'The only way to atone for being occasionally a little over-dressed

is by being always absolutely over-educated' - if you happen to be Oscar Wilde, at any rate.


I have joked about it before, but I think I genuinely should consider making the electronic taxonomic 'wardrobe flashcards.' I worked with a girl once who had done this, and it was a fine idea. In her case, it was an actual little flip-book of pictures, with outfits and accessories laid out together in various combinations for easy reference. And it was interesting, frankly, since she was the last person most of her friends would have envisioned taking this extraordinary and labor-intensive step in sartorial ecology. She was exceptionally pragmatic and consistent in her dress, a bit of a hybrid between Northeast Yankee and Northwest Sporty, not to say verging perhaps on anodyne, and for the most part her 'dressing up' consisted of leaning more toward the former than the latter. Maybe that itself is why she did it; she may have felt that visual aids would spur greater creativity, allow her to match the salmon stripes on a blue background button-down with a salmon cardigan or salmon trouser socks, something she would be unlikely to contrive impromptu?

In my case, it's not as though I can't put together an ensemble. I start either with an idea of color(s) or a particular garment. The problem is, however, that like my friend I, too, have my habitudes, and that arguably my greater wardrobe may well hinder my selection process and steer my psyche in familiar directions more often than desirable, in an unconscious effort to conserve my mental health and leave what is left of my creativity for nobler ends.

In other words, I wear a lot of sweater sets, pastel jackets, and the same pearl or tiny hoop earrings until I drive myself mad. And, because I am an impossible size for jeans, the same thing holds for the bottom half: skirts or the same kid's size 10 or '10-slim' denims until I drive them mad.

What made me think of all this is that today I am going to a picnic. Since it's not sunny or warm, my clothes can only give a symbolic nod to the concept of 'summer picnic,' rather than being in actuality light and airy. That gives me color, jewelry, purse and shoes to work with.

Well, I have two very summery beaded necklaces, one that I made and one that I bought. One is green and pink, the other just green, so I started with those and managed to convince myself to put on dangly matching beaded earrings. I added a woven silk pink shell under a green fitted button-down, a sweater that matches the shell, a green leather purse (not especially summery, but neither is the weather, and I'm not wearing sandals) and pink slingbacks, as well as a frosty pink on the lips and fingers. And the current pair of favorite (i.e., the best I can do) jeans.

Now, the problem is not that that isn't a reasonable outfit for the occasion, and nice-looking, as well. The problem is the familiarity. I wore those shoes and the cardigan a few days ago. They were in my head - probably from the moment I thought of the necklace. Sure, I matched the purse to the shirt inside, rather than the outer cardigan and the shoes, but it was just lowest-common-denominator outfit-building, inasmuch as a) the handbags are all set out where I can see them and b) my default was 'not the purse you wore the last time you wore the shoes.' That's hardly creative; it's defensive, reactionary.

So, if I had a gallery of pictures, with a taxonomy akin to that of my closet:

Kingdom: Clothes
Phyla: Hanging, Folded (and we'll bracket that one: it's boring and never gets worn)
Classes: Suits, Jackets, Trousers, Skirts, Shirts, Dresses
Orders: Jackets, Trousers, Long Skirts, Short Skirts, Summer Skirts, Knit Tops, Button-Down Shirts, Sweaters, Sweater Sets, Evening...
Families: Black, Reds, Greens...
Subfamilies: Chartreuse, Lime, Celadon, Mint...
Tribes: Black with Metallic Wefts, Blues with White Collars/Cuffs...
Genera: Prints, Solids...
Species: Second-Favorite Off-White Button-Down Silk Sweater: with Detachable Narrow-Gauge White Fur Collar: No Cuffs: Delicate Knit: and Slim Fit Stopping Just at the Hipbone

THEN I would know what I was working with, and have a broader perspective necessarily, as I would have all members of every species equally available to my consideration. I could flip from

'shoes: high: pumps: green: pointed toe: w/buckle'
to
'jackets: whites: creams: patterned weave: w/color: green: belted: oversized-houndstooth cream-lime ribbon-belted self-fabric-button w/tiny pockets.'
And then I could browse the 'solids' genera in creams and greens and blues - and even mangoes if I wished - for tops and bottoms, giving a fair shot to all members equally, rather than too often resorting to the instinctive and the familiar.

I think it's worth a try. And it's manifestly a good excuse/incentive to get that dry-cleaning pile down to an apartment-sized scale. I'd add a photo of it, but it would hurt you, just like it hurts my closet, which can scarcely afford to take on more boarders...




**By the way, has anyone noticed that my former super-double-quotativity, of italics and quotation marks, has now become deluxe-triple quotativity, since I started using pink on quotes some time back. Interesting. Do I think that quotation marks are really all that unclear?