Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Day 1 - of my new/old life!

I got a lot of requests to see what I would wear on my first day 'back to normal' so here is my outfit. I thought I should wear at least one thing that I'd made, to kind of ease into things, so I'm wearing a black 'makeshift' t-shirt with my favourite Filipa K cardigan. I can finally wear the silver sand dollar earrings that my sister gave me for my birthday in June and also the jeans (Earnest Sewn) that have been my favourites for a long time. I am also wearing a thrift store belt that I've had for eons and a pair of underwear and bra that I bought the week before I started the project because I had some store credit that I wanted to use up and I new it would make me really happy on this day. I forgot to bring a box of stored shoes home from my studio yesterday but luckily I had these shoes (that my friend Kim had recently given me) at home. I wanted to go for extreme comfort in the shoe department but the more I went through my mental inventory of shoes I own the more I realized that maybe I don't even own a really comfortable pair of shoes anyway! Which leads me to some other points. First of all, I certainly don't feel more comfortable today than I have been all year (as I had anticipated). My cardigan is smaller than I had remembered it and my jeans don't stretch at all - I could barely bend over to do up my shoe straps! Also, it's been a long time since I've worn earrings (even though I made some earrings during the makeshift year) and I'm sure I'll get used to it but it was not fun trying to get them on. Plus I was looking forward to not having to 'get used to' things anymore! I feel like I spent the entire year 'getting used to' things - seams in socks, armholes that were too high, underwires digging in etc. At this moment, the most comfortable thing that I have on is the t-shirt that I made. Funny, no? Anyway, I guess my point is that we are always adapting and today, as I am adapting to my new/old life, I am begining to realize that I may have romanticized what this day (and "normal" clothes) would be like. Comfortable or not, I am pretty glad that I won't have make everything now. And I think that it will be fun to try to cobble together some sort of style that isn't All Me, All the Time. Maybe I'll report back on that in a week or so. Ok, over and out.

7 comments:

  1. Interesting, I really thought that All you, All the time was so refreshing in a world of fashion sameness. I would be curious to see the bras. . any photos?

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  2. Congratulations Natalie! I've been following your progress for about 8 months. I've been in Afghanistan for the last 5 of those months. It has been nice to see some creativity and dream a little. Thanks!

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  3. I am glad to see you post-project. Can't wait to hear more observations on you new/old life.

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  4. well, very clever of you to complete this year :)
    i guess the mix homemade/mix bought wear will be great and comfortable (i often wonder how comfortable you shoes were, infact, ehehe)
    my compliments, really!
    morena - italy

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  5. I like to think that you'll be wearing clothes from your makeshift year for the rest of your life - or until they fall apart. As someone who loves the idea of making clothes but can barely sew on a button, I have vicariously enjoyed your clothing challenges. And it's been wonderful seeing what you are doing as I knew you as a post-student in Japan.

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  6. Congratulations on making it through the year!

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  7. Camilla, great to hear from you! yes, I am still mostly wearing my own handmade stuff and in fact, some of them are starting to fall apart! Please send me an email so we can be in contact again!
    Natalie

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