Week Four: Why! I Have So Many Clothes Because I Have So Many Shoes!
For Richer
Last Thursday, I was looking for the second half of the pair of pink, satin, ballet plimsolls I was wearing for the first time ever, that day. I started on the floor, then the shoe rack, under the bed, finally braving the Narnia-sized shoe world in the bottom of the cupboard. Pressed against a shoe mountain, like Michaelangelo Pistoletto’s Venus of the Rags, only with shoes, I scaled the magnitude of many shoes I need to wear to fulfil the rules for my Why So Many Clothes? experiment.
Shoes are a whole other world of trouble. Most of my many clothes worn so far seem to be hand-me-downs and presents (from my mum, and other friends and family) and charity shop finds – with the occasional bought-new, high street purchase (usually in the sales). Shoes, however, have hit the triple figure mark. My pink, suede heels (in front of the beach cabin) I alternate with pumps on Monday were £60 new, from Kurt Geiger – almost ten years ago, when it was possible for me to spend a utility bill on shoes. I like the shoes a lot and I’m glad the younger me equated self-value with earning capacity in a way I now kick against – she spent on quality shoes I can still wear and love.
I love shoes. Their shape, their reckless decoration for something so close to the ground; there is something ultimately sexy about the way we wear them… My nonsense alarm is ringing loud in my head… I’m using ellipses… but shoes! Ridiculously lovely.
As is Monday’s dress. The pictures are on the South Bank, and in the Sea Life Penguin Ice Adventure. I put on my Noa Noa cape (charity shop) to fend off the artic temperatures in the Ice Adventure. Turns out the instructions for what to do when you meet a penguin and how to stay warm in the freezing cold were a ruse – the penguins are in a large, sealed tank and the ‘artic’ is a children’s play area, the wandering penguins, toys for sale or to be encountered through photoshop on t-shirts and coasters. I didn’t need to wrap up warm, but I do love the shawl and it’s a definite one for the Keep box. The South Bank beach huts and Dishoom cafe are fun and good in the heat, like the dress.
On Tuesday, I’m relieved to last all day in the high wedges (second outing – first involved a car). I really like the pink suede and, although I think I don’t like prints, this week shows I really like prints of painted flowers (Monday, Tuesday and Friday). Pink suede and painted flowers make me happier.
For Poorer: Just in Case Clothes
My black fleece trousers are not a thing of beauty but they are a thing of comfort and, as I wore them as day clothes recently, they are definitely part of the wardrobe. The moon jumper is exhausted but friendly.
The size 6 blue tee shirt under Thursday’s dress doesn’t look very great but is a useful layer and I like the colour. I don’t realise till I’m out and about that the hem of my jumper dress is now tugged and uneven.
Three out of four items I’m keeping because they are artefacts. The fleece trousers became day wear when I wore them for a laparoscopy operation, a marvellous thing to have been through because I feel much more well since, and my body is more ready for babies (hey, I’m showing you my clothes inside out, I feel like we’re close…too much?). The moon jumper has some happy memories: I learned to hula hoop in it a couple of years ago, taught by a nice lady I met, on the South Bank; I needed to learn to do some poetry with a hoop and met her at precisely the right time. The black dress I wore when it was new, smart and as unrestricting as it is now, for the interview for the job that made my life brilliant. The blue tee shirt doesn’t have a place in my heart, that I remember, but I like the colour and it’s useful for layering. I’m not able to Not Keep any of them, perhaps because the poorer me might need to be comfortable or scruffy again and I don’t think it’s sensible to spend more money for that!
The black pumps I was wearing with Thursday’s dress were so soaked and worn out by the end of the day – the sole stuck on with electrical tape – that I threw them in the bin on the way home (I was wearing my walking trainers).
More Playing
Friday’s clothes were play clothes: the sandals make me happier with their big, orange circles. I feel like a bat-punk in the hoodie. Good for playing and playing in work. Saturday’s jumper dress was very misjudged. BP was coming to stay, and she mentioned she was questioning what to wear. I said clothes for sitting comfortably and talking, talking, talking – but fused the weather where she was with where I was and wore clothes for a chilly day (not the beginning of a heat wave). It was fine in the air-con supermarket, not so much when cooking a slow roast – but the food and wool were good for talking, talking, all night. It’s a classic jumper dress and in the Keep box.
Sunday’s vintage dress was a lucky find in a bag of fabric off cuts, in a craft cupboard. It didn’t look very good when I found it, when I was two stone lighter than now, because I didn’t fill it out and it felt frumpy. Now it does what I thought it would when I found it. I spent the day imagining I might play tennis, and in reality, repotting my Christmas Tree (been meaning to since December). In the scorching sunshine, a barefoot day.
By Sara Nesbitt Gibbons
