CaitlinFor a while now my wardrobe has felt a little stagnant. I should perhaps clarify, it’s clean and everything however just the teeniest bit dull. You know you’re in trouble when you have to avoid mirrors lest the sight of what you’re wearing send you to sleep.
So what to do, well what I always do in these situations, trawl through the shops until I find something that catches my eye. Problem solved… oh wait no, actually, problem not solved because I bought everything I liked the last time I employed this solution. Problem, in fact, extended because now I get to enjoy the sight of more boring clothes outside too. I could have just stayed at home with my wardrobe sitting open.
Not that I dislike my clothes, I actually love most of them that’s why I wear the same things so often but the side effect of this is that their novelty has worn off. Where once a colourful jumper seemed, well colourful, my accustomed eyes have muted the tone slightly – and lord knows I lack the courage required to genuinely reinvent myself. Even if I could I don’t particularly want to dress differently; I just long for a little change, which reminds me that yes I can be a little spontaneous now and then. Not for anyone else, just for me. I’m tired sitting over breakfast, staring silently into the bowl as my relationship with myself stagnates. I don’t want to be one of those couples. (This is where the analogy slightly breaks down but some point, at least, has perhaps been made. No? Suit yourself…)
Ah but thank goodness I persisted with my hopeless shop trawl for there, amongst the shelves of Primark, was hope found. Now usually I don’t shop at Primark, it’s not snobbish or anything (shut up it’s not) but I don’t appreciate the queues, the mess or the poorly made clothes. No matter how cheap, clothes that disintegrate in the rain rapidly lose their charm.
But novelty doesn’t need to last. The novel thing about fashion is, in part, its ready disposability. Clothes that barely make it until the next season in a sense make sense because by then there’ll be a new trend dictating purchases anyway and what you have purchased will by its nature be worthless. Now this is not my normal approach to clothes; well made and well worn is money well spent in my books. But in this instance I modified my approach because all I need is something to cheer me up until the novelty of it wears off.
Dungarees under £20, in this case, were therefore money well spent. Light blue, pleanty of pockets and ideal for, a slightly chilly, S/S 2013. They are perfect. My mother tells me that I used to be the proud owner of a pair of dungarees as a toddler, so in that sense my purchase invokes a little lost nostalgia. In addition I have secretly always wanted a pair, so in that case we have another win and they’re so sweet to boot. I should just add that I don’t know if I’ll ever pluck up the courage to wear them outside but for now it doesn’t matter; I feel cute, spontaneous and fulfilled, and all in the privacy of my own home.