019/ AMA: How To Dress For Size Fluctuations And Summer Heat
Answers to your questions, plus: what to ask yourself when you're craving a trendy statement piece.
Hello dear readers!
Over the last month, you’ve been contributing to this Ask Me Anything thread, posing thoughtful questions for me to chew on, and I’m going to start answering your questions from that thread in this newsletter. By all means, please keep adding your questions there, or leave a comment on this (or any) post.
Here’s a preview of some of the questions; I’ll be answering several of these today and the rest will come soon.
The questions ranged from…
…the practical:
It gets so gross where I live (extremes of temp in the midwestern US) and I just default to workout clothes all the time — what can I wear instead?
What are your thoughts and recommendations for people whose size fluctuates +/- 1 size?
What’s your best advice for dressing for body changes? How much should I hang on to that fits different times in my size range?
I would love to learn more on how you care for your clothes and how you store them so they’re easy to see.
…to styling questions:
How can you tell if something is a trend, or here to stay?
How can I better play with proportions?
…to the philosophical:
Why do we succumb to buying clothing/shoes that don’t fit our current lifestyles? (i.e. I moved from NYC to a small beach town and yet every year, I am tempted to buy the boots that were my favorite to wear when I lived in the city.)
How can I struggle less with the distinction between “how do I look and feel in this?” and “how will other people think I look and feel in this?”
And coming soon:
I also received a number of questions about the ins-and-outs of closet editing. With almost all of my clients, I start in the closet because you need to assess what you already have and what you really need before you start buying more. The process is often very enlightening because it reveals a lot of, ahem, patterns. I have a lot to say about this and I expect this will be a multipart series in the near future.
I have trouble letting go of things; I’m tactile and sentimental about clothes. How often do you purge and what’s your process?
How do you know when to get rid of something or hang on to things that might cycle back into style?
How do I let go of things that I have not worn in years but “what if I will want to wear it one day for a very specific occasion”?
This very thoughtful question will be an essay on its own one day after I organize my thoughts.
Among the people whose style I admire, some are highly consistent almost to the point of having a uniform (Patti Smith for example), some are consistent but playful (like Dame Vivienne Westwood), others are playful to the point of chameleonic, but always themselves. For years, I wore a "uniform" when I was in the architecture field in New York and L.A.. Lots of black, navy, and grey; boots, structure, blazers! Since working remotely and moving outside the city I am drawn to looser, freer silhouettes that are still urban and modern (Tibi pieces for example) but I also sometimes gravitate to boho dresses. I'd love to read a post about the joy and limits of range in personal style. Some of those boho dresses haven't made it out of my closet. When they do, it's because something about them still feels like me, or they work with a shoe or boot that feels like me. Thanks again for your compelling work here!
Today I’m going to answer four questions I get all the time: how to dress for extreme summer heat, how to dress for fluctuating sizes, how to know when to save a piece even if it doesn’t fit all the time, and what to ask yourself when you’re craving a trendy purchase. Let’s start with summer.
It gets so gross where I live (extremes of temp in the midwestern US) and I just default to workout clothes all the time. It’s hard to figure out what to wear to kids activities when you want to wear fun stuff but should look activity appropriate (baseball much?) and don’t want to look like an asshole.
I can relate to this as we have similar weather patterns in Toronto. I keep my outfits as comfortable and unfussy as possible in durable, wash-and-wear fabrics. Focus on wearing shapes that are interesting, and use accessories to add fun and flavour.