Wardrobe Round-up: June 23 - July 03, 2023
Wardrobe round-up returns! This time around: weekly updates, more images, wish lists, and my wardrobe inspiration. These will be more of an accounting log, and I’ll be sharing outfit photos in separate posts. This one still ended up about as long as the old ones due to going through my entire wish list instead of just additions and subtractions, so if you’re here for that sort of thing, enjoy 📚
Since I’ve had a few weeks to recover from my stint doing what passes for bizcaz in San Francisco, I’m readjusting my closet so that the core items are mostly fairycore-adjacent grunge-boho casual pieces, since that aesthetic best fits my current preference for balance of whimsy and wearability. To balance that out, I’m also continuing to downsize my items because it’s been a couple of years of collecting clothing and I just. want. more. space.
Part of this involves a bit of a mental reset, which I wrote about in the previous post on my Low-Buy Strategy, so I’m not going to rehash that here. That’s how I’ve been thinking, but for what I’ve been actually doing, read on:
Downsizing
There are more outgoing pieces of late than I am up for writing about individually (the last batch of Poshmark listings I published added up to 24 items 😬), but generally things that are going out are items that
Don’t fit me well AND that I don’t like enough that I’d want to repurchase in my current size
“Polished casual” stuff that I purchased primarily to wear for work, except for pieces that made up my I Mean Business outfit (AllSaints “Aleida” blazer, Banana Republic slim wool slacks, Madewell “Brightside” tank top) and a few pieces that I like enough to wear (AllSaints metallic star sweaters, Madewell sleeveless rib knit midi dresses). I don’t see myself working somewhere that requires owning more than like, two bizcaz outfits in the future – though that’s more to do with the types of jobs I’m considering than hating officewear so much that I’d limit my career opportunities for that.
Don’t fit in the space I have allotted to my clothes: one larger metal clothing rack, a small wooden clothing rack, two IKEA RASKOG utility carts, the hallway coat closet and shoe racks, and four underbed clothing storage boxes (two for off-season clothes, one for less-worn shoes, and one for sentimental or doesn’t-fit-right-now items)
In terms of what gets cut when it comes to the last point, it’s more or less just the usual closet edit criteria of “do you actually wear that” and “do you LOVE love it enough to keep it around if you don’t”. And in practice, I spend an hour or two pulling items which I will then photograph, measure, and list over the next few days when time and lighting allows.
If you’re interested, you can view recently listed and sold items on my Poshmark page.
This week I made $180.25 on Poshmark sales (8 items – Poshmark takes 20% of revenue which is accounted for in that number). Subtracting 25% from earnings for approximately account for income tax and misc small expenses like packaging tape, printer ink, etc, leaves $135.19 for my clothing/hobby budget (I decided to give myself a fresh start and start from zero, although I’ve definitely bought and sold a lot of things already in the year to date which I suspect have leaned toward higher spend).
Yeah, that’s a lot of churn. I definitely don’t expect the turnover to remain this high indefinitely, but I figure this works out with the goal of gradually decreasing the amount of items I’m bringing in. Even if I get to the point where I’m getting, say, two items a month on average, since that’s still 99% stuff I didn’t literally need, I am trying to source secondhand-first since there’s no rush and I’m fortunate enough to be a commonly available size.
The aforementioned business casual outfit
Purchases
This week I purchased three items. Which I think is about as many items as my partner buys in six months, but for me, that feels pretty low, especially considering that I’m actively recentering my casual wardrobe to a new style. All of these were secondhand and purchased through Poshmark.
$12.38 ($4 + tax and ship) ✿ No brand (possibly Shein) mushroom baby tee
$32.41 ($24 + tax and ship) ✿ Lapis (Anthropologie) lace tiered skirt
$74.21 ($60 + tax and ship) ✿ XOXO crochet longline cardigan
Adding up to $119.00, leaving a grand total of $16.19 in the budget. Which honestly, given that I didn’t sit down to calculate any of this until today, I’m surprised I didn’t end in the red. I also didn’t buy multiples of any type of item (like with the maxi skirts – I think I purchased five in a row after realizing how much I liked them which was when I decided I should probably start checking in on myself more often).
Mushroom Crop Tee
I’ve been getting back into graphic tees after seeing so many girly grunge outfits on Pinterest and Instagram. Currently have two regular/”unisex” relaxed fit cut graphic t-shirts and one cropped tee in what I’d consider my core capsule, so I’m open to adding a few more in both those silhouettes. One of the few brands/designers whose releases I religiously follow is Anna Sui (the QUEEN of grunge-cute), and her Spring 2023 collection included items with a mushroom and daisy-bedecked logo designed by Ken Sigafoos. I feel like at this point I must qualify as a connoisseur of mushroom clothing and this is definitely one of the best ones I’ve ever seen (tee pictured below). I can take or leave the brand logo, but I’m not opposed to it, but this is just the PERFECT balance of whitespace and designed parts, with different line weights and a lot of fun details while still clearly reading (at least to me) as a mushroom meadow doodle.
