At the end of April I sat with a friend at work and had an
entirely selfish whinge.
I'd just read an article on capsule wardrobes &
was fully bought in. No problems at all seeing how a capsule wardrobe was a
good thing -for other people. But it couldn't possibly work for me.
You see I own a lot of clothes – LOADS. I own enough dresses
I could wear a different one every day from now until mid august before I had
to move onto separates. And then by my calculations I could move around
separates (at 2 a day) until well into the new year.
·
Yes. I hate how long it takes me to get dressed in the morning. Yes. Most days I feel like I look awful when I leave
the house
·
But (IMO) capsule wardrobes only work for tall boyish
shaped women and models (I am not either of these things)
·
And anyway what would I do without vintage? God
forbid I look like a clone.
I am slightly ashamed to say this whinge lasted a good 10
minutes. In my lunchbreak. Working for a charity that campaigns around poverty
affecting families of disabled children (www.cafamily.org.uk)
. Yes, you are correct I am a selfish, selfish person. In my defence at the end
of the 10 minutes I did say “all of which seems trivial compared to the 65% of
parents of disabled children we talk to who go without essentials like clothes
in order to provide properly for their children”. (I didn’t make that stat up
by the way it’s here
along with the number of families – 33%- who can’t afford to heat their homes).
At this point my friend said something brave, and unexpected
and really pissing annoying. She said “ Yes it is trivial. It’d be less trivial
if you could find a way to help our families while you are having a meltdown
about what to wear to work”. Cowbag. Sometimes I wish I didn’t require my
friends to be so honest.
But also she was right – could I do something about my
chronic shopping habit, feel more stylish and help my organisation to support
vulnerable families?
It turns out yes. I
turn 35 in a week and during my 35 year I will:
- Limit myself to wearing 35 items of clothing (including pairs of shoes, gloves, hats and scarves) for the whole year
- Donate the money I’m not spending on clothes to Contact a Family
- Sell most of my wardrobe on ebay to raise more cash
- Ask friends and family to sponsor me & prove I’m sticking to the rules by instragraming what I wear every day
- Get 35 of my friends to host #clothesoffmyback parties where they ‘buy’ cocktails and trade clothes to help out
- Get my friends and family to gamble on most worn items by sponsoring them per wear
- Blog about it. Not just what I wear, but the reactions of the professionals I work with to seeing me in the same clothes day, after day, after day……
Obviously there it's not going to be that simple - there will need to be rules. But that's for another post......
If you want to sponsor my clothes off my back challenge you can do so here
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