With Wearing It All Summer complete, I moved onto Wearing It All Autumn. I didn't know how long I'd keep it up for as the deeper into Autumn we got the more the weather thwarted my efforts to take daily outfits shots outside, my efforts to take photos inside has always been fruitless, but I continued for as long as I could.

I don't rejoice in the arrival of autumn, I prefer the warmer months when I can go out without a coat, the first time I wear a pair of socks after the summer always elicits a sigh of resignation, no more sunshine for a while...

I like jumpers, scarves, lighting the wood burner but letting go of summer is always a bit of a trial. This year it seemed that summer vanished overnight, replaced by howling winds and lashing rain. There was no gentle transition.

By the time I'd started week four of my autumnal Wearing It All, and I'd given up on trying to wear just one layer or going sockless. I wore scarves, and three layers on some days.

I started this challenge with a haircut. I did it myself, after watching a number of YouTube tutorials I decided to give it a go. It looked OK (it now needs another trim). I've yet to find a hairdresser that cuts my hair exactly how I ask them too, so in terms of getting what I wanted it's a success. Sure, it wasn't technically brilliant, but it was good enough, and I saved myself £35 and half an hour in a chair wearing a face mask, making small talk.

So, five paragraphs into the post, here's week one of Wearing It All Autumn. The first two days saw the last of the sunshine. I actually took off the long navy cardy and pottered in the garden relishing the feeling of the sun on my skin. But the next day it started to rain, then the wind got up (see day 5) and it didn't get much better.

Day 3 and 4 I wore one of my new tops. With the Summer Wearing It All challenge I know I have to wear something different everyday otherwise I wouldn't stand a chance of wearing all of my warm weather clothes. The summer challenge caused a lot of washing, and it took me a while to work my way through the resulting ironing pile! But as I have fewer cold weather clothes I can wear them more than once. I normally rarely wear something just once and then wash it, unless I dribble my dinner down the front (which happens more often than it probably should). I'm happy to wear something 3 or 4 times before dropping it into the laundry basket, especially if it's been worn with something underneath. How many times do you wear your clothes before washing them? My Aunt will wear something a maximum of twice, but my Uncle will wear something all week - if my Aunt lets him get away with it :)

The rain continued into week 2.

Out came the thicker layers, I did try to go bare ankled on a few days but usually by midday I'd pulled on a pair of socks and some slippers. It was socks weather from this point forward.

I went out twice during week 2, you can tell by the fact I'm carrying a bag. One was a trip to the supermarket, the other a trip to the post office, charity shop, and garden centre. I filled the boot with plants, some for the garden, others for the hanging baskets. I was so focused on the plants that once I'd wandered about outside I was half way round the inside before I realised I'd forgotten to put on my face mask. I was mortified and hoped no one had noticed. There were only a few other customers, and I hadn't been in spitting distance of anyone (not that I spit, it's disgusting), but I still felt awful, I'd been so engrossed in my own thoughts that simply hadn't registered the fact that I'd passed from outside to in.

Week 3 and I grabbed all of my jumpers and cardigans out of storage, and every last item of summer clothing was stored away. The long mustard cardigan is my most recent clothing purchase. I'd popped to my local charity shop after my friend told me that they're getting loads of items donated but not much custom. I'd hate to see it close so I made a few purchases - every little helps right?

This is where I stopped photographing the Wearing It All challenge, the weather was miserable and didn't allow for daily photos so whilst I still tried to wear as much of my wardrobe as possible, I just didn't document it, and I'm sure there's only so many photos of me standing in front of a wall that you can stomach.

We're well into winter now with icy cold winds and gales, overnight frosts that last all day and the threat of snow. It's rather nice not to have anywhere to go at the moment.

I hope you're all well, take care, and keep warm!
xx

The warm weather already seems like a dim and distant memory doesn't it? Thankfully the last few weeks of my Wearing It All Summer challenge had enough warm days for me to wear a few more items from my Summer wardrobe.

Week 10 saw two days wearing DIY clothes, but the other days I focused on items I hadn't yet worn. I'd been waiting for the weather to warm up and the week started out warm enough to wear a sleeveless shirt, and then a knee length dress. I'm keeping the dress but the shirt (kept twisting) and the jeans (just a tad too tight) have already been donated to charity.

Week 11 started with my very long wide leg trousers. Now that I'm thicker around the middle than when I purchased them they sit higher up so aren't as trip-hazard long, but they could still do with being taken up. Which I will do, along with some mending that's needed around the waistband (a result of treading on the too-long hem).

It was lovely to wear my paisley dress again, I used to wear this a lot and it always reminds me of our honeymoon. I don't like the grey tee paired with my new-to-me stripe skirt so it's an outfit that won't be repeated. The final few outfits of the week allowed me to wear my old black jumper a few more times. I keep thinking 'this will be too tatty to wear soon' but it just keeps going.

