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Do you share your wardrobe?

catgirl

Veteran

I recently realized that I have several friends who can and do borrow my clothes and jewelry, mostly for special occasions. Like Steph, I have a bad habit of collecting beautiful cocktail dresses for (in my case, anyway) my alternate fantasy life as a Bollywood starlet. My friend who lives in the boonies borrows everything when she comes into town, her daughter wears my casual clothes, and a few other girlfriends make off with dresses now and then.

I don't mind it at all and actually feel better that my clothes are being used and appreciated. How about you?

General

33 replies

Latest reply was from Louise

biscuitsmom

Veteran

How sweet and generous of you! No, dont have *any* friends nearby, so thats not gonna happen for me....though I wouldnt mind, if I knew it was just a lending thing!

Diana

Veteran

Not at the moment since sadly all of my good friends who happen to be around the same size/style as me have sadly moved away. =( But I definitely used to share with my good friends and my sisters, and would happily do it again. I do only lend to ladies I'm very close to, though, and whom I know to be trustworthy (so they'll return it promptly, and clean/wash it if necessary) and fairly clean (sadly, I know a couple of women who are very nice but whose standards of hygiene mean that I would definitely think twice about lending them my clothes).

nicoleb

(website)

Veteran

I totally would but my friends aren't really the same size as me or don't have the same taste. Once and awhile it works out though.

Oh and funny side story, so i had this dress that i wore once to a bachlorette party, washed it and it shunk to a suuuuper short length. I showed my friend and she asked me if she could have it for her step daughter who likes to play dress up and i said sure. Then, our group was going out to dinner for my friend's birthday several months later and....she's wearing the dress! She had leggings on underneath thank goodness but it still...wasn't good. :X So i guess i accidently made a fashion don't happen.

chewyspaghetti

Veteran

My daughter is starting to borrow little things here and there. It's kind of fun, actually.

Lori

Veteran

Since I have built my wardobe up fairly nicely in the last year or so, I have been lending dresses here and there to a couple of younger girls in my office. It's been really nice, because I do have younger sisters that I would love to share with, but sadly they all live across the country. Although I've told my sisters to let me know in advance when they have an occasion to wear a nice dress b/c I'd be willing to ship a couple to them overnight.

I was a bit of a mean big sister growing up and sharing wasn't my strong suit, however, as an adult it feels great to do so!

rosee

Veteran

Not so much, but mostly for practical reasons. I'm not opposed to the idea with a friend or relative that I trust and who will value what I LENT them. I had a bad experience with one family member who would borrow things from me (longer term) and then give them away to her friends. She didn't respect me (or anybody really) and their property. I learned the hard way with her to be careful to whom I give to.
That said, I was very happy when my sister borrowed some clothes from me (and she is really petite) and wore them to an event where a picture of her was published. She looked pretty and she was wearing my top (it is too small for me at the moment).
I do however give a lot of clothes away to friends, but I like to keep what I consider to be my current wardrobe.

rosee

Veteran

AG: it's good to know that you like to share... I'm going to be paying closer attention to your WIW posts from now on! ;p

Debora

Veteran

My daughter and I swap shoes and accessories all the time. Not so much clothes, as she is a little pipsqueak and we have different styles. Here are two photos from this past weekend when she was home visiting.

Photo #1: Kindrex wearing her favorite maxi dress with MY necklace and My shoes.

Photo #2: Fair is fair - I'm wearing bermuda shorts with HER leather bracelet and HER shoes.

Now, if only I could fit into her jeans!

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Mo

(website)

Veteran

Yes, I share mostly dresses with my friends who do not have the fancy attire part of the wardrobe figured out. Fancy is all relative up in the mountains, of course. Only one roommate/friend wore a dress without asking and snagged it and stretched out one strap. Basically ruined it - and I had yet to wear it myself! But besides that incident, I've had only good experiences with everything returned. Even some dresses that went long distance and come back a couple years later upon request!
I do give away my clothes more often than loan these days. I get a kick out of seeing someone else looking good in my stuff!

rae

(website)

Veteran

I don't share any clothes that I would try to save in a fire, but for easily replaceable stuff, I wouldn't mind lending if asked. I haven't been burned by lending directly, but I still get sad remembering an army green utility jacket I brought my sister back from Japan... she lent it to a friend and never saw it again. I keep thinking I should have kept it for myself, lol. That said, there are one or two people that could borrow anything but my absolute favorites in a second... but then those people never ask.

Di

(website)

Veteran

When my mom and I visit, the first thing we do is go through each other's closets and jewelry boxes. It's a long family tradition, and it's really fun.

My college roommate and I shared clothes sometimes, and that was a lot of fun, too.

(And I'm laughing, because I, too, collect cocktail dresses... that I have NO use for... sigh.)

catgirl

Veteran

Team Fantasy Closet!

Debora, your daughter is stunning - I hope Angie gives her a KILLER for that dress.

