I had such fun with the Wool& 100 day dress challenge that I decided to do another of their quirky clothing challenges. This one is called the 7x7 Challenge: only 7 items, for 7 days.
The purpose behind it is to show people how few clothes you actually need, and how just a few items can in fact yield many different outfits. As I have written about here and here and here, having a lot of clothes doesn't actually make my life better. Like most Americans, I have way more clothes than I need. But, I don't love them, or I get overwhelmed by the decision of what to wear each day. In fact, deciding what to wear was wearing me down. It wasn't a joyful way to start each day; instead, it started each day with a burden.
I have long been intrigued by the possibility of a capsule wardrobe. I have pored over blogs describing Project 333, dreaming about whether I could do it, imagining how much better my life could be if I did... and then talking myself out of it, saying, "I don't think I like any of my clothes enough to wear them that often," or perhaps even more, "I don't think any of my clothes are versatile enough to do that." I put the dream back in its box, and shoved my clothes a little more tightly together to make them fit in my half of the closet or drawers.
But then along came the 100 Day Dress Challenge. Here was a garment (a black Willow swing dress) that was versatile enough, and comfortable and durable enough, to wear every day for three months! And it wasn't even that hard. Suddenly, my dream of a clothing capsule seemed more in reach than ever.
So you can understand why, when this 7x7 challenge came up, I had to try it. A week felt like nothing compared to 100 days. And 7 whole items felt like a luxury! (The 7 items don't include shoes, pajamas, undergarments, jewelry, or exercise clothes used for their intended purpose.)
Excitedly, I set aside a morning to pick my capsule. The week's weather included temps ranging from 50s to 80s, rain and sun, and the week's events ranged from chores around the house to dinner at a parishioner's house to officiating a funeral. I started off by picking a scarf I love, that I knew I could wear in multiple ways - a black infinity scarf with a pattern of blue, white, and maroon. This would be my color palette. Having a palette made the rest much easier.
I knew I'd want my trusty black dress, and one other dress. I vacillated between my blue and my plum options, and finally landed on plum because the style was more professional and I knew I had multiple professional occasions. I chose one pair of leggings, maroon to make the plain black more interesting, and a pair of black tights to dress up either dress for the more professional events. I knew I would need a jacket for both cooler weather and a more professional look, so one black stretchy blazer-style jacket was added. Finally, I chose a striped shirt that I could wear over either dress to dress them down, or alone with the leggings. Though I was unlimited as far as shoes and jewelry, I wore only two necklaces (my pectoral cross and my quirky locket that is a watch face with a propellor), various earrings, and one pair of shoes (black flats). (Note: I did not include my clergy collar, after consulting with others doing the challenge. It was a professional requirement, not a part of the outfit, and was only worn under the dress for part of each day I needed it. I had considered counting it anyway, until I found out my black tights would count as an item, and I ran out of space!)
I shoved everything else in my closet way over to the side, and hung everything except the tights in the space I made on the end. They looked so nice hanging there, with so much room all around them! It made me feel so calm and in control. Each day, I truly loved looking at those few items and deciding how to combine them. I had one day I ended up staying home sick all day, and I was bummed that it meant I wouldn't get to wear one of the outfits I had planned. (But yes, my black dress is comfy enough that this is what I wore all day, and quite happily I will add!)
If the weather weren't going to cool down significantly in the next week, I would happily do another week with these same seven items. I would add only a belt, an additional sweater, and another pair of leggings. I think I could easily add even a few more items and take this capsule up to the 33 items allotted for Project 333 (33 items for three months). And I'm feeling ready to purge some more items, or at least put them in a box to see if I miss them at all.
Here are my big take-aways:
1) Having fewer clothes to choose from makes my life better. I learned this with the 100 day dress challenge, but even there, although I knew I was wearing my one dress, I had seemingly infinite options of things to wear with it. In fact, I only repeated a couple of outfits in that 100 days. So there is still some overwhelm by having so many options.
2) Having fewer options also yielded more creativity. Guidelines and boundaries allow my creativity to flow much better than having unlimited options.
3) If you're interested in doing this, choosing a palette to work with is a great approach. The reason I chose that scarf is I knew that the colors in it are all colors I love to wear, that I feel good wearing, so it's no surprise that I have several items of clothings that fit that palette. Everything I chose could be worn with multiple other things. Without including the scarf or jacket, I can think of 9 different arrangements. I could add the scarf to any of those, or the jacket to any of those, for 27 outfits. I could add both scarf and jacket to any of those and double that. Then add in all the different shoes or jewelry I could wear, or different ways I could style my hair, and... well, you get the point!
In conclusion, this was fun. I will get $15 for completing the challenge, but I would recommend it for anyone even without the reward. I learned a lot!
Here are my 7 days:
Day 1 - Casual and comfy, since I did chores and errands all day. (Day off outfit!)
Day 2 - I was the chaplain for the NY Guard Change of Command Ceremony. My husband Michael was taking on the command of his detachment! The chaplain couldn't be there, so they asked me. After this, I ditched the collar and wore just the plum dress with my quirky necklace, and wore this out to dinner at a parishioner's house that night.
Day 3 - Sunday worship. Again, I ditched the collar after, and lounged about in just my dress.
Day 4 - I stayed home sick this day with a cold and fatigue. :( I was quite happy to wear just my black Willow all day, un-styled, since it basically feels as comfy as pajamas anyway.
Day 5 - Two pictures this day. First is from officiating a funeral in the morning. That evening, I went out with some moms from church, so I took off the collar and added a scarf.
Day 6 and 7 - typical days in the office.
No comments:
Post a Comment