Week 12 The dresses were both birthday presents, I liked the red one paired with jeans when I wore it but now that I look at the photo I don't like it nearly as much. The final days of the week were deliciously warm and allowed me to wear a few of my summer tops - something I didn't think I'd be able to do. It was nice to be able to enjoy a few days of sunshine. I was aware that each sunny day could be the last one of the year, and spent time outside to enjoy it before autumn made it's presence felt.

The challenge got me out of my habit of wearing the same items on repeat, and it helped me slim down my wardrobe a little, which hopefully is something I can continue to do over the coming weeks. Whilst I'm not someone who rejoices in digging my jumpers out of storage, it will be nice to continue with the challenge wearing my cooler weather clothes.

I finished my Wearing It All Summer 2020 challenge yesterday. I've shared weeks 1, and 2 and 3, and weeks 4 - 6, so here are weeks 7 - 9.

These are the final few weeks of August, turning into September. Week 7 was a week of dresses. The final three were ones I had in the pile of stuff waiting to be listed on ebay, but I tried them all on first before doing so. I'm keeping the white one, it's about 5 years old and this is only the second time I've worn it! But I love it so it's staying (this could be my favourite outfit of the summer). The navy dress with what looks like a dolka dot pattern (it's actually raindrops) has a peter pan collar and a narrow band of pin tucks up the front, it's lovely. I picked it up at a clothes swap years ago but this is it's first wear. I think it's a little too short though so I won't be keeping it.

The burgundy polka dot dress hasn't been worn before either, I purchased it in 2016 and have no excuse for not wearing it, it's been saved from ebay... for now...

The only dress I'm not keen on out of these is the floral midi dress, which is a shame as I purchased this online at the beginning of lockdown, and I loved it when it arrived. I'm going to try it with different shoes, possibly add some accessories but if that doesn't work it'll go on ebay.

During Week 8 I actually went out! (you can tell by the wearing of a face mask). The first instance was just to the supermarket to pick up a few provisions. Day 5 was a photo an hour and a trip to the seaside for art galleries, and tea and cake.

Many tops worn over this week are rarely worn, the pink v neck top and black dress are items usually worn at Latitude (easy to wear and do not crease), but the blue dress is a new-to-me purchase, picked up from a charity shop on my way home from Aldeburgh the day before.

At this point I was starting to run low on clothes that hadn't been worn for the challenge that I could wear, I needed more sunny days so I could finish wearing all my summer tops and shorts but that wasn't to be...

Week 9, the weather was less than ideal and definitely not shorts weather. I took the opportunity to wear my recently purchased preloved stripe midi skirt again, which has knocked my green skirt off it's top spot, and it was lovely to wear my navy jumpsuit again.

I'm thinking the green dress is destined for ebay, it's pretty but rarely gets picked over my other dresses and I don't have the room to keep them all. The point of this challenge was to purge my wardrobe and it's worked to a certain extent, but I still have items I'm dithering about. Even though I want to wear all my clothing items as much as possible (ideally 30 times or more), if  something doesn't work I'm not going to wear it, so there is no point in keeping it.

I'll post the final update in a few days. In the meantime I've turned my attention to what to do next...

The last time I mentioned my Wearing It All Summer 2020 challenge was back in July. I've shared weeks 1, and 2 and 3, so a catch up is in order. If you have no interest in my daily outfits, look away now.

Week 4 was the last full week of July. The challenge has given me the opportunity to weed out the items in my wardrobe that I don't like, and those that aren't working. Each item is being assessed and I've already donated a number to charity and listed other items on ebay without wearing them for the challenge. Some items I picked up and simply thought a very definite 'no', and that was that. Other items I'm dithering about. 

I realised that my decision to buy only one clothing item per month this year, was partly due to not having room for any more clothes. I want to wear everything as much as I can but if I don't love something, or have a use for it, then it needs to go. A purge is long overdue.

From week 4 the green cords are going. I bought them from ebay, they're preloved and have been worn over 30 times. I dyed them last year from khaki to dark green, which I like but I just don't wear them anymore.

The other items are a mix of hardly worn, and worn a lot. The wide leg jeans, yellow maxi, and navy jumper have all been worn over 30 times. The jeans worn on day 5 and 6 are over 11 years old, and patched so many times I always wonder if they'll survive their next wash!

Week 5 took us from July into August. I decided to wear my face mask in any outfit shot taken on a day when I'd need to wear it, to keep a record of when I venture out, which as you will see isn't very often. This instance was a trip into town, my first since March. 

