Beth Nast
I have clothes for every occasion… but not the occasions for all my clothes.
I have outfits for a country club cocktail party, a beach party, a walk in Paris down the Champs-Elysees, a hike up Mt. Etna, a cocktail cruise on Lake Como, an IBM Board Meeting, a NYC art opening, a Rocky Mountain bluegrass festival, and yet: I don’t go to any of these.
These days I need a Summer wardrobe of yoga, golf and dining out and then Ski clothes in the winter. In between my sporting life a casual wardrobe that consists of jeans, leggings, and countless and redundant tops. It’s as if I stuttered and instead of buying one of each colored top, I now have 15 or more white and black tops.
My dream of a walk in closet seems absurd now, as I no longer dress for a discerning professional audience in Boston or NYC, as I used to in the career parts of my life. And that was 25 years ago. So why do I keep buying clothes for a life I don’t have? Old habits die hard at Bloomies and Bergdorf’s.
My clothes tell a story. Each outfit with accompanying shoes, bags and jewelry required creative energy. Since we are all basically the same underneath, our clothes express who we are at any given time. My mother and I shop in NYC every year and while I buy clothes for now, I also can’t help but buy clothes for my former life. Then I go home and photograph them, inventory them, and organize them by color and content to my heart’s content.
I won’t part with any of them, they are hardly worn, and I love them all, but maybe I should stop buying clothes I’ll never wear.