Yup, another navy dress. For anyone keeping score at home, that would make 3 in total. What can I say? The thrifting gods provide, and one must not question. I liked this Nanette Lepore version too much to pass it up … so I didn’t. Instead, I did the next best thing, and purged the other two navy dresses I had.
The other Nanette Lepore dress in my closet (eyelet) was a little bit too loose in the bust and had a slightly less office-appropriate vibe, so letting it go was an easy decision. The Milly x BR dress, which I got in my last clothes swap, was a harder piece to purge; it fits quite nicely, and it’s perfectly suitable for work. However, it was just too similar in style to this one, such that if I had kept both, I’d be in a “splitting my wears” situation — in other words, not getting a lot of wear out of either dress. Ultimately, I decided to trust in the quality of this dress based on the brand, and the Milly went into my swap pile for next year.
Let me say this: playing closet Survivor games is all fun and whatnot, until I start second-guessing myself and feeling sorry for the “losers”. I have a rescue complex when it comes to clothes — and I wish I was kidding when I say that. Tell me you have a tough time letting go of clothes too. Please. Anyone. Anyone? Sigh.
I know what you mean about letting go of clothes. I’ll be thinking of getting rid of something and all of a sudden I have this deep emotional attachment to a piece of clothing. Or I feel guilty that I didn’t wear something enough to justify the money I spent, so it stays and perhaps gets a pity wear.
Either way, my husband would like my wardrobe to deflate enough for him to have a sliver of the walk-in closet back. I continue to try for his sake 😉
Oh man, the pity wears! Yes! I’ve been really pushing myself to move past the guilt associated with clothes I haven’t worn as often as I feel I ought to have done. Lately, I’ve been going through a process where I: (i) identify a piece that probably needs to be purged; (ii) wear it again and honestly assess how I feel about it; and (iii) if there is anything (and I mean ANYthing) that bugs me about it, or if the piece makes me feel less than 8/10, I purge it. No “thinking about it”, no reprieve. It’s working so far — I’ve been able to let go of a few things that had been hanging in my closet, due to guilt, for way too long.