Of course, since it’s ~designer~, this t-shirt costs $80 before tax (10.25% in Berkeley) and shipping. I’m not opposed to paying the markup for a luxury brand even if it’s not “worth” it as long as I like the item enough that it would be easily in the top 3 of its category in my own closet. Also happy to pay a markup for items responsibly produced, but as the website listing for the t-shirt doesn’t trumpet it being produced through a third-party audited vertically-integrated ethical and sustainable supply chain, I’m going to assume that it isn’t.
However, while that could be the case design-wise for this tee, it’s a fully white t-shirt which from experience I know I’m just going to get sweat, deodorant, dirt, sunscreen, food, and makeup stains all over and not give enough of a shit to give it a separate wash treatment from the go-to bulk washing machine loads (I’m convinced that separating light and dark laundry is only something you can do in a larger household that does combined laundry – otherwise unless you have 50/50 light and dark items you’d only have enough white laundry for a full load once a season??). Not only that but the product listing says “Do not bleach” 🤔 (though I know garment care tags err on the side of caution to cover the manufacturer’s ass).
Anyway, I decided that in this case I’d look for something that was cheaper and not bright white, but since mushrooms have been aggressively trendy for a few years now, there was no shortage of alternatives. After several rounds of searching Poshmark and eBay, I ended up going with a cheap no-brand poly-cotton blend raglan sleeve baby tee in a dark brown and beige colorblock with a machine embroidered graphic. The mushroom design isn’t as funky as the Anna Sui screen print, but I do like that it has some fill to it. A lot of the linework designs I saw felt too insubstantial, like there wasn’t a real focal point or they weren’t finished.
None of this week’s purchases arrived yet since they were made on the weekend, but I’ll include them in another post when they do! (Crossing my fingers – I’ve had four orders this year already where the seller never shipped despite their account showing as active)
Long Tiered Lace Skirt
I think it may have literally been 20 years since I last had a peasant skirt, but I’ve been seeing a lot of tiered maxi and midi skirts like the Minga London one in the collage above showing up in fairy grunge outfits paired with oversized tees and sweaters and I’m digging it as a supplement to the denim maxi skirts. They’re soft, but have some structure and fullness added from the tiers and the ones with some sort of trim or mixed fabrics have enough texture to not feel like loungewear.
I like the style of the pictured Minga London one enough that I’d happily wear it if it magically popped up in my closet (or bought it at $85 + tax and ship), but I figured that a brown peasant skirt is a basic enough item and not too tricky to fit that I could probably find something pre-owned. There were indeed a lot of cute options out there, and I ended up purchasing the Lapis brand one because I liked the richness of the alternating lace designs and the lace-up detail on the waistband. More whimsical than the Minga one, but since it’s a monochrome dark neutral and the lace-up tie is subtle, it doesn’t feel too ren faire.
Crochet Mesh Longline Cardigan
Crochet has probably occupied at least 25% of my brain at any given moment since I first started making amigurumi in 2020 (along with everyone else and their dog who picked up fiber arts). I have a Pinterest board of crochet inspo (mostly garments) that has over 1000 pins. I’m always thinking about what’s wearable, looking out for unique designs, and inspecting construction techniques. And of course, pinning anything crochet or fauxchet that from a lookbook released by Free People, Anna Sui, Dolls Kill, Minga, etc.
I currently own a Free People crochet tank/vest and Free People fluffy wool longline cardigan (both from Poshmark), but I don’t have a long sleeve option that doesn’t actually add warmth. I’ve worn the alpaca cardigan once and loved it but it’s just not been the right season for that, as lightweight as the knit is. I’m currently working on a long sleeve cardigan, but it’s cropped and blurple (the yarn label called it “thistle” but it’s blurple) and in a fiber that will probably be annoying to wash and dry so I don’t expect it will end up being a hero item as excited as I am with how it’s turning out. I think that with a closet of both long and short tops, a longline cardigan tends to be more flexible than waist or hip length cardigans on what it’ll work with, proportion-wise.
I’ve been browsing resale for a long sleeve brown option (neutral but not black, too harsh given my wardrobe colors and harder to appreciate the stitch definition) and settled on the xoxo brand sweater that was a cotton-acrylic blend basic fitted mesh design with floral elements at the hem. This is in that sweet spot of being complex enough in design that I’m charmed by it (not “that’s literally just three seamed rectangles of a single type of stitch…..”) but not such a majestic and delicate work of art that I would be scared to wear it out.
Wish List Update
Things I’m keeping an eye out for!
Cute Camisoles
I noticed a month or two ago that a lot of the outfits I’ve been seeing featuring layered lace/mesh tops and cardigans use a cute but not-too-statement camisole as a base layer. I realized that somehow I didn’t own a single non-loungewear grade spaghetti strap top so I’ve been browsing for those. I’ve got one so far which is black (a lightweight denim bustier with removable spaghetti straps, vintage Bisou Bisou from Poshmark), but I think getting maybe two more tanks in actual colors that have enough design elements that they could carry the top half of an outfit on their own would give me a lot more layering options especially with lighter weight cardigans.
