Redefining or finding my style?

 Life is messy and stuff.  Today is the first day I've turned my computer on after coming out of the hospital and very soon, I'll be heading back to bed for my second nap of the morning.  Like I said, life is messy.

But it has given me lots of thinking and I want to leave my future self a note.  Because THIS is an awesome opportunity to deliberately choose my new wardrobe.  My shape has changed and I will need to buy or make new clothing, so why not see if I can find clothes I like.  

What do I like?  What is my style?

I have no idea.

How do I find out?

My old style of wearing whatever fits and hope it goes with everything else doesn't work.  I have a very poor opinion of how I look when I dress this way.  So I'm thinking about what I do in my life (youtube, farming, yarn work, outer-things that involve the real world humans) and thinking about history and style.  I'm also thinking about what I feel comfortable in.

What do I currently feel comfortable in?

• long skirt (longer than knees)
• tank top (either as an under garb or in summer)
• sweater with low neck
• button blouses so long as they don't button too high
• lovely long winter coat, fitted.
• Happi jacket.  Here's a picture - like a Japanese-style open jacket.  This one is lined, but most of the ones I've made are just made quickly out of whatever's to hand.  They go great over the tank tops in the summer to protect my skin from the sunlight.

What else?

• dark colours (so dirt and stains don't show)
• muted colours
• natural fabrics (whenever possible
• things that don't fit like a sack
• allows for enough movement to wrestle a 400lb ram
• I like patterns and prints but find it stressful to try to figure out what two patterns go together, so I tend towards mostly solid colours 

That's something to work from.

Capsule Wardrobe

Now, before I go too far, what I'm looking for is a capsule wardrobe - or actually three smaller, interchangeable ones.  

A capsule wardrobe is a small collection of clothes that all go well together.  This usually is between 25 and 50 items of clothing.  

My usual wardrobe holds fewer than 10 items of clothing: 3 tops, 3 bottoms, and 2 jackets.  That way there can always be one in the dirty pile, one on my body, and one hanging to dry after being cleaned.  I want more than that.

The other thing I love about the capsule wardrobe idea is that every single item in that collection is LOVED!  Buy or make the highest quality possible, care and respect each item, and mend it before it becomes worn.  

And yes, there is so much more to a capsule wardrobe - with rules, and we should include jewellery and shoes and we must, bla, bla, bla.  I find these rules to hamper the usefulness of the idea.  So I'm using "capsule wardrobe" in it's most minimalist form because I don't want to deal with complicated rules when trying to simplify my life.

I'm going to start with three smaller capsule wardrobes and try them out.  Assume that I'll learn what I feel fits me best, then move forward from there.

1. Farmwear 

Working on the farm is usually done in clothing that is too worn or patched to wear in public any longer.  It's extra frustrating when people arrive unannounced and I'm wearing rags (usually ones that don't fit anymore).  The chickens don't mind the rags, but I do.  There's a difference between repaired clothing and something I'm wearing while mucking the chickens because I hope this is the last time it will hold together and I can finally throw it in the compost bin at the end of the day.  

I want to start finding my new style with new farmwear.  

I look to history and I think of two things.  The Woman's Land Army circa WWII and oral accounts of how farmers (where my family is from) would go out in the fields in their second-best suit and tie in the 1940s.  Wearing their good clothes to do a good day's work.  Sure, they may be down to their sweatervest or shirt sleeves on a hot day, but what it says to me is that farming was a respected.  They respected their job by wearing what was at that time the best clothing they could afford, and the world respected them.   For most of the 1940s-50s in England, food was rationed, so the population understood how important farming was.

For my Farmwear capsule wardrobe, I'm focusing mostly on the Woman's Land Army (WLA) for inspiration.  But I'm going to make it my own and hopefully, it will be a sufficient nod to the history and importance of working the land in times of strife.  I also want to incorporate the values of the WLA so I've been devouring this website about the WLA and many of the primary sources they provide. Just little details about mending and how the shirts are designed so it's easy to turn and enforce the collar.  Mending and making it last - and to my mind, this begins with the way we design the clothing and the quality materials we use to make them.

I also want to point out that jodhpurs are not something I'm willing to wear at this stage in my life and dungarees have never liked me.  There will be some changes in this area to fit my style.  Besides, I find farming in a skirt to be far more practical than bifurcated bottoms.

So this is what I'm thinking of starting with.

• 1 long sleeve blouse with a pointy collar - cream, white, or slightly patterned
• 1 short sleeve blouse with a pointy collar - cream, white, or slightly patterned
• 1 rich green pullover with a v-neck and lots and lots of ribbing - gloriously green
• 1 sweater vest with a v-neck and maybe cables - gloriously green
• 2 pair kneehigh socks - thick wool - browns, blacks, greys
• 1 tan skirt, corduroy?, DEEP pockets - tan, brown, beige (details to hark back to jodhpurs)
• 1 dress??? maybe.  Something to replace the dungarees - tan, brown, beige
• 1 coat - not sure what type yet, but probably go more towards regular farmer 1940s coat.  - heathers, browns, something

Colours: Forest Green, Cream, Tan, Browns, splashes of yellow and black.

That's 9 pieces of clothing.  Not a bad start.

2. Scholarly functional

This is a difficult aesthetic for me to name.  It is sort of steampunk meets dark academia, meets sexy librarian, meets modern Victorian.  Sort of if the ivory tower people got out into the world and did stuff.  Lots of inspiration from 1850-1948 but with a medieval nod.  And yet, the style is not directly from any of those time periods - I'm making no attempt to be historically accurate.

Only I am seeking historical methods for making these clothes because I want them to last.  

So I had a look at some of the Dark Academia aesthetic and discovered it has a far more vague definition than I expected.  But I got some ideas.

