Go look in your closet. How many pairs of jeans do you have? Don't be shy, dig in the back there, count every pair. Got it? Okay, now count how many short-sleeved shirts. Yes, you have to count each one even if you have five of the same black shirts from The Gap. Alright then, count all the shoes you have piled up on the floor. Each pair, please.
Me, I have ten to twelve pairs of jeans off the top of my head. I have about eighteen short sleeve shirts. The majority of them I do not wear and come from seven years ago and still, for some reason, live in my closet. My shoes? I can't even tell you. Why? Because they are literally all over the place. I have some in my bedroom closet, some in the foyer closet, some in the hallway by the front door, some in the basement.
A couple months ago, I decided to do a purge of my closet. I thought it would be cleansing and good for me. Instead, I got extremely stressed out. Holding up a sweater that I've worn possibly a grand total of three times last winter, I still kept coming up with reasons why I needed to keep them. "Well, I need this black crewneck sweater and even though I basically never wear high-neck tops, I might need it one day! I might decide to play a fancy rich Mainer in a giant log cabin in the country one cold evening and wear it!"
Needless to say, that black crewneck sweater still lives in my closet and no, I have not had an urge to channel a blue blood New Englander since.
I'm not writing about this to expound on the virtues of shopping well and the joys of mixing and matching. I just wanted to simply give you a snapshot into the closet of almost every average woman out there. I am no more special than the rest of them, and just as guilty of an overstuffed dresser.
So it really amazes me when I think of women from eras past. Before the mass-production of clothing, it was expensive and it was very normal to darn that hole in your sock for the eighth time in two years. A woman would own two dresses, a skirt, a few pairs of shoes. They would care for their nylons as if they were gold. My mother who experienced her twenties heyday in the 70's told me that everyone basically showed up to work five days a week in the same exact outfit. No one blinked twice.
Should we go back to that? I don't know. There's a certain pride in knowing that you managed to make your favorite fall coat last six years through diligent care. And sometimes, it's nice to see a picture of yourself from back when you were beginning your new life and you're wearing a pair of boots you still own and wear now. Sometimes, keeping clothes can bring back memories and make you feel as if you were not alone while trekking through the journey of life. Sometimes, it's just so much fun to find a new fall coat.
In the end, I think what I'm trying to say is that clothes make you who you are, crazy New England whims and all. So as long as you respect them for that much, you should never feel guilty for not knowing how many pairs of shoes you have.
Happy Vintaging!
Beatrice
