9

img 1 src

The trend of paring down, and culling one's wardrobes seems to be sweeping the internet. It's as though excessiveness has reached a ceiling point, and resulted in the resolve to pursue style in the opposite direction, in a more minimal fashion. Dead Fleurette and her well thought out and eloquently formed posts possibly had something to do with this, or at least they had an influence on me.

While I am conscious of an innate desire and willingness to shop smarter - which as I note, may not necessarily mean less - there is a voice within me, trying to compel me to shop, which is something that I no longer wish to subscribe to.

I've spent the past week reading, blogs, and books, about forging a more minimalist attitude in regards to shopping, which have changed my views, more so than any past reading had done at least. This now extends far beyond my wardrobe, although these other excessive items appear to be more difficult to let go of, such as: letters from old friends, memento's of trips abroad, recipes I would like to try and little trinkets I have collected over the years. It's interesting that my wish to have a more pared down wardrobe is having a trickle-down effect to the rest of my belongings, but I already feel better for the few things that I have since disposed of. I imagine this will be yet another thing I will slowly chip away at.I guess, like with wardrobes, have too many things can become a cause of stress or anxiety, and in reality a lot of it is unused or long forgotten.

While I'm not trying to espouse a minimal lifestyle, there are particular elements of it that I find intriguing, and would be interesting in adopting similar principles in my own day-to-day life. I like the concept of being able to quickly pack up your belongings and flit away to some interesting or unknown part of the world at the drop of the hat - not that this is ever likely to happen to me.

In this regard, I've been continuously whittling down my wardrobe, which I would think at this point should be close to nil, and have managed to come in at under 100 items, a number that while large to some, I feel suits me and my circumstances rather well. My shoes, number less than 24, although this high a number still concerns me. The problem here lies in the fact that I feel as though this part of my wardrobe is complete, and thus requires no further culling. Perhaps with a bit of resolve I may be able to cut out a further 2-3 pairs, but as my mother pointed out to me, if I love all these shoes, then there really is no need for me to attempt to cut it down any further. I have a feeling that perhaps, as that old saying goes, "mother knows best".