These are the clothes I would be wearing for public interactions, teaching, photography/filming, demonstrating, and at home working on yarncraft and light housework.  I also want them to be comfortable enough for long sessions at the computer writing or editing videos.  

Although all three capsule wardrobes are designed to be worn for youtube (hopefully no one has noticed how often my farm rags and housecoat appear on screen thus far), this one will be my main one, so I also want it to have a feeling of gravitas.  Most of all, I don't want it to show up whatever I'm crafting on.  Put me in the background but keep me tidy and knowledgeable.  Can clothes really do that?  

My idea so far (and this is likely to change a lot!)

• 1 long sleeve blouse - not sure the style, but I imagine sleeves a bit poofier at top - cream, white
• 1 short sleeve blouse - same - cream or white
• 2 long skirts, dark texture pattern, a-line or walking skirt, browns, blacks, grey, tartan, heathered
• 1 black dress that goes over a blouse, black
• 1 cardigan, grey of course.  (another one in red later?), grey
• 1 vest or sweater vest, green, brown, grey, dark
• 1 knee-length coat, beautifully swooshy and tailored.  
• 2 pair of wool socks - blacks, browns, grey

That's 10 more items.  

Colours: Creams, Browns, Blacks, Greys, Dark-Dark Green, splashes of ruby red and garnet

3. Boro - but not boro

The most difficult for last.  And part of this is purely to fit in my favourite items of clothing so they don't get stuffed into storage.  

This is about comfort, loose fitting clothing, honouring cloth, and more.  It's about the value that gave rise to what Japanese people call Boro - the understanding that resources are finite and we make what we have last.  Repurpose, reuse, repair, and restoration.  Both for items in our lives, and ourselves.  The book Just Enough is an amazing book and it shows how Japan was on the brink of ecological collapse and through modifying values they were able to not only repair the ecology of their islands, but help it to thrive.  When I visited Japan, I could see how many of these values survived today and I often wish I could return to study there.  But alas, life is messy and a soy allergy keeps me here.  

I don't even know if I want to call this Boro because the word means something very different in the West than it does in Japan.  In the west we associate it with visible mending, worn jeans, beautiful Sashiko Stitching, and the imperfections of wabi-sabi.

In reality, Boro also has a huge amount of shame and disgust associated with it.  It's the aesthetic of peasants and the stink of poverty.  It's like traditional Bum Chic.  

And yet, the values of Boro, using what we have to the fullest because resources are finite is a value that the world needs to remember.  I want visible mending to be an awesome part of my life and I want others to see that I value it.  That I value cloth so much that I will give it as much life and use as possible.  That I'm not afraid to dress in rags and have finally found a way to do so that looks good (not like my current farm rags).

I'm looking at Traditional Japanese clothing from the peasant and working casts.  It is often made from cloth that is woven at 16" wide (a common size for a person's first loom by the way - so maybe there is something more to learn here) that is dyed with indigo for a blue, black, and cream (natural cotton or linen colour) colour pallet.  The shape of the clothes with the loose flowing jacket and loose pants or skirt makes it easy to move and get stuff done.  

However, I'm not trying for accuracy here, I'm just using this as a stepping off place, as inspiration.  

From my visits to Japan, I feel a deep connection to Nature.  Shinto shrines were a big part of what I saw and the clothing I admired most had clean lines, natural but somber colours, and often had on an element that was decoration - so subtle and part of the whole outfit.  Maybe the sweater had a texture to the cloth or natural colour variation of undyed yarn?  It's hard for me to put my finger on it.

But this is part of the aesthetic I'm looking for too.

There's something Audry Hepburn in the way the ones I admired most dressed, timeless.  They bought quality clothing and cared for it.  So we are back at quality again.  

There is also something about the SAORI philosophy I want to bring into this.  The capturing the moment in the cloth, but I don't know where I want to go with this.

This is something else I want to learn more about because, unlike the other two capsule wardrobes, I'm not born into that culture and there are extra steps to take to be respectful of tradition and modern culture.  Here's a video that talks more about the issue.  

My wardrobe idea isn't fully formed yet, but here's a starting place

• 1 short sleeve blouse, with probably a standing/mandarin collar because I have a nice pattern for this - cream/white
• 1 skirt - I have some skirts with Japanese fabrics that need remaking.  These are going to be different than my usual a-line shape to hark back to Edo Samurai clothes. - black, indigo, or possibly with a pattern
• 1 comfy pants or possibly a hakama for doing yoga in (if it's good enough for martial arts, it's good enough for yoga and tai chi) - black or indigo blue
• 1 Happi shaped coat (already have this, see picture above)
• 1 pair of socks with split toes because I love wearing these and they are so comfy.  Also, a neat talking point when going to someone's house and you have to take your shoes off.  White or black
• 1 boro boro patchwork farm coat with heavy but simple sashiko patching and halfway between a Happi coat and a Western coat.  Make it easy to add more mending to it because it begins with mending.  Probably tan and green because I would reuse worn-out linen clothing

that's 6 items.  Probably enough to start, but not enough yet to define the aesthetic.  I can't quite put my finger on what I'm looking for yet.  

Colours: Black, Indigo blues, browns, whites/creams with a splash of bright red, yellow, or green.

A note for my future self, all these styles have me tucking in my shirt at the waist.  Unlike my old style which has it hanging out.  This may be an issue, it depends if the dr's managed to fix the things that making tucking a shirt in painful.

Also add to all of these some tank tops and petticoats to wear as part of the foundation layer.

I may sew it all.  I might buy a bunch.  And some I already have to hand that can incorporate into the new styles.  Mostly I'm just brainstorming ideas in hopes that if I write it out, it will make the thoughts less muddled.  

Oh, and if you made it this far, do you have some ideas for better names for these looks?