Closet Update: September 2018

Maybe it’s because I’m a teacher, but September always brings about feelings of new beginnings more so than January 1st. There’s just something about saying goodbye to Summer (metophorically here in LA) that makes me want to start fresh and set new goals. It might just be this new-year-feeling that sparked a bit of treat-yoself shopping this month. I said in my last month’s closet update, that these posts will either become my most favorite posts to do each month, or the most gut-wrenching. This month, it seems to fall into the latter category…So without further ado, here we go!

– NEW ADDITIONS –

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Saturday/Sunday Elmira Jumpsuit in Navy ($30) bought on 09/01/18 — I wasn’t lying in my last closet update when I said you’d be seeing some jumpsuits being added to my wardrobe in the upcoming months. I’m officially obsessed. I almost think they’re even easier than dresses since I can still sit comfortably on the floor with my students throughout the day. I scored big with this one. I clawed my way through the sale section at Anthropologie. It was $50 but they had an extra 40% sale items promotion that day and I knew I had to take it home with me. I have yet to take it to a tailor though (#shortieproblems) so I haven’t been able to wear this out quite yet, but I hope that once I do, it will be a staple in my wardrobe.

Everlane Soft Cotton Square Cardigan in Black & Everlane Cotton Double V Tank in Navy/White Stripe ($86 total) bought on 09/02/18 — It’s kind of incredible that I didn’t have a black cardigan up until this point. I had a great collection of grey ones and navy ones, but not a single black one. I fell into a similar conundrum as I did in July. Everlane sent me a $20 credit to be used during Labor Day weekend. I had been eying a few dresses and some pairs of pants, but was able to talk myself out of them. What I wasn’t able to talk myself out of were the cardigan and the tank. I love their Soft Cotton Square Crew sweater so much (I have it in Navy. You can read my review here.) that I knew the cardigan would be a staple once Fall rolls around. I was eying the Cotton Double V dress but decided to go with the tank version instead because I already own too many (black) dresses, and I knew that this tank would be a great layering piece in the Fall. I also want to mention that I felt compelled to buy two things to get free shipping so I probably could’ve done without the tank, but I’m still so glad that I got it anyway. I’ve reviewed the cardigan here and you can see how I styled both of these items in that post.

Free People Sweater ($50) & Free People Floral Dress ($40) bought on 09/03/18 — I’ll admit that these purchases were 100% impulsive and 100% unnecessary, but the floral dress has been added to my Occasion Wear Capsule (which consists of now 3 dresses that are appropriate to wear to weddings and other fancy schmancy events that might come up). I’ve been able to wear the dress to a friend’s birthday dinner, and the sweater has been perfect for cozy nights in when the evenings get chilly.

Anthropologie Beaded Beach Pants ($42) bought on 09/03/18 — A few years ago, I wore a pair of printed pants from Urban Outfitters to their death. I loved them so much because when I was feeling bold, I would wear them with a blank sweater or a black tee and feel just so cool in them! When they ripped, I was devastated and have been on a hunt for a similar pair since. Well, I’ve found them! I’ve worn these so much since getting them. You can see how I’ve styled them in this post.

c/o Free Label Sunday Pant ($0) & c/o Free Label Rachelle Cardi Robe ($0) received on 09/05/18 — At the end of July, I started chatting with Jess from Free Label about collaborating. She generously offered two pieces in exchange for a blog post highlighting them worn in different ways. When looking at their catalogue to see what I could choose from, I tried to pick pieces that would fulfill some gaps in my wardrobe (aka I didn’t want to choose a black t-shirt or a black dress). I’m excited about these pants and the addition of this rust color to my wardrobe. You can read all about this brand in my post featuring them here.

