Do you ever become obsessed with one thing in your closet? - YouLookFab Forum

Category

Dressing

Welcome! Read about what to wear and how to wear it on the YLF Blog. Join the YLF Forum to ask specific questions or just chat about fashion and personal style. Or check out the curated list of things we love in YLF Finds.

Outfits Ensembles Trends Advice

Do you ever become obsessed with one thing in your closet?

Traci

Veteran

I'm wondering if others do this, or if it's one of my quirks. As a kid, I would wear one pair of shoes until they died. It wasn't that I didn't have more shoes, just that that one pair that I loved at the time seemed perfect for every outfit, until I moved on to the next pair.

Taking pictures and looking at the balance of outfits has made me more aware of when my shoes need to change and I now wear different shoes every day. My shoe wardrobe is no bigger than it used to be, but I wear most of them now!

I notice I still do this with clothing items though. One item will become my most favorite for a week or two and it's all I want to wear. Every outfit I put together seems like it would be better if I just added my item du jour to it. A couple of weeks ago it was my army green linen moto jacket. Every outfit screamed for it. After my first wearing of my white gap shrunken blazer I'm already envisioning how it's going to brighten everything I wear. I'll probably be over it and on to the next thing in two more weeks. Last summer it was a dark blue/grey charmeuse dress. It was the only thing I felt good in for a month solid.

What's up with this? Does anyone else do it? It's hard on the pocket book b/c I'm so in love and so over it so fast. If I didn't' give in to wearing the item so often would it stretch out it's longevity for me? It makes me feel like I will never have a committed relationship with my wardrobe, or the happiness that Shannon described because I'm jumping from one one night stand to the next. I have to admit, I love the thrill of being so in love with that one item when it clicks, though.

Any words of wisdom?

Dressing

21 replies

Latest reply was from Traci

Aziraphale

Veteran

I don't do this so much with clothes, but sometimes I'll go on a "kick" with food and eat the same thing for lunch every day for a month...

I do know what you mean about certain items working well with lots of outfits. I have a few such items -- a pair of short boots, a cardigan, a top -- that I pair with lots of things. They are my wardrobe workhorses.

Anonymous

Yes! I do this too Traci and it's one reason why I've never minded having a small wardrobe. I'll get a small capsule going that I love and literally wear it out. I wore my taupe moto all the time when I first got it, and then moved on to my navy blazer when it was new. Now it's too hot for that and I'm wearing my new (to me) distressed denim jacket everywhere I go, lol!

I love your green linen moto jacket, and I bet you'll wear it a lot in the fall once again. And you *do* need to add your new Gap shrunken white blazer to every outfit this spring, it's amazing on you! Plus it helps get your CPW (cost per wear) down really fast. Also I think it's normal to wear something like your new summer sandals a lot when summer isn't your dominant season. I mean, gee, your supposed to wear them a lot, and they *do* look so fresh. With a small heel like that, they will be perfect with almost anything!

ironkurtin

Veteran

Man, I wish I did. I wish I fell so deeply in love with a single item that I never wanted anything else. It's very French.

Traci

Veteran

Well, the way I execute it it's French with a hefty dose of American ADD! My passionate love affairs with my clothes only last a few weeks. Months later I'm left trying to figure out what I ever saw in them! To complicate matters more, I don't have a keen enough eye to know what my next obsession will be. Sometimes it an overlooked item that's been sitting in my closet for years. Most often, the gotta have it item I think will be my next true love never makes me feel good enough for one trip out of the closet!

jayne

Veteran

I am guessing you are team wear? It will be interesting if team wear people do this on average? I am team wait, so my obsession is with trying to style orphans. It can take over my entire shopping list trying to find a way to wear something that is borderline in the first place. I am trying to get rid of orphans now, instead, so I don't obsess and ruin my capsules!

Suz

(website)

Veteran

Oh, definitely! I do this all the time. But like Claire, I don't really get sick of the items I'm wearing and move on so much as the season seems to change and then I need to wear something different.

I am definitely on Team Wear. It is usually the new item I'm obsessed with.

Astrid

Veteran

I do this too! But like Suz said, I don't really get sick of the items but have to wear something else because of seasonal change. I never know in advance if a new item will be one of these favourites. Sometimes I rediscover old items too - for the last few months I've worn my turquoise stone ring all the time and I've bought that one when I was thirteen or so. It was lost somewhere and I hadn't worn it for some years, but now I'm obsessed with it.

Traci

Veteran

I'm absolutely team wear. As a child I would almost always wear my new pair of shoes out of the store. It's not unheard of for me to change into a new top in the mall parking lot.

I think ylf is helping me to figure out how to wear more of the items that I love but can't figure out how they work with everything else. I had an epiphany last night of an outfit for a dress that has been languishing for a while. It's fascinating how all the elements and proportions have to be just right for an item to sing. I hope the weather is warm enough for me to wear my new concoction next week!

