My low-shop year continues very successfully: other than some local maker earrings purchased at an art gallery, my post history tells me these are my first clothing purchases since May! I continue to be very happy with my outfits but somewhat over capacity on storage and mental bandwidth and I headed into fall mindful of this.

Re: a recent post from Carla about how we define "elevated", I commented that I don't relate to the word. Yet here I am using it to describe my new items, a dup and trip of a short sleeved merino rib knit top from Uniqlo I already owned in the warm tan (golden brown?). I think maybe for me it's a relative term, where I have taken an outfit formula & item I wear often and tried to make it a bit nicer.

I have recently made peace with the fact that I'm a tee shirt girl for layering. Buttoned shirts are harder to fit and fussy under toppers. I am not currently wearing a lot of blouses or "shells" either, but love a good striped or plain tee shirt under a cardigan, blazer or jacket. I've been making do with various cotton jersey versions, some better quality and some thinner placeholders. However more and more I felt the tees cheapened the look and didn't live up to the rest of my outfit, so I sought to "elevate" them. At my "certain age", I'm not always comfortable wearing fitted wool in long sleeves or turtlenecks before true winter hits. These half sleeve crew necks are a transitional merino, ribbed and fitted but thick enough to not look clingy, and the right length for current pants even on XL, short waisted me. The striped one is also a great off white for my palette, better than my optic white striped cotton tees.

Owning any item in triplicate is pushing my personal definition of "mindful low shop", but fingers crossed I correctly identified a wardrobe hole and will wearing them often. The tee shirts they replace will get worn out over time as hidden layers under sweaters, lounge wear and even sleepwear.