Challenge Rule 3: The Go-To Catalog

I have a friend, Genevieve, who is the most fabulous person I have ever met. She was my neighbor twenty years ago: I lived upstairs, she lived downstairs. We bonded enthusiastically over lacy aprons and cupcakes and crafting and going to thrift stores and the color aqua and handmade valentines and vintage décor. We traded items from our closet liberally. I still have things she gave me in the Pantheon. I wear an apron she gave me nearly every time I cook and we still send each other handmade valentines.

She said something to me one day that has stuck with me for a full twenty years. She was talking about a colleague from work, and she said, “She’s not like us. She’s just people people.”

Whatever this actually meant about her colleague, what I liked about it was that Genevieve was saying that I was like her: A free spirit. Not like other people. Unique. Fabulous.

“I have nothing to wear.”

Having this delightful idea of myself as anything but ordinary, I therefore become livid when I find myself embodying the trope of the stereotypical woman, a people people, standing in front of a closet full of beautiful, clean, well-cared for clothes with the vivid thought, “I have nothing to wear today.”

What I mean, of course, is “I have nothing new to wear today.” Or, “I have nothing inspiring to wear today.”

Scalawag Fashion

My littlest scalawag has a Paw Patrol t-shirt he wears five days a week. The child has a dozen other things to wear, but this t-shirt, which is two sizes too small, to which I have added two inches of fabric to the bottom and the cuffs so that his bellybutton doesn’t show and his wrists won’t freeze, is his very very favorite.

It is his go-to t-shirt.

Taking inspiration from the littlest scalawag, I am going to begin designating “Go-To Outfits”, ones that, for whatever reason, make me feel like a million bucks. I am going to start a journal in my DAYONE app just for “Go-To Outfits”, so that when I stand in front of my closet with that awful, people people thought, I can find inspiration in something that has made me feel great in the past.

Key Performance Indicator

For each season, I want three Go-To Outfits for everyday Monday to Friday life, detailed down to the accessories and shoes. I also want three Go-To Outfits for my extracurricular activities which require slightly more polish.

By year’s end, I will have twenty-four Go-To Outfits, six per season. I also will no longer be saying “ugh, I have nothing to wear.”

Now please excuse me, I must be off to make valentines!