A Plague of Zombies: Fashion Myths I Wish I Hadn’t Fallen For

I’ve been blogging about personal style for almost 13 years which is an awfully long time, even without accounting for the fact that the pandemic years alone felt like a decade. It’s not surprising then that my thoughts on the subject have evolved a lot. I used to be much more uncritical – one might say even gullible – in my intake of fashion ideology. Consequently, I fell for a bunch of ideas which, in retrospect, are easy to spot as mere capitalist gimmicks. And though I might have become savvier in the last decade, those gimmicks keep on gimmicking. They are the fashion myths that just won’t die. Fashion zombies, if you will.

French Girl Chic

The superiority of French girls (and women) has been undisputed since at least the 80s. They know what (not) to eat, what to wear, and how to make bedhead look chic. Any attempts to distil their knowledge – and, gosh, countless people (French and otherwise) have tried – are pointless because at the end of the day, it comes down to the fact they are French and you’re not je ne sais quoi. It is elusive but maybe, just maybe, if you finally find that perfect shade of red lipstick, you too can achieve French Girl nirvana.

That’s the idea, anyway.

The reality is that French women are not a monolith and chic-ness of style has no nationality or look.

Capsule Wardrobes

Ahhh, remember the 30 x 30 challenge circa the early 2010s? That thing had a hold on my psyche, like whoa. But that was an almost quaint precursor of the capsule wardrobe, something that continues to be touted in many spaces as the solution to all your style dilemmas. It’s important to distinguish here between 2 things: a wardrobe-building technique and a product.

As a wardrobe-building technique, capsuling has merit. It’s also what most of us do, whether we realize it or not. You know how you have things in your closet that you wear a lot? And then when you buy new things, you pick stuff that goes with those things that you wear a lot? Congrats, you have a capsule!

People who explain their wardrobe-building … I’m sorry … their “capsule-building” approach (i.e. how to edit what’s in your closet and shop mindfully) are doing a legitimate service. They’re teaching people to fish, rather than selling them (overpriced) fish – if you’ll pardon the analogy. Obviously, the fashion industry is not interested in this because there is relatively little money to be made out of informed consumers.

A capsule wardrobe as product is total a gimmick, and this is what you’re generally going to find on social media. Notice that the capsule wardrobe-as-product is never positioned by reference to what’s already in your closet (which reflects what you like to wear, the climate you live in, your job and hobbies, etc.). It presupposes a blank slate. It’s a prescriptive list of items you should buy … and the list will be different a year, or even a season from now.

10 Items Every Woman Should Own

This is just plain bullsh*t. Unless we are talking about BROAD generalities – like, every woman should own a pair of comfortable shoes – this list exists solely in order to sell you something. Probably a white button-down shirt or a trench coat.

10 Items Women Over 40 Shouldn’t Wear

This is the same kind of bullsh*t but with an ageist twist. It might seem counter-capitalist to have a “don’t wear this” list, but it’s not. These lists are meant to instill a sense of inadequacy, which can then be exploited to sell other things.

This is actually at the core of all of these myths: feelings of inferiority or inadequacy –>perceived lack or need –> monetized solutions. Lather, rinse, repeat. It also makes them easy for me to spot now that I know what to look for. If an influencer post or media article elicits a negative emotional response – makes me feel suddenly dissatisfied or restless or just “bad” in some unspecified way – it’s a sign that I need to probe that response further before acting on it. The question I ask myself in that case: cui bono? Cui bono is just a fancy lawyer term for “who profits”. It’s pretty self-explanatory. If there is a product put forward (or implied), someone definitely intends to profit from my feeling bad.

In an ideal world, it would be great to be impervious to negative feelings like self-doubt, inadequacy, jealousy, and so on. The reality is, they can be hard to avoid especially in a non-ideal world that often works very hard to provoke exactly those feelings (because that’s how capitalism thrives). What I strive for is to be aware of those feelings, question them and not allow them to be monetized at my expense. And I think that’s pretty good progress.

What I Wore: March 2023, part three

Details: Babaton turtleneck, Everlane sweater, Gap skirt, Nocona belt, Ralph Lauren jacket, Frye boots (all thrifted)

Thoughts: I love how well this outfit came together thanks to the colour palette. Muted but still mighty, with a good mix of textures. Recently, I was able to manifest a portion of my “shop list” and added a bunch of coloured tights to my collection. I am looking forward to putting them to good use with the rising temperatures. More short skirts to come!