During this week the temperature started to rise and it finally started to feel a little more like summer again. Dresses and skirts came out of the wardrobe, and I dared to bare my arms. The khaki maxi dress has been mended, I'll tell you the story in a future post, and the skirt worn on day 6 and 7 was one of the three items I purchased in town earlier in the week.

Week 6 starts and ends with tops I bought on my trip into town in week 5. I'm not completely sure about the navy / orange vest top but I think I'll persevere. If I decide against it I have a few people in mind who might like it. 

The weather really started to heat up over the course of the week, hence the wearing of shorts on 4 consecutive days. I could've worn shorts on day 3 too, but I left early for a trip to the beach when it was still overcast, and I didn't trust it to warm up much. I wore the mask for a minute when I went inside to buy ice cream. The day before I'd been into Tesco, popped to the Post Office, and thoroughly enjoyed wandering around a garden centre for the first time in months!

The burgundy heart print shirt has been mended recently too. I sat down one Saturday and mended a number of items, which was such a satisfying way to spend an afternoon.

I'll leave this here and catch up on weeks 7 - 9 in another post. I still have items unworn (and some new-to-me items to wear!).

How are things with you?

I have far fewer options in my wardrobe for this time of year than in the warmer months. Jeans and jumpers dominate my autumn / winter wardrobe. Skirts appear on occasion, but most days I'll be clad in denim and wool.

Once again trying to wear every seasonal item in my wardrobe has reminded me of the many, many items I'd forgotten about. I've selected a few that can be donated to charity, and a few to be sold on ebay.

It's hard to believe I started the season wearing shorts, it didn't last long of course, and it seems like such a long time ago now, but we're nearly at the shortest day, so it can only get better...

The Slow Fashion Season challenge is now over, which means, for me, Wearing It All 2019 is over too. SFS was about buying no new clothing for the three months of the summer, and my Wearing It All idea was to wear a different outfit everyday for the summer. I managed to wear all but a few of my many summer clothes.

















I'd almost given up on having a proper summer, we'd had so much rain, lots of drizzle, and were battered with high winds. The temperature wasn't bad, it allowed for bare ankles and arms, but it was less than ideal. It gave me the opportunity to wear a few of my many shirts, and a few jumpers got an airing too, but for August the weather was a disappointment.



Until the final week when the sun returned! It was so nice to be treated to several days of gorgeous weather that coincided not only with my birthday, but also with Andy's sister and her family coming home for a visit. We went to the beach - twice - swam in the sea (I can not remember that last time I did that in this country), spent a very enjoyable afternoon in the garden playing in a paddling pool and throwing myself down a makeshift water slide. And we camped out in the back garden, toasting marshmallows over a campfire, none of which would've happened if the weather hadn't been so good.





My shorts came out in force, and I tracked down all my sleeveless tops. The weather was glorious!

The khaki dress and the red floral sleeveless shirt are birthday gifts from Andy. I briefly wondered if accepting gifts of new clothes broke my Slow Fashion Season pledge. I decided that I didn't buy them so it doesn't count. I love both items and know they'll be worn a lot. There is no such thing as disposable fashion in my house.

This is everything I wore over the summer, except for two outfits worn at Latitude, and the scruffs I wore to decorate in.

This challenge has made me wonder if it's time to rethink my seasonal capsule wardrobes. The reason I started them was to stop those moments when I looked into my overstuffed wardrobe and declared that I had nothing to wear. I wanted to streamline what I had, which I did, and then I stored out of season and non capsule items under my bed.

It worked, living with a capsule wardrobe simplified things but it has lead to a lot of lovely clothes languishing in an old suitcase, out of sight. I wasn't willing to part with a lot of things because I liked them so much, but I also continued to add items to my wardrobe. I now probably have more clothes than before I started the capsules. It's time to start wearing more of my wardrobe, and shopping a little less!

I've decided to continue Wearing It All into the autumn.

As Slow Fashion Season marches on I'm steadily working my way through my wardrobe, wearing what the weather allows. A few more pleasantly sunny days would be nice, it doesn't feel like summer is really trying it's hardest.

I heard on the radio yesterday that the temperatures are not going to rise again this summer, but I'm sticking to my theory that it's impossible to predict the weather further than a week in advance, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I have three pairs of shorts that have yet to be worn this summer.



Above is a mix of never worn before (long navy jumper and pink jumper) and things that have been seen a lot on the blog (both skirts), and things that have been worn many, many times (jeans). You'll notice a distinct lack of truly summery outfits.



You might be wondering about my choice of footwear in the outfit above, top right? I was going to meet my husband in a field to spend the afternoon in his cab with him. The fields have heavy clay soil and we'd had some rain so I wore my I don't-care-how-muddy-they-get-boots (aka my farmer's wife boots), and the same shirt I wore the day before as I was bound to get grubby - light colours and tractors do not mix - even the bag I took with me was wipe clean!

