Hi Friends, I hope everyone is enjoying a transition to fall (or spring for our southern hem friends), is staying safe for our south-eastern seaboard friends, and is enjoying a quiet house for those whose kids are back in school!

I was listening to a podcast yesterday (and I apologize, I don't remember which one, I had auto-play on while cleaning) and the discussion was about cleaning out your closet. The podcaster had some interesting questions to ask when assessing whether a piece was a keeper - "Would you wear it to meet someone you've never met before" and then more dramatically "Would you wear it if you knew you were going to bump into a frenemy/ex-boyfriend/former mean-girl, etc."

My initial reaction was that this is an awful and negative way to think, pandering to the negative forces in life rather than the positive ones. Certainly in a perfect world, we'd wear precisely what we liked and haters be damned. Being human though ....

As I thought about it, I can think of several examples where I decided a piece didn't work precisely for this reason - because I found myself in an unexpectedly uncomfortable or unfamiliar situation and what I was wearing did not make me feel confident under those circumstances (even though it would have been fine otherwise). We've talked elsewhere about our clothing being our armour for a world that is often friendly but sometimes not (I think Gryffin has spoken to this far more eloquently) and so it strikes me that my out and about clothes maybe should be passing the "frenemy test"? (whereas my lounge clothes, say, should be 100% just what I like).

I know this is a variation on a theme we've discussed many times, but I'm curious what anyone thinks about this framing, which is completely new to me. Smart way of thinking, or letting life's bullies win? Playing smart or playing small? Something in between, or do you have a thought that runs completely sideways from this? Let's navel-gaze together, shall we?!?