Hello all! Last summer everyone helped with my dress code experiment, and I've now been doing that for over a year. I was going to write this post when I get back home from vacation...but let's be real, non-vacation life is so busy that it wouldn't happen. So I'm sorry I'm not able to share pictures.

I've thought a lot about what I learned, what worked and didn't work for me over time, and have made some revisions based on my needs & likes for the future.

My daily uniform was a striped top and gray jeans.

The good:

• I like all my clothes a lot more! I love opening my drawers and seeing rows of stripy tops (Marie Kondo-style!)
• I've experimented with pattern-mixing more, and with stripe-on-stripe. I've liked a lot of patterns combined with stripes.
• I spend less time shopping and less time agonizing over my choices when I do shop.
• I have a better sense of what is in my wardrobe and what holes I need to fill.
• I've tried some jeans I never had before, including high-waisted, jeggings, distressed jeans, patterned jeans, and skinnies.

The bad:

• The silhouettes for gray jeans are more limited than for blue or black jeans. Most of the options are skinnies, and there's only so many pairs of those that I need.
• I've always had delicate skin, and in my 40s it's thinning even more. I've also always worn men's jeans to vary my silhouettes a bit -- but the fabric on men's jeans is much too coarse for me now. This limits my looks even more.
• Stripe colors tend to be limited, as well. Boden is the best place for non-navy/black/gray striped tops, and Stitch Fix has done right by me in the button-up shirt department, but even so there's a LOT of navy, black, and gray in my wardrobe.
• Limited options for dressy wardrobe! I ended up ignoring dress code for date night/evening wear entirely, and that part of my wardrobe feels scattershot and poorly planned.