Beth Ann

Veteran

Traci: I'm kind of the opposite --- I don't like to repeat items more than once a month and require a lot of variety. Now, I have a modest budget and a small closet, so you can see my quandary! I end up sacrificing quality in garments too much, I'm afraid. I'm also always thinking that the perfect (fill in the blank) is out there somewhere, if I can only find it. This causes me to think that all my current clothing is like Miss America's first runner-up. I don't specialize in contentment. Alas! I used to think of this as a spiritual flaw, but I've decided that restlessness can also be the creative energy that moves us forward. I've been scheduling time to play in my closet once or twice a week. I'll pick an "item of the week" to work with, and search for any and every possible remix. I think it's helping. At the very least, since joining YLF, I have a wardrobe that's "working" far better than it did before.

What is you allowed yourself to give a garment you've loved and grown tired of a "sabbatical," placing it in a box or secondary closet for a month or even a full season.

Jaime

(website)

Veteran

The jackets you mention do look great on you so perhaps your obsession is just good sense! Maybe look at it as exhausting all the combinations for each piece and then perhaps you will go on a mix it up phase where you alternate. I have a sort of similar weird habit - I sometimes pick up (aka thrift) shoes that I stare at for a year or more and then start to wear every day almost until they wear out. I don't know how to explain that.

lyn*

(website)

Veteran

Definitely! I scheme to think of more ways to wear certain dresses I have ...

vivillifashion

I do this too!

jayne

Veteran

Oh BethAnn, I am so with you! I don't want to wear things more than maybe every 3-4 weeks. And since spring is dragging along and I don't have a large spring (cold but moist) wardrobe, I am sooooo bored reusing the same things.

Janet

(website)

Veteran

I don't do this with clothes, except maybe outerwear. I'll sometimes get stuck on a black leather jacket kick and have to remind myself I have other coats.

But like Elisabeth, I do this with food. I've gone through numerous cereal phases only to get completely sick of them and never buy them again. Lately I've been eating avocados like crazy. Too funny.

Isabel

Veteran

I don't as much anymore with clothing. But I do with accessories.

KikiG

Veteran

What I do is bond with a particular outfit, usually a MOTG combination, or one elements, like the **perfect** top, that I put with more than one bottom. One year, it was a particularly flattering black tank sweater. One year, it was a denim jacket that made magic with a pair of black pants. In my mind, at least, these items fit, flattered and filled the need with some sort of divine perfection. And then, suddenly, it stops being perfect and just turns in to ordinary clothing.

Right now, I have a **perfect** black cardigan with some interesting details that I bought on sale at AT for $19.00. What a buy that was! My perfect cardigan makes everything I put with it more wonderful. I have to force myself not to wear it to its premature death.

Elly

Veteran

I do wear things into the ground, but that tends to be more out of need than out of love. Of course, things I've purchased that turn out to be practical, flattering, and comfortable get worn much more often than items that turn out to have flaws. I will wear items as often as laundry and weather will allow, but this can be skewed by the fact that I usually don't have more than 6-10 tops that are appropriate at any time. Often I will only have 1-2 jackets or cardis/toppers (in a climate where I almost always need one). When my favorites start to look shabby then I tend to exploit what is hanging neglected in my closet more, but generally the things that are hanging in my closet are few and far between and probably go unworn/are in good shape because they have a major flaw on me (a little too tight in the chest, having some detail that makes them hard to layer, ect). I'm getting close to the "emergency" level, but I haven't dipped into the Gap tees from several years ago that slowly "grow" throughout the day and I end up with exposed bra, because the borderline low neckline grows significantly as well.

Meredith1953

Veteran

I wear a small number of things MOST of the time. I have a tiny wardrobe and it is going to get even smaller as I hopefully rid myself of orphans and find ways to maximize pieces I actually like. I have been wearing my green, coral, and denim jackets for weeks now because that is what works with the weather right now. Same for my newish white and gray jeans and couple of blouses and a few pullovers. I actually WANT to like what I own enough that I like wearing it over and over again.

rae

(website)

Veteran

I do this! But then I usually duplicate in another color so that I can wear it every day without actually wearing the same item every day. Utility jackets, jeans, BB shirts, parkas, trench coats, boots... lots of repeats in my closet!

mscooks

Well I'm on Team Keep in that it takes me ages to finally incorporate new clothes into my outfits. Once I do though, I wear them loads as although I've got a huge closet, I tend to repeat outfit combinations that I know work as it's easier to just throw on and run in the morning. I wore the same pair of black flats every day throughout my pregnancy for example, talk about great CPW value! Once I stop wearing them though, I tend not to go back to them so it's off to the charity shop they go...

Traci

Veteran

It's good to know I'm not alone, and to hear about other people's versions of this.

Rae, I try to duplicate too, but that doesn't always work for me. Either I fall out of love too quickly or I don't realize I'm in love until the item is out of stock or the second one just isn't the same. I think sometimes I fall in love with the perfectly broken in item and a fresh new one just doesn't feel like home.