Details: Black Brown 1826 sweater, Paul Smith scarf, Theory jacket, homemade skirt (all thrifted)

Thoughts: This was a perfectly nice outfit but I felt it was missing something. Turns out, that something was this floral scarf. I know that adding a third pattern to the mix might seem risky, but the colours here work so well that you almost don’t notice it. To me, the outfit doesn’t look “busy” at all; it’s just right. It was a nice way to re-wear this skirt, which is still one of my fave thrift finds of all time. The length is a bit tricky for me now (I prefer longer) but I could never bear to part with it.

Details: Ines de la Fressange x Uniqlo shirt, vintage vest, Ralph Lauren jacket, Topshop pants, Cotton Ginny belt (all thrifted)

Thoughts: Another outfit with fun pattern mixing and a subtle southwestern flair – my current style sweet spot. I’ve been remiss in wearing my vests recently, so I decided to rectify that. Vests are such an easy and versatile layering trick. I think of this as my “three piece suit”-made-casual formula: a knit, unstructured jacket + vest + pants.

Details: Ralph Lauren sweater and skirt, Stella & Dot necklace (all secondhand)

Thoughts: I’m calling this “rich b*tch vibes” and I love it. It’s simple — just a sweater and skirt — but the pieces here elevate it. I decided to mirror the sumptuousness of the skirt with this decadent necklace and statement cuff bracelet. I wish I had two matching bracelets in this antique, hammered gold finish but, alas. The thrift gods haven’t delivered yet. I love the look of matching cuffs, Wonder Woman style.

Details: French Connection sweater, Prairie Trail Goods jacket, Gap jeans, vintage belt

Thoughts: I’m surprised by how much I enjoyed the 70s boho vibe here. In the past, that hasn’t been my decade, style-wise. Maybe that’s changing now, with all the prairie influences that I’ve been accumulating. These jeans have been my stand-in alternative for palazzo jeans, the perfect pair of which I still haven’t found. I find the top part to be more snug that I would like; I would prefer a pleat front cut that goes out right from the waist, not from the top of the leg. The hunt continues.

Details: Zara shirt, Eddie Bauer sweater, Ines de la Fressange x Uniqlo pants (all thrifted), Steve Madden shoes (retail)

Thoughts: I threw this outfit together mostly because I’m trying to figure out how to wear these massive platform loafers I recently impulse-purchased at Nordstrom Rack. They are a major style risk for me, because I had no real plan for them; this is not my usual approach, as I like to have a very clear picture in my mind of how I’m going to style a piece before I buy it. But I’ve been hearing so much about how exaggerated+chunky are fashion keywords this year, and I was intrigued by the colour and double platform. It remains to be seen if this risk pays off. I do enjoy the extra height boost (I’m nearly 6 feet tall in these shoes) at no cost to my comfort.

A Numbers Extravaganza!

You know what we haven’t talked about in a LONG time?

Wardrobe statistics!

This was a topic I was super into back in the 2010s (it feels weird saying that, but pre-2020 times are all starting to blend together in my mind) and fell out of the habit of chronicling on the blog at some point. But – surprise! – it’s something I’ve never stopped tracking, mostly out of habit. I haven’t done any analytics on this information in years though, so I thought it would be fun to have a look at that now and see what could be gleaned from it.

My wardrobe tracking system is a very, very, very basic Excel spreadsheet. I track the year of purchase, the price paid, the estimated retail price, and the number of times I wear each item. I’ve got everything organized by category of items to make the list easier to use and update. Items that are in my “archive” closet (i.e. not in current use but kept for sentimental reasons) have their own separate list. Once I get rid of an item, I delete it from my spreadsheet.

This means that my wardrobe tracking system is only a reflection of my current closet, not of my historical purchases. I keep a separate spreadsheet to track clothing purchases by year. I prefer to have them separate in order to make the wardrobe tracking sheet easier to navigate; there is a lot of turnover in my closet, and I want to be able to easily see what’s actually there now, versus all the stuff that’s been in there over the years. [Note: all of the stats below include clothing only, not shoes, bags or other accessories.]

