Yesterday I went shopping with a male friend. He doesn’t have a lot of money, nor was he blessed with a natural sense of fashion. He wants to apply for a better job than the one he has, so he needed a wardrobe more professional than all black slacks and black T-shirts with logos, and combat boots.

Not that I would ever criticize anyone for wearing what they want, but in this case he honestly did need help achieving an image which would better communicate his value in a professional setting.

We had a budget of less than $50. We went to Value Village.

I have to give the man props. Shopping was never his favorite activity, and this ended up being a three-hour marathon, which he completed even though his trick knee was swelling and giving him pain. He said he’d rather get it over with all at once than to have to go through this again any time soon!

We walked out of that store with two slacks, a sport coat, a nice undershirt with no logo, and four new button-down shirts. Everything is totally mix-and-match. He could reach into his closet BLINDFOLDED and find an outfit that worked.

In one shopping trip, and for only about $45, he now has 32 different outfits he could put together, depending on whether he grabbed which shirt, wore the T under it or not, wore which pants, and wore the jacket or not.

I feel bad I didn’t buy him a couple of more Tees, and didn’t even think of picking out a tie. Well, I guess ties are a bit much right now, for his current job. I’ll be sure to get him one before his next interview, though!

It feels so good to help a friend! 3 years ago

I still haven’t officially gone through my things and chosen actual outfits, but I am at least sorting out things that no longer fit, or that I really don’t love.

I’ve done the same thing with my kids’ clothes. Anything we try on and either don’t fit or don’t really like we immediately put into a bag that we keep near our closets. Those clothes then get taken to the local YWCA or Goodwill to bless someone else.

I’m amazed how many bags we’ve already taken! I consider the job about half done, and we’ve already donated five or six large kitchen garbage bags full. We’re also donating Adam’s old toys and books.

We have benefitted more than once from these charitable resources. It feels good to be able to give back to them. 3 years ago

This has nearly nothing to do with this goal except it involves clothing, but…

Yesterday I was at my upstairs neighbor’s house. We are about the same size, and not far off in coloring. She is a few inches shorter than me, and has a more ample bosom, but otherwise pretty close. She mentioned that she has no jeans to wear for the summer, and asked if I had any in her size that I wasn’t using.

It started a fantastic frenzy of girlfriends trying on each others’ clothes! Well, mostly it was me bringing my things up, and using her like a life-sized Barbie doll. :)

My clothing style is rather dressy, compared to her (or maybe compared to most people, actually). I love wearing skirts and high heels and spaghetti straps and jewelery. She’s more used to capri’s and t-shirts. Having brought up all the pants that were in the size she asked for, I also grabbed several blouses and skirts and other stuff that I thought she might like, that I wasn’t really using.

She LOVED it! Lots of the stuff looked much better on her than it had on me. Often the very reason I didn’t like it so much was exactly what made it work for her! For example, I have several summer shirts with spaghetti straps and lace, which I mostly only wear under a jacket or overshirt because I hate my bra straps showing (and don’t even THINK about going without a bra!). However, the parts that seemed a bit saggy on me filled out nicely on her. She doesn’t have to hike things up, or try to cover the straps. It worked so much better on her that I ended up giving her lots of things.

I feel so good about this! They were just taking up space in my closet, and now they’re going to be USED!! Besides, K looks really GREAT in them. It was ‘specially fun watching her husband’s eyes pop out of his head when he saw her flashing some cleavage for once. ;>

I got so inspired that today I went through more and more things. Turns out plenty of shoes, purses, colors and whatnot that I’ve been ignoring are all just right for her. It’s so great having a friend to share with!

So, I made outfits happen for my friend. I got her into new, daring, feminine styles which broke her old pattern of just bumming around. I showed her how comfortable and fun it can be to wear a floaty ankle-length skirt. And now we’re both going to look like divas when we go out for my birthday this Saturday. WOO-HOO! 4 years ago

I think this goal is vaguely cross-linked to my goal of designing and wearing my own clothes someday.

I have a vision of a closet with only clothes in it that I love. They are colorful and cheerful. They are smooth and flowing. They don’t require ironing. They are mostly slip-on, except for my jeans. (I dislike buttons, and am not crazy about zippers.) Some of them close or are fitted with ties. (I think ties are sexy.)

I have a lot of blues and greens, with some pinks and reds. Also every shade from chocolate to cream. I tend towards solids, with exquisite details. If I have a print I wear it like jewelery.

My favorite fabric is Tencel. I also like Rayon. My knit shirts are mostly cotton, but the prints are polyester mesh.

I have half a dozen pairs of shoes that do the job for me. I only need one or two for each type of work or fun that I do.

Everything I wear calls attention to my face, which is my best feature, and not to my tummy, which is my worst. 4 years ago

I take back what I said in my last post on this thread. I totally forgive myself for putting this off, and I still don’t want to drop it.

I just forgot to break it down to baby steps.

Tomorrow I’m going to take everything I own out of my closet, and try each piece on. I’ll sort by size, toss what I don’t still love, and then later I’ll organize things into groups that go together. 4 years ago

This goal still isn’t done. Why not? It doesn’t seem hard.

Maybe I just don’t think it’s that important.

I’m gonna give myself another week, then if I haven’t made any progress on it, I’ll seriously reconsider whether it’s a goal I even want to do or not. 4 years ago

I’ve been busy with school. Yeah, that’s my “excuse du jour”.

Well, today was the last day of school this quarter. NOW I have all the time in the world to tackle this goal. It ought to take all of two hours.

But today I feel sick (ear infection), so I don’t want to do anything but lie in bed, or in a hot bath, and maybe play video games.

(sigh)

Okay. ONE OUTFIT is the one I’m wearing. Black jeans, brown sleeveless shirt, black sneakers with no socks, no jewelery. It’s pretty casual, but good enough for school.

Not exactly a high-fashion statement, but it does qualify as an outfit.

Now I can say I’ve started. 4 years ago

Four bottoms x five tops = 20 outfits. This shouldn’t be hard.

My goal is to actually KNOW what my 20 outfits are, and to be sure they all FIT, and to be sure they cover the different activities I do. (school, church, job search, hanging out, housework)

I’ll know I’ve achieved it when I’ve tried on everything in my wardrobe and actually LOGGED what it would go with / when I would wear it. 4 years ago