week 3 new looks: so far so good

i would like to say that i never make a bad clothing (or accessories or footwear) purchase -- the acquisition of something that i feel is so wrong for me. but the truth is i make lots of bad clothing (and accessories and footwear) purchases. sometimes i recognize a bad purchase as soon as i bring the item home and try it on there. these are the "lucky" bad purchases -- while it is an inconvenience to have to return something, at least a return can be made. in some ways, the experience of the bad purchase can be erased/made to go away.  when too much time passes before i recognize a bad purchase, or the recognition of a bad purchase requires actual use of an item before it kicks it, these are the "unlucky" bad purchases. the purchase cannot be fully reversed -- whatever i do with the item -- re-sell it or donate it -- i really cannot get back the outlay (nor should i be able to necessarily). it is getting close to the time in a clothing season when i start recognizing hitherto unrecognized bad purchases. i used to hate this time in a clothing season. i used to feel like a failure and question my ability to dress myself. but as i live through more and more of these times, i am starting to accept them as an inevitable part of my clothing experience. on the whole, i get things right for me. and if i make a mistake, so be it.

i am wearing rundholz dip 222.

week 1 archive looks: going dark

around this time of year (yep, the beginning), i usually feel a pull towards dark clothing and black clothing. unfortunate this year when the colour that i opted for from the a/w dip collection was vulcano (wine). fortunately i have all that archive clothing to draw on. although it turns out there isn't as much black clothing in the archives as i would have thought would be there -- or i would perhaps have liked to be there. so for the first week of 2023, i pulled out these ensembles from the archives. i also think it funny that the week that i pretty much start talking myself into never wearing any coloured clothing (and re-embracing all black clothing) turns out to be the week that i catch a glimpse of the upcoming dip collection. talk about unicorns and my little pony. i felt like wednesday adams (from the netflix series wednesday) meeting her roommate for the first time. it felt like a gauntlet being thrown down. an open challenge to dressing in all black. and even to my monochromatic dressing tendencies. funny though that the more i stared at the outfits, the more i started seeing black. i guess if you mix enough colours together, their individual impacts seem less and you start seeing a kind of black (or at least a neutral). but do i need to get blue hair (or some other rainbow colour hair) for this to work? in any event, spring/summer dressing is some months out. i don't have to worry about it yet. i can rest easy in the darkness that i am enveloping myself in these days.

i am wearing rundholz dip 218. the puffer liner is rundholz mainline 219, the beanie hat is rundholz black label 221 and the shoes are rundholz dip 222. (the balaclava hat is off label -- not rundholz). 

archive looks in december: am i returning to the girl's guide to hunting and fishing?

if you have been around my blog since its early days, you may remember that i went through a period (or a few periods) of wearing looks that i described as "the girl's guide to hunting and fishing". basically, looks inspired by what might be worn to engage in more rugged outdoor activities.  (activities that i had never engaged in at that time, nor, to be frank, since then.) looking at some of the archive outfits that i wore in december (for example, the green puffer coat paired with the bright orange hat), i was reminded of that style of dress of mine. it made me wonder whether i might be resurrecting it. within my current fixation for all things rundholz of course.

with the exception of the cardi, the hat and the shoes, i am wearing rundholz dip 220. the cardi is rundholz black label 222, the shoes are rundholz dip 222 and the hat is off label (not rundholz).

new looks in december: more lava

here is what i wore "new" in december. happy new year all!

i am wearing rundholz dip 222 and rundholz black label 222 (the coat).

archive looks in november

i will confess that when in september and october i starting reaching for archive clothing more often, i wasn't sure that it would last. i based this thinking on past experience -- while i often reached for and wore archive clothing at the beginning of a clothing season, that behaviour didn't carry through the clothing season -- i usually abandoned it a few weeks into the season. but, this time, the behaviour seems to be continuing -- two months into the fall clothing season and i am still reaching for and wearing archive clothing . and, not only is the behaviour continuing, but it is also feeling good -- so being positively reinforced. here are the archive looks that i wore in november.

i am wearing rundholz dip 220 clothing (socks excluded -- although i believe socks are technically not clothing) and rundholz dip 222 sneakers/shoes -- yes, i am very much attached to the "new" sneakers/shoes".

 

new looks in november: mixing colours and patterns

the highlights of the new looks that came into my wardrobe in november were these. first, the surprise (to me) appearance of a new colour into the 222 colour palette -- lava. i really thought it was just going to be vulcano. this happened because i bought a cardi that didn't come in vulcano -- it didn't really come in lava either but in the lava-like grey melange. something about the cardi really appealed to me and so i got it even though it meant straying from the vulcano colour palette. of course then i needed some grey pieces to go with the cardi and before too long lava came into the picture. after then, well, i fell in love with the colour and helped myself to a few more lava pieces. shades of grey are really tricky colours for me, so this foray into lava clothing was unexpected. but it was a pleasant surprise. the other highlight of the november new looks is that i did something with styling that i haven't done for a few years. i wore an outfit of more than one colour with a pattern thrown it. i used to do this regularly several years back, then i went all monochrome. i don't know what made me resurrect this past practice now. i also don't know whether this is the start of something "new" (well, more like a return to something old) or just a one-off anomalous occurrence.

i am wearing rundholz dip 222.

archive looks in october

one of the consequences (?) of finding clarity around what clothes truly reflect who i am and make me happy is an even greater appreciation of the clothes that i have collected over the years. starting at the end of september, i found myself, organically, reaching for archive clothing more often than in the recent past. here are the archive looks that i wore in october. that black dress is one of the first rundholz dip a/w pieces that i bought. i still remember almost not getting it -- something drove me back to it and i am so grateful that i followed by gut. if i were to pick "all-time favourite pieces" from the line, this dress would definitely make the cut. the red and wine pieces are also firsts in my rundholz dip journey -- the first time i bought that colour palette from rundholz dip and the beginning of a bit of an obsession with the colour palette. i guess i could say the same about the green pieces. but i can also say this about the particular rundholz dip collection to which those green pieces belong -- the 217 collection. probably the first full collection that i fell in love with. so if i were to pick "all-time favourite collections" from the line, this collection would be one of my picks.

photo no. 1: i am wearing rundholz dip 214 (dress) and rundholz dip 222 (sneakers/shoes).

photo nos. 2 and 3: i am wearing rundholz dip 215 (dress and trousers), rundholz dip 219 (cardi) and rundholz dip 222 (sneakers/shoes).

photo nos. 4 to 8: i am wearing rundholz dip 217 (top, sweat pullover, sweat dress, skirts and coat) and rundholz dip 222 (sneakers/shoes).