Represent your closet

There's a guest post today over at Yes and Yes by Sal McGraw of Already Pretty, that I'm fairly certain restates things that she had already written about in an earlier post, and more pertinently, something that I think about whenever I wear this skirt.  Realistically, it's something that I think about when I wear the majority of my Anthropologie items.  To sum, even if items are special and important or delicate, they should still be worn.

This is idea that really spoke to me when I started making a conscious decision near the end of my first year of grad school to dress in a way that actually represented my closet.  To be fair, I flirted with being a skirt wearer before, as early as high school, and had done a couple stints as a full-time wearer in college (sadly this was before I realized what quality tights were out there and before leggings got really big, so I spent a fair amount of time in skirts that were too long for me, and tried to use legwarmers to keep my legs warm in between classes during winter- it wasn't always the prettiest).  I wore jeans a lot my first year here, and remember wearing a skirt on Halloween and making some joke about how I was dressing up as my college self.

This is all just a long-winded way of saying that I feel most myself when I use what I buy as my daily wear- where Sal's post speaks to me in particular is wearing things that I buy that aren't quite as practical- like white or hand-wash only materials or things that are on the pricier side.  As I've gotten older (and more able to afford nice things and discovered the wonder of Anthropologie), the proportion of my closet filled with things in these categories has dramatically increased.  And you guys?  I am not known for my grace or my neatness.  I am known for tripping, spilling, and running into things- my parents joked about how I had a drinking problem or a hole in my lip (since I easily miss my mouth when drinking things).  My boss and co-worker H-proofed part of the lab when they were setting something up in one of the rooms.  I regularly misjudge where my body is and hit part of it on walls, sides of doorways, and furniture.  My job involves frequently working with things that would be difficult stains to get out.

This skirt is a lovely shade of blue, a fun style, and comfortable.  It also is dry clean only and has an upper layer made of a lightweight chiffon that would totally be easy to snag.  It would be easy to resign myself to leaving this skirt for a fancy occasion and tell myself that it's just too hard to wear.  But it's a lot more fun to wear it to school and be fearless about the fact that I'm wearing it on a bike, that I'm klutzy, that it could get stained or torn or ruined at any moment.  Life is too short to not wear the fun things that make you happy to look at it or feel like twirling. 

Like menagerie jewelry!

As a caveat, some things are more important and irreplaceable, such as heirloom garments or jewelry, but even those, with some extra attention and care, deserve a life outside of the closet on occasion.  I just try to approach my closet with the idea that wearing special items make the mundane more special rather than thinking that wearing special items too often makes them mundane.

Well, I'm off to go bake some scones in my partydress :)