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What You Wear Defines Who You Are

I think growing up in a sunny warm state has made me see color and fashion differently. A lot of the places I have visited just got for some, jeans & t-shirts with basic colors. Or some darker shades of colors.

Here in San Diego you get a lot of vibrant colors of clothing. Though maybe not as much as places like Florida or the likes.

Yet, I still find it hard to find the right color of emerald.

Emerald green is so pretty.

But with greens it can be pretty tricky. It's really annoying the way that fashion industry gets fixated with a really narrow color palette. Because it is near impossible to find colors outside of that range.

It's just endless gutlessness of brands who are terrified to deviate away from what trend forecasters say that people want. How many pink shirts do I need? I'm so sick to death of blush/ pink.

I've never been into pink and I can just not buy pink things. But I'm so sick of seeing it and the fact that color options for clothes these days are cream, pink or black just makes me crazy.

I'm just bored of seeing insipid, boring colors everywhere and everyone thinking that they look so sophisticated and classic in boring colors that are going to date just like lime green and turquoise did.

Clearly this is an emotional topic for me.

One thing that I have begun doing, and this has been working well for me: I shop at thrift stores. There is a literal rainbow to choose from.

Many thrift stores will organize their racks by color as a unifying element for a ton of disparate styles, which makes the shopping experience fun and entertaining. And I get to look at a certain range of color!

When I'm thrifting, I seek out only my chosen colors as a way to narrow my focus and limit the overwhelm of choices. I grab anything in my best colors and my size, head to the mirror, and hold it up to see if I like it on me.

A quick binary of yes or no eliminates about half of the stuff I grabbed.

Then at other times I'll fiddle with the "yes" items to chose a few that are good quality, fit, condition, and filling a gap in my wardrobe.

Since $1 to $5 recycled clothing is perfect for guilt-free impulse purchases of fantasy styles it makes the experience extra rewarding. When I sort out my collection I will take them back to the Goodwill and donate them. This way they get double out of my purchase.

Like this I can feel comfortable selecting clothing which is my color, my size, but not my style. Other times I will decide to attempt an item in a color that I usually look terrible in by looking at all of the items in that color family and choosing one that is an okay shade for me.

For example, I own a thrifted cropped burgundy sweater in angora wool with embroidery and beading around the shoulders.

I would never buy such a thing new because angora is straight up unethical and that sort of detailing is a trend led design feature which clearly dates an item. But in this instance it clearly looks like it’s an 80s jumper, from the 80s.

So no problems with it looking dated because that is the one thing that makes it desirable to wear in the first place.