Because they have been absolutely flooding my social media and ads, I’m finding a lot of the y2k empire-waist babydoll tanks appealing right now, but since I intend to wear these as base layers with thin cardigans, I’m looking for ones that don’t have too chunky of embellishments or tie-back halter straps. I also suspect that the heavily colorblocked ones will often pull outfits too busy for my taste, and ones with aggressively y2k style prints rather than generic or hippie-lite prints I’m not going to be interested in once tiktok moves on a week from now. (I’m name-squatting on mgetsdressed, but I’m not actually using that app because I’m wary of how it will affect my already tenuous attention span. But it all trickles down to Reels and Shorts anyway.)
Low Neckline Long Sleeve Tees
As I’ve been putting together outfits with maxi skirts, I’ve found that I’ve wanted to use a lower neckline tee more often than I have with shorter skirts or even pants. I think part of that is to give the outfits some negative space and part of it is that I want some casual options that would pull the outfit less conservative (not that there’s one right way, but I like having options to adjust the coverage of outfits in either direction). Even for sleeved tops, I realized this wasn’t a well-represented style in my closet as I have one casual long sleeve top with a scoop neck that fits properly. So, I’ve been periodically browsing for lower neckline tops in the style of those above, fitted cut and with 2-3 distinctly fairycore or boho design elements (lace trim, tie dye, lace-up tie details, earthy-luxe fabrics). Haven’t spotted one yet at the elusive junction of available, in my budget, and in my size, but I look forward to finding one 👀
Nature Motif Graphic Tees
Now that I actually have a sense of how to construct outfits and am leaning back into the ultimate easy to wear item that is basic-ass t-shirts, I of course am interested in curating a selection of designs that are all A-team level. Previously, I had primarily worn graphic tees but they were mostly ill-fitting infosession freebie shirts.
Some motifs that I’m interested in finding a shirt for are
sun or sun/moon (I got one celestial tee from Poshmark but it ended up not fitting so I relisted it, then I decided that I’d rather have one with a larger graphic on it anyway)
dinosaurs
butterflies
The ones pictured above have pretty ideal designs (to me)
BOLD – Mini embroidered icons are cool, but that’s not a graphic tee. If you’re gonna do a graphic tee, I want to see some commitment. Be proud of wearing whatever the subject is! I should be able to tell what it is at least from a couple of steps away. Additionally, the design should be thoughtfully proportioned to fill the space taking into account its own visual weight, not just look like some poor designer just slapped it on in a random size that would at least definitely not bleed on an XS when they sent it off down the pipeline because they’re evaluated based on quotas and not quality. Actually, now that I think about it, I think I’ve spent too much time looking at American Traditional and Neotraditional tattoo designs and that’s rubbed off on my general design preferences ⚓️
Illustrative or embroidered – not a photo print, which I’m not intrinsically opposed to but I feel would pull away from the boho/fairy side’s balance I’m aiming for in most outfits
Won’t look weird if partially obscured by another layer
Misc / Accessories
I don’t have any grand theory for this category, but there are a few items I’ve been interested in to help pull outfits more boho or incorporate more fairycore motifs:
Butterfly claw clip – Super cute fairycore accessory, and I find hair claws easy to wear. I’m very wary of buying one that is poor quality (Chunks Shop clips have spoiled me) though and a lot of the ones I see feel a tad more youthful than I’d like. I love the watercolor clear minimal leaning Anna Sui option in the collage, but I’d prefer to see a claw in person to feel how strong the springs are and if there are obvious weak points in the plastic. Given that I already have an assortment of (non butterfly) hair claws I’m not prioritizing this, but it’d be lovely to have one at some point
Free People Element Embroidered tote in turquoise – Once, years ago, I had this exact bag on my wish list but waited too long and it sold out. It is I think the only item that I still periodically thought about after it got moved off the list. So it is now back on, especially since I’m no longer welded to my black leather laptop tote. I have an eBay alert set up and periodically look for it on Poshmark. I managed to find the brown one and the size and pockets are great, but the turquoise option would be perfect for when I have a neutral outfit and I want a bag that’s a softer design than my green checkerboard print tote bag.
Jewelry that isn’t gold or silver – Trying to build up the earthier side of my jewelry collection so I can have some jewelry layering options that don’t feel super blingy. At some point I might purchase some hemp cord to make macrame chokers and bracelets, but in the meantime in between checking on my shop, I’ve been poking around Etsy and shortlisting options.
✿
I’m feeling pretty optimistic for now at my wardrobe trajectory! I know a lot of my preferences are heavily influenced by what’s trendy right now, but I am genuinely excited to be able to get all the stuff I wanted but couldn’t wear last time it was in. Also, grunge/hippie style is fun to look for on the secondhand market, since by definition they’re suited to that.
Thanks for tuning in for this round-up, and let me know if there are any topics you’d like me to cover in upcoming posts!