KristineK

None of my friends are the same size as me, but there is a lot of clothes swapping between me and my sisters. We're all almost exactly the same height (within 1/2 inch), close to the same weight (5-10 lb variance) and one of my sisters is practically my body double in terms of shape. The only downside is that I'm the oldest, so while they can almost always pull off wearing the items in my wardrobe, the same cannot be said for me (especially since my youngest sister is 10 yrs younger than me).

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

I think it would really fun to share my wardrobe with my Mum or daughter! Neither of which I have though.

Kari

Veteran

I really don't have any friends who are the same size/shape as I am; however, my mom and I sometimes share/borrow each other's clothing. We did this more frequently when I lived with her.

Isabel

Veteran

No. What is your address, again ? : )

Sveta

(website)

Veteran

I share with my mom - I used to borrow things from her closet when I was a teenager and now it is such a joy to lend her things to wear!

annette

My daughter borrows anything she likes. Being so much younger she styles things very differently. She is welcome to take anything as long as she does NOT wash it. She launders in the most destructive way! I actually enjoy her raiding my closet!

Kate

Veteran

Only with my sister, and I only see her a couple times a year, so very rarely. We're generally the same size in everything, but she's taller and I'm curvier. Some items fit both of us well, but more often that not our same sizes with different body shapes comes in handy when we're shopping because if an item doesn't fit one of us right it tends to look amazing on the other one.

modgrl

(website)

Veteran

I did in college, now all of my shortie friends are far away

Fruitful

Veteran

I must be the only selfish one here I don't like to lend clothes, and don't like it when I'm asked to. I feel that my clothes and shoes mould to my body (and more so with each wearing) and if someone else wears them they will mould to their body. I would rather give someone something than lend it to them. Also I am quite precious about following the washing instructions on the tag, and I find most people aren't. I also use colour catchers in the wash, most people don't... you get the picture.

I once lent a girl - a stranger - a pair of shoes. We were in a fashion show (not at all modelly, it was a community Indian dress fashion parade) and she didn't have suitable shoes. It was all very rushed backstage. I was more than happy to share, like the previous posters. Later in the night I found my shoes dumped with an ankle strap missing. She never explained or apologised. I felt upset, but I realised what is a life rule for me: I should only lend an item if I would be willing to give it away.

Edit: Rae, you're so right: the kind of people I would feel confident lending to are exactly the kind who wouldn't ask

MsMary

Veteran

My BFF and I like to have sleepovers when my hubby is out of town, and it's not unusual for us to wear one another's clothing during the course of a sleepover day or weekend. And we'll lend accessories from time to time. But other than that kind of spur-of-the-moment kind of thing, I don't like to lend out my clothes. I'm on Team Rae, I guess. LOL

ETA I do give away my clothes and accessories with wild abandon! If something is not quite right on me and looks fab on you, it's yours!!

Melissa

Oh, I would so love to! I've never had similarly sized friends living in the same place. I will have to see if I can start swapping accessories with some friends here.

Aziraphale

Veteran

I would happily lend my clothes to friends, but I'm such a pip-squeak that they don't fit anyone else.

There is one exception: my husband's close childhood friend's fiancee borrowed my wedding gown. She's even tinier than me, and she loved it, and asked to borrow it. I didn't know her all that well, but gosh, I was flattered! So I said yes. She looked really nice in it too, although she had to wear very high heels and stuff her bra a little to make it fit perfectly. Also, it was VERY weird seeing another woman walk down the aisle in my dress!

Marley

Veteran

I share all the time. One of my closest friends is the same size as me and even though she is more conservative in her dress than I, we always find things in each others closet that work for us. I also have 2 sisters - who although both of them are shorter than me, we wear the same size so we only have to deal with the length issues. And then there are my 5 nieces - age range from 15 to 24. They seem to find things in my closet all the time that they want to wear (it doesn't work for me though - I very seldom find things in their closet that I want to wear! - except maybe for accessories or sometimes a shirt!) I LOVE sharing my clothes - it just brings so much joy to me to see other people being able to get use out of what I have in my closet - and it also makes me feel closer to that person. So, its a win-win in a LOT of ways!

RandomThoughts (Andrea)

Veteran

Nope. I'm not opposed to the idea but I do not have any friends or family that are the same size as I am.

Sally

Veteran

`Like MaryK I have a good friend who I often borrow clothes off if I'm staying at her place and we are going out and I dont have anything to wear etc or she would do the same. In our early twenties, we both went back packing together and I carried a huge backpack of clothes with dresses and all. She ended up borrowing my clothes because she was much more practical and was carrying the bare minimum in clothes.

Beth

Veteran

I did this all the time back in the 80s when I was in high school. My best friend and I swapped and had such fun...double the closet!

These days, my friends and I are all different sizes and builds. If my sister lived closer we'd probably do some sharing, though:)

April

Veteran

My sister lives thousands of miles away, so I give her things rather than lend. But only tops and accessories, since she has mile-long legs and a very different shoe size.

Does this count: once when my son was a lot smaller he borrowed a pair of black Doc Martens (shoes, not boots) from me to wear to a soccer banquet, since he didn't own any non-athletic footwear. Now that he's a head taller than I, those days are long gone...

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