enough clothing?

[littlebutfierce]

This comm hasn't been active in a long time -- but this sounds like this could be such an awesome community, so I'll give it the old DW try & post!

There are a lot of issues related to "enough" that I would love to talk about, but here's something to start:

How do you know when you have "enough" clothing? Have you ever felt like you had enough clothing? Is this feeling related at all to how much of your clothing you actually wear on a regular basis? Does the feeling fluctuate based on life situation (finances, new job, being a student, etc.)?

I've had to cut down my budget severely over the past couple of months & one of the things I've done is to stop buying clothing. Mostly it was thrifted or secondhand anyway, so not that much money.

I alternate between no interest in buying clothes -- I even thought I'd treat myself to spending £3 or £4 in a charity shop one day, but couldn't find the enthusiasm to go look -- & feeling this incredible sense of grumpiness because I can't buy any more clothes.

Ridiculous. I have a wardrobe stuffed, a dresser stuffed, & a few more clothes (bigger things like interview suits) on top of the wardrobe. I clearly have "enough" clothing. Not buying clothes has made me be more daring & thoughtful w/pairing up things I already have--because being bored w/my clothes would make it that much more likely that I'd break budget & go buy more--but I still have this itch for more sometimes.

I don't think fashion or personal style is a bad thing (I am not one of those radical simplicity people who only wears khakis & a black t-shirt, ha ha), but I wish I could decouple it from the urge to constantly be acquiring more clothing.

Thoughts?

Comments

[owlectomy]

I'm not a radical simplicity person but I don't like fashion and have a hard time finding clothes that fit me well, so my basic formula is enough solid-color t-shirts and polos and black khakis to last me two weeks. Besides that I have a few special occasion clothes that I rarely wear because I have to dryclean or handwash, and some fannish T-shirts that are excluded from regular rotation because I can't wear them to work, and for me that feels like it's enough.

I think the times I'm most anxious about having enough clothes are the times I feel like I'm being judged on my appearance, or the times I feel like I'm being judged in general and use clothes as a convenient way to deal with the feeling of being judged!

I absolutely don't feel like my semi-rejection of fashion and clothes shopping should be normative for everybody, because for a lot of people fashion is beautiful and useful as self-expression and social signaling. I think the point where it goes overboard is the point where a person treats clothes acquisition as something to do for fun every weekend, or buys clothes without thought for "Am I actually going to wear this, does this fill a gap in my wardrobe, what else do I have that I'll wear with this, am I buying this because I love it or need it or just because I feel like buying clothes?"

[greenwitch]

I definitely think I have enough clothing, and I'm the same way -- I hate shopping because nothing seems to ever fit me properly, and I usually don't like current styles. I'd have no problem wearing jeans or kahkis and plain t-shirts or polo shirts every day.

Where I run into problems is when it comes to work or special occasions -- I tend to dress down more than I should at work (though I have a fairly active job, needing to move around a lot, so it's important I be comfortable), and for special occasions I never seem to have anything appropriate that I like, so I end up buying something the day-of on impulse that afterward I realize I don't like so much.

[kyrielle]

For a long time, I didn't think I had enough clothing, although the closets and drawers were stuffed.

Then I read somewhere that I should only buy it if I love it and think I'll wear it constantly.

Ironically, that coincided with my pregnancy, and I had to buy things I didn't love because...well...it was that, be hideously uncomfortable, or go to work with no pants. Really, only one option.

But I have found that it's not the number of clothes I have total that counts, but the number of clothes I have and love. I feel like I don't have enough when I can't dress without "settling" for something that's okay but not really right. So I still shop for more clothes but I'm very, very particular. (And a whole slew of generic clothes are due for a purge....)