As I mentioned in my year-end review, I'm feeling bored and a bit disenchanted with my wardrobe and my style. Time to shake things up!

Background

A lot of my clothes are quite old. I edit regularly twice per year, but with a moderately large wardrobe and careful laundering/ drying, most things last for a long time — except footwear, jeans, underwear and some gear. This is even more true during COVID, when I barely wore my jackets for an entire year.

I still like a lot of these older items. Some are “icons” in Brooklyn’s sense. (Love that term and her new shopping strategy!) The silk blouse with the pattern that harmonizes perfectly with eyes and hair (See pic 10), the silk blouse with the Siamese cat print, the long gilet. With my casual lifestyle, I rarely wear these items at the best of times, and even less during the pandemic. But I’m loathe to let them go.

Some are essentials that have not worn out. They are serviceable. It seems wasteful to get rid of them simply because I’m tired of looking at them! Plus, I wear them. But some of them are probably less than a 10 in terms of fit or condition.

Then there are the items that I don’t let go because I don’t have adequate replacements. My black watch suit (pic 5). (I love a pantsuit I can casualize). Some of my jeans. (Don’t love them any more but it’s a need, so…). Most of these aren’t true “essentials” (well, jeans are, but…). You get the idea.

Onwards to goals:

1. A thorough closet edit. I already edit regularly but this time I need to be more selective than usual and say goodbye to some old favourites that just are not cutting it any more, either due to fit, function, or disfavour.
2. Attempt a style reset. Periodically I make claims that I want to add some avant-garde “edge” to my style…and then fail to follow through. Often, this is because such pieces tend to be made in black, and I rarely wear black. And anyway, in the few instances when I have managed to source something that seems to fall into this category, I rarely wear it because it feels inauthentic or too difficult to style. (Probably I lack the complements I would need.) I know COS could be a potential source…but I have not had luck there so far with fit or even in finding the items in store that I might like to try.
3. It looks like I will be teaching online in January and possibly for the rest of the term. So I want to come up with WFH outfits that comfortable and practical but also satisfying to wear.

I'll get to the more aspirational part of the analysis later -- (word and colour of the year). This is already long enough.

For now, some so-called "outfits" from last year -- not favourites, note -- just times when I put actual clothes on! Most were taken in the fall when I was working outside the home for a change and had some public facing engagements.