Yesterday I wore a red blazer from a custom-made pants suit with a crisp white shirt, dark bootcut jeans and colorful block-heel shoes.  Now it was a very nice outfit and I felt very good in it but what I also realize that really that outfit represented a lot of life history for me.  For people who collect clothes (and hopefully some long-lasting well-made pieces) these clothes will accompany us on our life journey and tell a story that is uniquely ours.

The Custom Jacket

So the pants suit was a custom-made piece that I commissioned when I was in undergrad full-time and working in an office admin position part-time.  Yes, I had very little money but I was still living with my recently divorced mother and we were sort of exploring our personal independence together.  Also when I was that young the proportion of my income that I spent on clothing was inordinately high.

Now 20 years later, the very talented designer who made this pants suit is in jail for a crime I will not relay here.  But the material, color and tailoring of the suit has not worn out one bit.  My spending on clothes has tapered off to balance out my other life concerns like lodging, retirement, etc.  And I can only fit into the jacket.  Maybe someday I will be skinny enough for the whole suit and my clothing budget may increase again and the designer will find some type of redemption.

The Skinny Jeans

Now the jeans were a purchase in my 30’s when the True Religion craze was hitting it’s zenith.  I was a fan and actually these were my first pair of more expensive jeans.  Before True Religion I really did not look for jeans, and when I did purchase it was not more than $100.

After about my 35^th birthday, my body started expanding but as any clothing lover does I held onto those items I loved but couldn’t fit any longer.  But alas, the day arrived that I could slip these favorite jeans on and I felt youthful and skinny again.  Albeit with a few gray hairs.

The Fabulous Shoes

My shoes were one of my best finds of my life.  They were actually some Prada heels that I found at Saks Fifth Avenue on the sales rack for less than half the original price.  In fact, these Prada shoes cost less than the above-mentioned True Religion jeans.  Now I wear a size 10, so usually what’s left on the shoe sales rack for us large-footed females are very ugly, lonely looking things that an orthopedic doctor wouldn’t prescribe.  But there were these Prada beauties calling my name.  I still love them so much I store them in the little cloth bags in the box they came in.

So the moral of this outfit story is just to show that there is more meaning involved in getting dressed for the day.  The pieces we choose come with personal history and maybe some “baggage” and we continue to make memories in them.  Like yesterday I was going to look at office space for a business I am launching.