There is a lot to be said for giving your wardrobe some ‘tough love’ and having a complete declutter, throwing out that which is well past its worn by date, but is ‘oh so comfortable’. There were a few pieces in my wardrobe that had me thinking, ‘what was I thinking’ (clearly not a lot at the time), and I am glad to report those pieces were not made by me!
As some of your may already know, ninety-nine percent of the clothing that I wear are garments I have made, not quite the mad scientist, but I do experiment on myself first, before I put a garment into production. After all, if I wouldn’t wear a particular item of clothing why would I expect someone else to?
Review Your Wardrobe
So, back to the mission, a complete wardrobe review; I have to say I was amazed to learn that I had a great deal of dark coloured t-shirts, which is strange as I love the palette of bright colours. This got me thinking, perhaps I had become a little bit lazy in my sense of dress, it was easy to pull on a t-shirt and my black jeans, but how had I managed to slip into this routine?
When I attend events, I always ‘dress up’ and pay extra attention to my appearance, if you are in an industry where what you do is on display, you are a walking billboard; if you don’t believe me, ask a hairdresser. Someone asks “what do you do for a living”, you reply “hairdresser”, meanwhile your hair resembles that of a birds nest, they are not flocking to you my darling, no they are scrutinising your hairstyle or lack thereof!
The same applies to fashion designers, but then you often see designers at the end of their catwalk shows wearing all black attire and taking a bow; I vowed that would never be me, and somehow I managed to slip into that net. I had been so busy, with my bespoke clients, social media, and the day to day running of the business, I had unknowingly forgotten, that I am also part of the business.
I originally started sewing for myself, because I didn’t want to be seen wearing the same clothes as everyone else, I love being creative, and it gave me more choices in clothing than I would ever find in clothing stores or boutiques. I then found the one word, that so many of us get consumed in, the word that allows us to forget about ourselves, that word is ‘busy’. There was nothing else for it, I decided to take a hiatus, pulling out fabric from my stash that was purely for pleasure, reinvent my wardrobe, and whilst doing so reinvent myself.
There is a metaphysical term ‘nature abhors a vacuum’ which means that when you get rid of stuff, ‘declutter’, it makes room for better and brighter to come into being. When I first heard that expression I never really understood it, then as I filled up a couple of black bin liners and looked at my wardrobe with new eyes, in the realisation that I would be making new garments to replace that which was gone, I embraced the meaning; I truly understood its depth.
I titled this sharing of a story,’declutter your wardrobe, declutter your mind’, my dear friends, it works…
If you would like to learn more about transforming your wardrobe have a look at my website http://www.coralturner.com or call me on 07895 334577 to make an appointment to visit me at Thames-Side Studios, East Greenwich, London.