(Originally published March 4, 2018)
In a recent post, I mentioned that February is the worst month of the year. March, on the other hand, is a different story. If February is freezing and relentless and desolate, March is hopeful, transitional, and rejuvenating. March reminds you that, while it is still presently winter, the world will not be a frozen wasteland forever, and spring is right around the corner. March is a literal breath of fresh air, each new warm day bringing more and more life to your tired, winter-worn, body. March, I might argue, is the best month of the year.
What I’m trying to tell you is that I saw a crocus the other day and now I’m putting all my winter clothes away because I hate them.
In all seriousness, though, I have been feeling pretty disillusioned with my current selection of seasonally appropriate clothes. Like I do at the beginning of every week, I spent a few minutes this morning scrolling down my spreadsheet to see what I was scheduled to wear at the office this week, and I found myself disappointed.
Hang on. That’s not how this thing is supposed to work!
I made this challenge up myself! No one is making me wear these clothes but me, and I shouldn’t feel resigned to wear a mediocre outfit that I hate just because Me of Three Weeks Ago said I should. So I did what I often do in times of stress: I pulled all my clothes out of my closet and vigorously assessed them for sparks of joy, putting joyful items back on rack and carefully folding joyless items to be packed away until next winter. Unsurprisingly, all the joyless items were warm and woolen, and in cold-weather colors like camel, eggplant, and maroon.
This mini purge obviously left some gaps my already-small wardrobe, so I dug out the suitcase full of warm-weather clothes and assessed those for both joy and practicality (as much joy as a pair of sandals may bring me, that joy will immediately cease upon stepping out of my house in 35-degree weather). I chose my new-to-me vintage linen blazer (obvs – check my Instagram @goblinshark_ for more on that treasure), my forest green cardigan, and my black bell-sleeve sheath dress.
Shopping my own closet in this way was honestly so fun, and even though my “new” end-of-winter-early-spring wardrobe is almost entirely made up of clothes I already owned, it feels fresh and exciting and it makes me look forward to get dressed again. I really recommend this method of putting some of your favorite clothes away for a while – it feels like Christmas morning (or a spring day, as it were) when you pull them back out again.
So where does this leave my carefully curated 19-item spreadsheet with outfits planned until the end of time?
Edited, refined, and better – that’s where.
I’ll spend some time this evening reworking the spreadsheet to accommodate the items I removed and the items I added, and I’ll move on this month feeling happy and stylish. At the end of the day, this challenge is about trying to be happier, so if the challenge stops making me happy, there’s no reason to continue it in its current form. I still believe in the core method of choosing a small number of items to pre-plan a large number of outfits, but I also believe in keeping things flexible to suit where I’m at in my life at any given moment.
I hope that this gets you feeling reflective about your own fashion challenges (wait, am I the only one doing weird self-imposed wardrobe challenges? Just me? Okay. Sorry. Just checking.) and excited for the lovely spring days yet to come. I’ll be back on Tuesday with a spring wardrobe preview and some feelings about trying to curate the “perfect” closet, so don’t forget to check in!
As always, I’m logging my daily outfits on Instagram as @goblinshark_ .
-gs
Goblin Shark 