Speaking of turnover, here are the stats:

  • 5% of the wardrobe was purchased pre-2018
  • 21% was purchased between 2018 and 2020
  • 74% was purchased between 2021 and now

This doesn’t surprise me, to be honest. Fashion is one of my hobbies and I love to experiment, which is possible thanks to thrifting. The vast majority of things I discard from my closet are still in great shape and are simply pieces that I don’t love wearing anymore. I end up selling, swapping, or donating them, to make sure that they stay in circulation for as long as possible. I have been working on being more selective with the things I buy – and I think I have made lots of progress since my early days as a thrifter – but the reality is that there will ALWAYS be new (to me) pretty things that will catch my eye and spark joy. My goal now is to make sure that any pieces I add to my closet are 100% “HELL YES” – not just “this has potential” or “I could see me wearing this”. I can see me wearing a lot of things; I only want to buy things I’m hella excited to wear.

More than 90% of my wardrobe is secondhand. This is reflected in the following stats:

  • Average purchase price: $22/item
  • Average estimated retail price: $225/item

In my experience, thrifting prices used to be around 5-7% of estimated retail cost. In the past few years, that’s inched up to 10-15% on average. In contrast, consignment and Poshmark have always had higher percentages – 25% and up on average. Because I have been using Poshmark since 2020, my clothing purchase costs have definitely increased during the past 3 years as compared to the preceding 3 years. Obviously, Poshmark is nowhere near as a good a (financial) deal as thrifting, but I do like using it to find things that are unique or hard-to-thrift, and still a good bargain overall.

What about value though? Here are some cost-per-wear stats:

  • My most worn item is the Oak & Fort cocoon coat that has been my go-to winter coat for the past few years (since retiring my beloved MaxMara camel coat). I bought it in 2020, paid $33 for it at the thrift, and have worn it over 400 times. I have started to look for a replacement on a sort of informal basis; I think I’ll get one more winter out of this coat, but thrifting can take a while to deliver the goods, so it’s a good idea to start a new search early.
  • The next few items on the most-worn list are also coats (see a trend?). The most worn non-coat item is my Madewell jeans. Although this is a pair I haven’t worn a lot lately, I’ve held on to it for now because it still fits. I bought these in 2017 at consignment for $26 and have worn them 47 times.

In general, because I have a large wardrobe, most of my items (even the older ones) don’t get a high amount of wears. However, there are certain staples that do. Here’s an example of 2 pieces I bought only last year:

  • Babaton black turtleneck (used as a base layer) purchased in 2022 for $8 (thrift) and worn 23 times.
  • Tommy Hilfiger kick flare jeans purchased in 2022 for $10 and worn 27 times.

In both cases, the cost-per-wear is well under $1.

Wondering how my most expensive pieces stack up? I got you:

  • Issey Miyake dress purchased in 2019 for $580 (consignment) and worn 5 times [no regrets though, it’s a “forever” piece for me]
  • Dries Van Noten dress purchased in 2018 for $300 (eBay) and worn 8 times
  • Rachel Comey skirt purchased in 2021 for $210 (Poshmark) and worn 5 times
  • Dries Van Noten skirt purchased in 2020 for $190 (Poshmark) and worn 6 times
  • Burberry trench purchased in 2017 for $180 (consignment) and worn 47 times

And what about some of my favourite pieces?

  • Acne skirt purchased in 2020 for $80 (Poshmark) and worn 7 times
  • Issey Miyake skirt purchased in 2020 for $10 (thrift) and worn 15 times
  • Liz Claiborne dress purchased in 2021 for $20 (thrift) and worn 7 times
  • Ralph Lauren skirt purchased in 2019 for $7 (thrift) and worn 13 times
  • Saint Laurent skirt purchased in 2019 for $13 (thrift) and worn 9 times
  • Topshop dress purchased in 2021 for $64 (eBay) and worn 8 times
  • Vanessa Virginia dress purchased in 2016 for $17 (thrift) and worn 14 times
  • Wilfred sweater purchased in 2018 for $140 (retail) and worn 17 times
  • Reitmans sweater purchased in 2023 for $9 (thrift) and worn 6 times

Overall, there were no surprises (for me) in these stats, but I still found it a fun exercise. On the whole, consistent with my cost-per-wear analysis, I do try to limit how much I spend on “statement pieces” because I know that I won’t wear even my favourite ones that much. I like variety too much. Ironically, I still find it easier to justify spending more money on those statement favourites than I do on staples like coats or jeans (which I wear a LOT more). It’s a habit I haven’t been able to break, but I’m working on it. Seeing these stats helps to reinforce the message.

If you also do wardrobe tracking, I would love to hear your thoughts on your experiences with it. What have you learned? Does it help you to make decisions about clothing purchases? What are some of the biggest surprises or takeaways from your experiences?