TOTAL MONEY SPENT: $248.00 // TOTAL NUMBER OF ITEMS: +8

– WHAT I LET GO –

In my guilt from adding eight items to my wardrobe, I tried to be ruthless this month when deciding what to let go of. Everything from my trial separation had to go (except the midi dress which I realized should’ve gone into my Occasion Wear Capsule because it’s dressier and that’s probably why I never wore it). Even though I did wear my Everlane Square Tee this month, I let it go because I had more than enough black tees. In the end though, as you will read in the next part of this post, I realized that there isn’t much more to cut from my wardrobe. With now 63 items total, my wardrobe seems to be in a good place to allow me enough options and variety to match my mood swings, and my lifestyle.

Here’s the list of what I let go:

—Black Everlane Square Tee
–-Muji Black Cotton Dress
–Black Skinny Jeans
–Blue Boyfriend Jeans
–Madewell Skirt
–Lou & Grey Black Sweater
–-And Other Stories Black Midi Dress (moved to Occasion Wear Capsule)
–Madewell Whisper Cotton tank (moved to gym/loungewear capsule)

Trial Separation:

–Lou & Grey Dark Denim Jacket

TOTAL NUMBER OF ITEMS: -8

OVERALL: +/- 0 ITEMS, -$248.00

– WHAT I LEARNED –

So…Labor Day weekend was a pretty spend-happy weekend for me. I remember even telling my friends that I was a horrible minimalist by the end of that weekend. My friend in return told me that it’s hard to be a minimalist all the time, and that it’s good to give myself a little love and a few new things from time to time. I grappled with this for the rest of the month…It is hard to be a minimalist all the time, which also means it’s hard to be grateful and content with what I have all the time.

Since starting this series on my blog, it would seem that every month I have been treating myself to a few new things. Every single item seemed to justifiable or seemed to fill some gap in my wardrobe. I had an excuse for every single purchase. I don’t have a black cardigan yet so I need this one. Everlane has free shipping on 2 items so I need to get one more thing. It’s so hard for me to find dressier dresses that I can wear to weddings and events so when I find one, I should buy it! Jumpsuits are my new obsession! This sweater is just oh so cozy! I needed a break–a break from buying things, but more importantly, a break from wanting things. So I imposed another month long shopping ban from Sept. 04 – Oct. 04.

This shopping ban was hard, really hard, at first–especially because this month has been particularly stressful with the start of the new school year. This month long shopping ban was harder than the one I did in January and in April. I didn’t realize just how real retail therapy was for me until I couldn’t turn to it for comfort this month. As the month wore on and as the shopping ban became more of a reality, I had to find new ways to cope. I took some time off of social media so I wouldn’t be tempted; I continued to delete and unsubscribe to any email subscriptions that came my way; I began to spend some quality time with friends and Brandon; we resumed taking walks in the evening; I started doing meditation through the Breathe app more consistently. After some time, a beautiful thing happened: I began to really appreciate the clothes I had this month. I gained confidence to wear jumpsuits to work. I really was feeling myself this month and the outfits that I wore. What I have seems to finally be enough…more than enough actually.

At the end of the month, I finally had some time to go through my clothes to see what I wanted to let go from my wardrobe. When I went into it, I wanted to cut 10-20 items from my wardrobe to reach my goal of having 50-ish items, but as I sat on the floor of my apartment looking at all the clothes that I loved, I realized that the number of items doesn’t matter. That maybe 63 is a good number for me. That I loved each and every piece in my wardrobe right now. That there’s nothing more I wanted to let go of at least for right now. That my wardrobe is finally complete, at least for now.

I’m hoping that this feeling of contentment with my wardrobe lasts for a while longer. When I did go through my wardrobe, I realized just how much I do have and how much I don’t wear nearly enough. I’m hoping that with the weather still being warm here in LA that my itch to buy more sweaters will subside. My heart did skip a beat when I saw my sweaters again (I store part of my wardrobe in an box that lives under my bed) so I’m excited for the first chilly day to arrive so I can bring those back out again.

Here’s to another month of learning and growing! Until next month!

Happy October friends!