Uniformity is [not] boring.

Hello there! A few days absence due to a busy week! And a few more absent days to follow…am currently super pumped to embark on my first ever work related trip! Non-profit conference, here I come! Armed with my essentials: note-taking supplies, my camera, membership brochures and a few Larabars in case the food sucks, I am so ready. So ready to affix a cheap self-adhesive name tag. So ready to “press the flesh” a la my dad. So ready to OBSERVE. To LEARN. Yippie.

[Obviously, I will also be scouting conference casual attire. I made that term up, BTW. I am expecting awful, awful choices.]

Ok, but before I depart for another PacNW town, I must must must share what I’ve just been watching. I am hella irritated that I cannot get the video to show up in the post (why? why?), so I’ll just include the link here. I was perusing NYT F&S, as is customary post-dinner in #5, and I stumbled upon a video commentary on an article I happened to have in print from my visit home in July. Crazy! While at my favorite local coffee shop in the Midwest, I snapped up a discarded Thursday Styles section from the NYT, because a hardcopy is like gold to me. The front page feature was so intriguing that I took it back to the Rose City and put it in my journal. So imagine my delight when I discovered the accompanying video! Like I said, it is a few months old, but so darn good.

People embarking on a “shopping diet”where they choose six items already in their closets to wear over and over for a month??? Using the phrase “it really doesn’t matter” in regard to what you wear?? You might think these ideas would send me into an over compensational “buying binge,” unable to deal with such restriction. Wrong! I love it! Mostly because I fit into the “creative category,” the grouping that was enticed by the opportunity to mix and match in innovative ways and overload with accessories. Equally appealing is the uniform idea, which at the core is summed up in Heidi’s quote:

“If you don’t think about what you wear…..does that free up your mind and creativity in other ways?”

Hmmm…..does it? Would it? I have been wanting to write about the idea of a uniform since I started this blog and this is the perfect spark I needed. I find the idea of wearing something very similar most days (think Michael Kors’ jeans + black tee + blazer, Carolina Herrera’s crisp white collared shirts) sort of revolutionary because it would take a lot of fuss out of my morning routine. But on the other hand, I love that fuss! Granted, it does drive me mad on the days when I should be halfway to the train stop, but instead I’m still in my skivvies staring at my closet like it is filled with scuba gear. Most days, however, crafting the day’s look is a creative outlet, one that often dictates my attitude going forward out my apartment door.

The video offers some compromise in my love/hate relationship with the uniform idea, pointing out that accessories are still limitless. Like! So even if Iwas to adopt a neutral uni, [skinnies + black tank + black/navy/gray long cardigan + flats = Spring,  boots + tights + dress + wrap = Fall/Winter) I could still go ape shiz with scarves, bangles, earrings, rings, etc. It would also force me to be more creative with my hair. And possibly even free up some mind space.

While a full conversion to the six item philosophy is probably never in my future (anti- consumerism?? pshhh!!!), I really love the whole idea and the video (if you haven’t already gathered that).  Cheers!

Until next post… pose on, kittens!

PoseCity xo.