Clothing archives; getting to be the Smithsonian here

[ladelfina]

I remember a roommate's pair of giant platform shoes, fabric-covered, in a hideous overall yellow, red and black PLAID. We are talking Elton-John-sized; we used them as bookends. I'm sure they'd fetch a pretty penny, but they got tossed along the way, before e-Bay came into existence.

 

[flipstress]

My Mother's Elepants

In 1974 when I was 12 and she was 51, my mom bought her first pair of pants from a Manila department store. Before this, all she had were dresses, blouses, and skirts, but her siblings were visiting from the US a couple of decades after they had emigrated, and she wanted to look good and modern for them.

The pants style in vogue then in the Philippines was called "elepants" (after elephants) because they had enormously wide legs. When you had them on, you looked like you were wearing a long skirt.

Hers were made of black polyester, and on the outside legs below the knees, they were embroidered with green and brown coconut trees, pink and yellow flowers on the ground beneath the trees, and a yellow sun above them all.

Anyway, the style went out of fashion in about a year or so, and I don't think she wore them very much. In 1998, during my first visit with her after I emigrated to the US 14 year prior, I saw that she still had them in her closet! So I asked for them and now I have them in my closet. They're quite funky! O0

I'm not too shy anymore to wear them but I forget about them so I've only worn them a couple of times. I think I'll wear them next week to work.

 

[kaudrey]

Hi,

I am pretty brutal now about purging the closet. I donate all of my clothes to Goodwill or Salvation Army. To get to where I am:

I used to have "clothes that fit if I lost 10 pounds", until I got rid of them all last year.

I also go through the closet once in a while for the "I haven't worn them in a year" stuff (fancy dresses excluded). I donated my wedding dress to Welcome to Making Memories about 3 years ago.

I do have a few unique items that I rarely wear, but that I like to keep.

But, the key thing I have done is create a golden rule: I CANNOT put anything in my closet unless I take something OUT first. If I buy an article of clothing, I have to get rid of an article of clothing. This goes for shoes too. I've been doing this for about 2 years, and it works well for me. Granted, I am NOT a shopper, so this means that I may rotate about 10 articles of clothing and 2 pairs of shoes a year.

Karen (not a packrat)

 

[save4aFIREyday]

Excellent timing on this thread! I spent a few hours last weekend trying on practically all of the clothes in my closet with the goal of purging as much as possible. Even after that, I still have too much stuff, though. I have a hard time parting with things that still fit that I feel I "might" wear, even though I haven't worn them in a LONG time when I have had many opportunities to do so. I really would like to limit myself to one closet (plus the dresser and the cedar chest and the two large tubs under the bed) as 2Cor521 does, but I think I will have to stick to baby steps for now.

As far as the museum pieces, I was just discussing with my mom the other day about the London Fog raincoat I bought for my trip to (you guessed it!) London in 1996. I have probably worn it twice since then. I was talking about getting rid of it, and she said, "what if you go to London again and need it," which is possible, I suppose. I've also got my safari-wear from the Africa trip in 2003, but I think that is a size too small now. Still, I am hanging on to it for sentimental reasons. However, as others have suggested, it is not the clothes that really represent the trip, so maybe I can get used to the idea of cleaning out some of those items. On the other hand, I still have the hat and waterproof jacket and pants that I wore on a Grand Canyon rafting trip in 1998, and I am going to take that trip again next year, so keeping that stuff all this time could pay off! Uh-oh! I may have to reconsider the purging!

 

[toofrugalformycat]

I need two sets of clothing for the extremes in my climate, and besides those I have some boxes of old clothing, mostly t-shirts, that bring back memories of my youth. But when I saw my old Peter Max tennies I'd saved from high school 30 years ago might be worth something on Ebay, even though they were mildewed, I sold them and cleared over $230. If only my old t-shirts were worth money I'd probably have a more tidy household.
After an eye-opening expedition to the local SPCA thrift shop where all clothing is only $1 on Saturdays, I came home and sorted out all the jeans and sweaters that no longer fit me. Out they go! Casual clothing is cheap. Storage is precious.