February was an Terrible Awful No Good Month for me in pretty much every respect. I don’t even want to get into the gory details because I’m trying to forget it ever happened. The only exception? My outfits – they were pretty good, you guys. Here’s a little confession from me to you: I rarely look back on any one of my monthly archives without cringing at least a little bit. Sometimes things don’t photograph well, to be sure, but more often than not, some outfits just don’t execute as well as one expects. But not this month! I would say that I’d rate almost every one of my outfits as a solid effort. [Side note: I have a hard time handing out superlatives, especially to myself. “Solid” is high praise as far as that goes, so please don’t think I’m humble-bragging or being stupidly self-deprecating or whatever. Deal?] The irony of which outfits did not make that rank will not escape you, once we get down to the details. But, first: I wore 27 pieces for 18 outfits, which is probably a new minimalist low. And I don’t mean “low” in the positive sense.
Now, whenever I plan these monthly “capsules”, I do tend to plan on wearing the same 5-6 “statement” pieces every week; there just happens to be more variability in the number of “completer” pieces that I end up using, and I find that I have little desire to push myself to pare down my selection. There are times when I already feel like I’m wearing the same things over and over – in an obviously repetitive way – and while no one at work has commented on it (or, I expect, noticed it), I just don’t feel inclined to take chances for the sake of some abstract goal. Well, I don’t know. Maybe I will; I’ll let you know in March. #fickle
If you want to read another take on capsule dressing, you must check out Nicole’s post on her accidental capsule.
Ok, so my favourite piece this month was clearly my 3.1 Phillip Lim dress. Duh, you probably knew that. Narrowing down my outfit faves was hard, though. Like I said, I liked most of them a lot. It was easier to pick the ones I liked the least, and hold on to your hats, peeps: that would #7, 10 and 14. Holy unexpected turn of events, amirite?
I have to admit, I’ve never been a huge fan of the floral print of this dress, but it really stands out (negatively) from the rest of my capsule this month. I’ll also admit that my first instinct, upon reviewing all the photos together, was to get rid of the dress. I’m all about only holding on to things I love these days, and, clearly, I don’t love-love this dress. It was only $12, so it’s not a huge loss. [Although, in case you were wondering, the current cost-per-wear is a whopping $3. That’s bad, you guys.] But I love the style and fit of the dress, and it is super comfortable. That (combined with the cost-per-wear situation) is making me seriously question the whole purging idea. So, I’m torn. On one hand: letting go of so-so pieces is good, as is the idea of not paying for purchasing mistakes over and over (once out of pocket, and thereafter by guilt-tripping over them). On the other hand: it’s a perfectly nice, serviceable dress. I know it sounds ridiculous, but this dilemma is bugging me. As always, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.
And now, say it with me: ahhhhh, spring is coming!!!! [At least on paper.]
