Angie, greast post for the times! I think my orphans may be older than yours simply because I do not have your eye. Some things I buy and they never immediately become orphans– these are bad buys and I doubt they will make it ever. I have a hard time passing them on because they are like-new. This forum is helping me spot and avoid them in the first place. Thank you!

I find it easier to re-adopt orphaned shirts or shoes. These are the areas that shift the least with weight gain/loss for me Sometimes my orphans are items I loved that went out of style and make a comeback after many years (a great pair of booties from the early 90s, a velvet and fringed waistcoat/vest that was originally my Mum’s). Other times I needed a season for my eye to adjust or to find the right color complement in a layering piece to make it work.

I’d be curious about the age of others’ orphans. I have a tendency to hold onto things for awhile and it would give me support to purge!

Angie: Can you show us a sample of the chunky, distressed pewter pumps? I always struggle with the right look for my boot cuts, other than pointed pumps and boots.
Can’t wait until you go through my closet full of orphans!
Linda

I would say a couple of leather jackets and white button downs that I have neglected for awhile. Great post!

I have an old leather jacket that comes in and out of style; this looks like one of those years it will be in. I’ll be pairing it with new grey straight-leg jeans and some bright scarves I picked up this spring and summer — purples and greens and pinks. Or dark-rinse long bootcuts, grey patent Franco booties, and a bright yellow or poppy red top.

What a great post Angie! Very inspiring!

Some of my older things that I recently started wearing again are :

1. Fitted dark classic denim jacket – I have rediscovered it thanks to you and started throwing it over outfits with casual non-denim skirts and pants

2. Quite a few tops from 4-5 years ago, when they were much shorter ( not even grazing the hipbone). Now I know they work great with skirts.

3. Various button-down shirts – again, thanks to your recent blog post, I have found new and more creative ways to wear them.

I also have some individual pieces for fall/winter that I really like but wear very rarely because I do knot know what to pair them with. I’ll probably post them on the forum at some point and ask for advice on how to make outfits out of them. It would be great if I could actually do it with pieces I already have as opposed to having to buy new ones.

I’m worried my wide-leg jeans might be turning into a wardrobe orphan too! They actually look very nice, but I think the issue is that I need tops specifically for wearing with them (at this point my tops are all items purchased with bootcut jeans in mind).
As for a wardrobe orphan that made it into circulation, I have a black velvet blazer that sat in the closet for a couple of years before I started to wear it on a regular basis. I think the issue was that my wardrobe was just too casual to work with it initially. Once I had good-fitting dark jeans and cute ballet flats, the blazer came into heavy rotation.

A couple of my closet orphans are boxy kimono style jackets by Eileen Fisher (pre YLF) that are of fabulous textured fabrics and a black with multicolor skinny stripe mandran collar cotton jacket that is just too “me” to get ride of. Due especially to weight loss, they just didn’t work any more. Then I discovered that belting them made them fit better and gave me back a waist. Eventually they will be replaced with something that fits, but it’s great to be wearing and enjoying them now thanks to belting.

Angie, what does “welted” mean? As in, “welted tunic”? I am trying to picture it …

You are SO not alone! I love it when this happens, as it makes me feel wise for hanging on to an item instead of giving it up. My denim mini languished for a year until I felt I had the gams to pull it off, and I’m just starting to love up my Frye campus boots, too.

Thanks to YLF I did a major closet purge this year, so I don’t have a ton of clothes anymore and certainly not many orphans. But I love what I do have. I’d say my main wardrobe orphan that has come into circulation recently is a pair of grey dress pants. I bought them back in February when I discovered (by posting pictures on the forum here) that all of my pants were 2 or 3 sizes too big for me. But I never got them hemmed until August. Now I’m having fun pairing them with all sorts of things.

RSRP, I’d love to know why you’re wearing those leather jackets again.

Jillian, it is hard to let go of items that don’t end up working for us. But think about how you’ll be doing someone else a service by passing it on. Most of the time, someone needier than yourself.

That’s what I’m talking about Tanya an Lannie. Great stuff! Post those orphans Tanya and the forum will help you out.

Joy, belting the odd salvageable Eileen Fisher top has been precisely how I’ve prevented clients from passing these expensive pieces on. Well done!

Laura, a welt is an extra piece of fabric that’s sewn onto the hem of a top or dress and has the effect of tapering it in.

Linda, I bought these in a distressed pewter. The colour is not available online, but you’ll find them in store. They look better first hand:

http://www.aerosoles.com/produ.....OVERCHARGE

You just gave me a great idea because I too have a box of Fat Clothes from pre-weight loss, now I can try the tops with a belt.

I have stuff that gets “adopted” when I buy the right thing to go with them.

But I also recently tried tucking shirts into skirts, after several years of not doing so, (see weight loss, above) and that make some shirts work that were the wrong length.

It’s really all about trying stuff out in different ways, isn’t it? We get in such a rut we forget to do that!

This is a great blog by the way, thanks a million!

Erica

Today considering this post, I had a revelation. I used to have a bunch of so-called closet orphans that fit but got passed over because they needed ironing…mostly blouses. Now that my closet has a minimum of items in it, those things that need ironing get pressed and worn on a regular basis because I need them. Yay for the small but fab wardrobe!

I have a beige pencil skirt I used to wear when I worked in an office…6 years ago. I am back in an office again was pleased the skirt worked with all the new shirts I bought. Some things are classics you just shouldn’t get rid of!

I had half a dozen knit tops in different colors that were given to me over the years as gifts but were orphans because I don’t like wearing turtleneck collars. So one weekend when I was feeling creative I cut the necks off and redid the necklines in various ways–scoopnecks, square necks, v-necks (basically a scoopneck with a pinch in front). Now I wear these tops quite a lot.

Ha! Joy that’s funny.

Thanks for the compliment Erica, and you’re so creative Joelle. It’s handy when you sew.

I just picked up my stretchy sleeveless v-neck blue velvet dress from the tailor, which I had shortened to knee length, and hope that this transformed a wardrobe orphan into something I will wear again. It had an awkward unflattering length (not quite floor length) and I’d never worn it again after I wore it to my brother’s wedding 9 years ago. But I love the fabric and the color, and now that it’s shorter I’m thinking I can just wear it to a nice dinner out. Let’s hope the resurrection is successful.