First of all, Happy New Year 2022. Thought I'd hop here for a brief moment to attest that my blog is still alive. I think this has been my longest blogging hiatus so far. I have a haul from September 22nd still in a draft phase...
Reasons for my absence
During the past months, I had work, school and every other responsibility in between.
The minute I signed the lease of my new apartment, I became highly invested in shopping for decoration and furniture. (My last apartment was a studio that was old and frankly quite ugly, so I never wanted to put money in it.)
Moving into a slightly bigger apartment, that had been recently renovated and for which I had fallen in love at first sight, was, without a doubt, exciting. I began to watch a myriad of apartment tours on YouTube, as well as spending time pinning decors on Pinterest. I admit I lost countless hours looking for perfection, to the point of neglecting to blog, and even do my schoolwork. (As a result, I am extremely behind in a course.) Fortunately, moving in itself wasn't so terrible because my parents helped me tremendously.
Another reason for not blogging is the fact that I only had hauls to talk about and/or was too far behind these hauls. Though the pictures had been mostly already taken, I still needed to write the posts, and truthfully, I didn't have a lot to say. I had bought stuff because I liked it, the colour, the shape. I used to enjoy commenting on my purchases, especially when I was buying Liz Lisa, but I now viewed it as a chore and wasn't inspired to write anything.
Part of why I had nothing to say may have been because I actually did not value my purchases that much. A couple of days ago, I learnt about "lifestyle creep" and I think it is what tainted my consumption behaviour starting around summer 2020.
Wardrobe cleaning
These past months, I sold a lot of Liz Lisa clothes I had never worn regularly (pretty much every piece I talked about here 🙃). I was tired of feeling like I had nothing to wear while standing in front of a jammed wardrobe. Steve Jobs's outfit had popped into my mind a while ago (can't remember why!) which had led me to an article that said Einstein supposedly didn't want to "waste brainpower" choosing an outfit so had "bought several versions of the same grey suit". I had found this logical, but I wasn't yet ready to let go of my beloved – though never worn – clothes.
Fast forward months later, the feel of a fresh start triggered by moving out brought up again the idea of downsizing my wardrobe to keep the essentials only. Another article had inspired me, this one about a man named Justus Kersey who chose to dress the same every day. One of his answers struck me:
"I kinda realized that I had one go-to outfit. Like, once you do laundry, it’s that pair of jeans, it’s that shirt, and every single outfit after that was one I kind of liked less."
While I knew I had favourite pieces, the fear of getting bored wearing the same style somehow justified buying things for the sake of variety. Kersey's words ultimately led me to make *the* move, i.e. discard several pieces and start selling most of my Liz Lisa garments. I knew this would greatly reduce the number of outfit possibilities and that I'd have to let go of pieces I absolutely LOVED (and didn't wear), but I was now in peace with it.
This video helped me to decide what I should keep and what wasn't worth it. I opted to keep pieces that looked good on me (in terms of shape and colour) and that made me feel great when wearing them (in terms of self-confidence and comfort).
Example 1: The waist at the back of my green retro check skirt from Fi.n.t doesn't have a belt loop, so the belt doesn't sit properly on the waistband at the back; it pulls up. My mom sewed a belt loop to try to solve the problem, but the improvement wasn't satisfying. So, although the skirt is lovely, I refrain from wearing it because the belt at the back makes me self-conscious every time. This makes no point in keeping the skirt in my wardrobe, so I decided to sell it. (I since unsewed the belt loop added by my mom and nothing was damaged.)
Example 2: I like the elegance of blouses, but they keep slipping out of my skirts and I constantly have to check if I should tuck it in when I wear one. I mentioned my annoyance with this briefly in 2019, but the thought of saying goodbye to blouses was inconceivable. Today, I realize it is unacceptable for me to keep a type of top that obsesses me at the slightest move I make. Therefore, I decided to sell *almost* all of my blouses. I kept two from Amavel that I like wearing with capri pants in the summer (not tucked in) and one white, thrifted, that had the sleeves shortened to a 3/4 length.
Naturally, this process would have been much harder to execute a few years ago, when I had no idea what suited me best and what I preferred wearing. I'm lucky my "go-to outfit" (a midi A-line skirt + fitted top) has been stable for the last years.
I also bought a few basics, mainly to lounge around at home: five t-shirts (same design, different colours), two identical crop t-shirts (ivory), two identical pairs of black leggings, one purple-beige zip hoodie and one grey half-zip hoodie.
I haven't sold every j-fashion piece I put up for sale (yet) and I may get rid of additional stuff in the future, but I'm very happy with the wardrobe purge I accomplished as of now.
Plans for this blog
I don't think I'll blog frequently this year. First, I won't have as many hauls as I had before, because I *hope* I won't buy clothes as much as I used to. Likewise, I won't be making as many dresses (sewing).
I had been thinking of starting a blog related to topics in online learning (my field of work) and had the occasion a few days ago to create one for that purpose on WordPress. I won't blog on it any time soon (because of school, notably), but for the time being, I will prioritize it rather than this more personal, leisure blog. (However, maybe I'll come back here sooner than I thought!).
