Day 31 - Sheralyn

Today with the amazingly versatile dress I wore....

-grey and black long sleeved striped shirt (Old Navy)
-burgundy ruffle scarf (Ardene's)
-black leggings (Walmart
-grey boots (Giant Tiger or Ardene's)
-interlocking circle earrings (Shoppers' Drug Mart)

Tomorrow, I don't know what I'm wearing -for the first time in 30 days!-
but it's going to involve PANTS!

Things I learned while doing the October Dress Challenge….

1. I learned a lot about my wardrobe and what I gravitate towards as a shopper.  Apparently I buy a lot more accessories at Ardene’s than I thought.  And I also do some good thrift store shopping, and I like a good deal. Most of my clothing is reasonably priced or cheaper, and I’ve had some items in my wardrobe a long time and they still look good. The dress itself was bought for about 20 bucks, at Winners, about 4 years ago, and it’s still a great choice today.

2. I learned to appreciate my wardrobe.  In being forced to only wear the dress, it turns out that I looked longingly at other clothes hanging in my closet or folded in my drawer that I’m looking forward to wearing again. I have a lot of clothes that I like, and it will be fun to wear them again- it will be almost like new clothes! I have a lot of good basic pieces that work well in a lot of different ways (scarves, leggings, basic long sleeved shirts) and now I know they can probably be more versatile with them than I was before. It breathed some “new life” into some things I hadn’t worn in a while.

3. I learned to be creative within the boundaries of the dress.  I actually wore it as a tunic length shirt?  Never would have tried it otherwise! I put together colours & combinations that I even thought of trying before… and for the most part, they worked well.

4. I learned there are certain things I could actually use in my wardrobe. For example, coloured cardigans – Sherisse had such cute ones!  I did buy one on sale during this month to wear and I know I’ll wear it again with a lot of other things. I might not have bought one before now, thinking it wasn’t very practical for me.  Now I know it can be!  I also sometimes envied Pamela’s good versatile flats that worked well with a dress (I have sandals, and boots, but not really shoes).

5. Clothing can unify people.  I had never resented wearing a uniform for my four years of high school – I found that it took a lot of pressure of worrying about one’s appearance, the stress about what brands you wore. You find out more about people when you stop looking at what they wear and look again at who they are. This message is true for adults too, apparently! The five of us had fun checking out what each other was wearing every day, and so did the people who weren’t participating.  

6.  I loved watching the creativity of my colleagues/friends in their clothing choices, the whole-heartedness of the people who actually did it all 30 days (as opposed to myself not doing it on the weekends! But in my defense, I know I have 10 other combinations that I could do, so in spirit, I’ve done the 31 days)! My highlight was Janice using her dress as a scarf- but a close second was when Marlene ended up buying the same leggings as me, on purpose.  

7. This dress has been to a lot of funerals.  Now it has many more happy memories associated with it.  It’s still comfortable, it’s still flattering, and I’ll still wear it again….but not for a few months, I think!

8. You don’t need to spend a lot of money to look good- you just have to be creative with what you have and be observant of what you see others wearing. This is NOT to say that going shopping is not still very fun, and that you don’t need new things- but it’s amazing how one new thing can add life to a lot of your wardrobe (the 20 dollar brown buckle boots from the “GT Boutique” –aka Giant Tiger- were it for me.  AND they were so comfy!).

9. You cannot go wrong with owning a black dress.  Best wardrobe staple EVER.