a new pair of jeans (1/2 price) and have some sweatshirts that I wear with them. Other than that I still wear my exercise pants that I got (Good Will 1/2 price) for Physical Therapy. I could not be happier with this wardrobe for now! It is simple. I don’t think I ever look sloppy or frumpy! 🙂 When I loose a little more weight I may add to this wardrobe a little, but I am all about being simple and completely satisfied. Thanks for the post!
To get back to Frances’ comment, one possible question to ask the youth group is this–who benefits if you believe that you need to run to mall for the latest fashions? It certainly keeps the fashion industry fat and happy. Secondhand shopping, on the other hand is fun, saves money, is environmentally smart and offers great style choices.
And, this is addressed to The Local Cook: it can be challenging to find good used clothing at either end of the size spectrum (that is, either very small or plus). But as people lose weight, they sometimes find that secondhand stores are especially helpful. Donating the now-too-big clothing keeps their closets free of clutter. Buying secondhand clothes to replace those garments,and also keeps them in the correct size while they are still losing.
I’m a huge fan of Jennifer Skinner’s and I miss her website & blog. FYI – you can locate articles from her old website at The Internet Archive: http://web.archive.org/web/20080722181603/http://www.jenniferskinneronline.com/index.html
oooh, thank you so much!