Rundown of the Past Octobers

2013, Handmade maternity dress from IOGoods on Etsy

2012, H&M

2011, thrifted maternity wrap dress

(Skipped 2010 on account of I was on my honeymoon)

2009, brown jersey dress from a little shop I stumbled on in Kingston, ON

2008, the dress that started it all. Can't remember where it was from. I think it's been handed down to my sister and is still going strong.

What Do You Really Want?

Some very interesting thoughts here on dressing (and buying habits in general); suggests that sometimes what you buy are things that reflect what you want in times when you don't feel or don't realise you can get the thing you actually want. Here's a quote:

"I think buying less is a natural consequence of figuring out what you really want. Because you can actually get to it, instead of purchasing items that make the false promise of giving it to you. I know it saved me a lot of sartorial purchase mistakes since my style overhaul and life simplification. The same probably apply to most emotional purchases, from the piece of art to the expensive car."

Here's another:
"Why do advertisers associate their brands and products with intangible values such as travel/evasion, simplicity, elegance, modernity... Because they're hoping you will buy their product as an answer to what you really want (travel, live a simple life, be more elegant, modern...)"

Love to hear your thoughts, ODP-ers. Do you see anything like this reflected in your own buying habits? Did you in the past?

Women In Clothes

Some interesting questions, for thinking about, and for reading other people's answers, over at Women in Clothes. I especially liked thinking about this one:

In what way is this stuff important, if at all?

I think how you choose to dress has big repercussions. Dressing mindfully-- choosing ethical/sustainable/secondhand, thinking about the ways our dress reflects and influences cultural perceptions of female sexuality and value, even just expressing joy and creativity in dress in a world of fast fashion and trends-- can influence your women friends in the ways they choose to dress and your men friends in what they find attractive. The young people and children in your life will see and absorb these things too. So, for me, dressing simply, valuing my body and sexuality, and choosing local craftsmanship and ethical production methods when I can afford it (and usually secondhand when I can't) is about more than just the clothes I put on my body; it's about my entire philosophy of living.

And this one:

Can you say a bit about how your mother's body and style has been passed down to you, or not?

My mother is a list-maker and system-follower extraordinaire. She still refuses to wear black because she had her colours done when I was a girl and found she was an autumn. I definitely inherited her sense of list. I deeply believe that there is a list of items that I can make, purchase, and then be done shopping forever. If my body would just stop growing babies-- and thus changing sizes every three months-- I could be there.

I'm going to post a few of the other questions in the Facebook group, love to hear your answers.

Wardrobe Architect, Week Ten

The exercise for this week is to look at your palette and select a palette for the upcoming S/S season (which I assume you would then do every season going forward). Again, since I've departed a little from the whole capsule wardrobe strategy of the plan, I'm doing this my own way. For me, choosing just one colour to define a season around has always felt right. I've had a black season, a navy season, a grey season, a coral season, a green season, and I'm currently in the throes of a royal blue season. It's hard to predict what I'll feel like for summer. Orange occurred to me, but I'll just be waiting to see.

Wardrobe Architect, Week Nine

This week's post is about building a capsule wardrobe. This might be more useful for some of you, but I feel I differ from the post here a bit. I've already written a list of a base wardrobe, which I actually posted here before, and I don't really feel the need to buy much outside of it. But I'm very into basics, and not having to buy more clothes unless one of the items needs replacing appeals very much to me. It might not to everybody.

Anyways, I decided rather than doing this week's exercise, I'd review my base wardrobe list in light of what I've unearthed over the last few weeks. And because that's what kind of person I am, I went ahead and prettied it up and attach it here as a pdf in case anyone else is as nerdy as me and wants something like this to print out and carry with them on shopping trips! (It's really pretty. I think I really will print it out and keep it in the enormous purse my husband got me when I had my second child. I can fit practically anything in it; we call it 'the base camp'.)