The day I wore the pale orange t-shirt and jeans I went into town thinking that it was just about warm enough for short sleeves, only to get caught in a torrential downpour. I returned home soaked through to the skin, and shivering. And to think I so very nearly put my rain poncho in my bag...

With five weeks left of the Slow Fashion Season I have a lot of items still to be worn. I've been avoiding the temptation of charity shops as it's clear I don't need any more clothes. On the flip side this challenge has helped me to identify items I no longer want, which helps to whittle down the wardrobe, I'll take any extra space I can get.

We're almost halfway through the Slow Fashion Season. I'm yet to buy any new clothing, although I did buy a lot of secondhand items last month! This month I've challenged myself to buy nothing at all. I've worn a different outfit everyday since June 21st and I've still got many unworn items. I don't feel I need to add anything else in to the mix, so I'm staying away from the charity shops - they're just too tempting!


The items above are rarely worn (with the exception of the jeans, which always get worn a lot). The red tunic hasn't been seen on the blog (or worn) since the summer of 2013! It's well and truly on my radar now and will get the wearing it deserves. Isn't it pretty?



This lot above are items I used to wear a frequently, but not so much recently. The paisley dress was my first ever attempt at visible mending after the waistband frayed. And the yellow skirt was brought back to life with some fabric dye a few years ago. The wide leg trousers still need to be taken up as they are trip hazard long - even with heels!

The only recent purchase here is the sequin bag in the first outfit. I bought it to take to Latitude, but it was always going to be something that I used again. I read on the Barnardo's Instagram feed that this summer 7.4 million single-use outfits will be purchased for festivals by us Brits. It's utterly horrifying. How do we change this idea that clothes are disposable?

For this set of outfits I decided to wear items that I still owned from 2011, when I did the Wearing It All challenge the first time around.

We'd just moved, everything was chaos, and as I unpacked my clothes I wondered if I really needed so many, that's when the Wearing It All challenge was born.

Below are the first three items, 2019 on the top row, 2011 on the bottom.

The white jeans have recently been rescued from the charity bag. After I read that it takes 1,800 gallons of water to make just one pair of jeans, I vowed to wear all my jeans until they literally fall apart. They're good for summer afternoon BBQs, family gatherings, when you just don't know what else to wear and need something semi smart.
The grey cardigan was from New Look, cheap and cheerful but it's worn really well and is showing little sign of age despite being worn a lot over the years. I took it to Latitude recently, it's always been the perfect thing for layering, and it's great for wearing with dresses as it's waist length.

The grey skirt isn't something that's been worn a lot but I love it. It's a really soft material, and has pockets! I wore it last year, probably for the first time since 2011. A few hours after the photo was taken back then, Andy arrived home and told me that his Grandma had passed away. We hadn't been together many years and I'd only met her a handful of times but she was lovely, and deeply loved by her family. She'd been unwell for some time and we'd been to see her a few days before, and I'm so glad that we did. This skirt always makes me think of her.

Next up I wore some shorts (below) that I never thought would see the light of day again. I really like them, which is probably why I hung onto them for so long, but as I stepped into my late thirties I had a wobble about what I should and shouldn't wear. These shorts seemed too short, but now that I'm in my 40s I just think 'stuff it'.

Perhaps my legs aren't as slender as they once were, they have a few wobbly and dimpled bits, and they're as pale as porcelain but they're strong and part of me, and I don't give a stuff about what others decide is appropriate for 'a woman of my age'. If I like it, I'll wear it, and I like these shorts.

I've had the jeans for a long time, I bought them before I met Andy, which makes them over a decade old. When they were new they were a dark wash, even back in 2011 they'd lost a lot of their colour.

They've been patched many times, the first hole appearing after I accidentally stuck them to my leg with super glue. It wouldn't wash out, it cracked and the first hole of many was created. More are soon to follow as they continue to grow thinner in places, but I'll mend them until they can be mended no more.

I cringed when I noticed the ballet pumps worn with bootleg jeans, I wouldn't do that now, ballet pumps are worn with skirts. It seems I've been subconsciously developing my own rules on what I should and shouldn't wear.

The black shirt dress has been worn occasionally, it's never been a go-to item but it's earned it's keep. In 2011 I was embracing hosiery for the first time in my life. And those boots. I loved those boots, I haven't stopped looking for a similar pair.

It occurs to me now that I should've taken these photos in the same locations as their 2011 counterparts, you'd see a much more organised wardrobe, a new bedroom carpet, the house painted a pale yellow instead of white and a different front door. Oh well... an opportunity missed.

It's been fun to look back over these items. They all hold so many memories, and have stories to tell. Clothes are never really just clothes are they?

Having full rein of my wardrobe after a few years of utilising capsule wardrobes is actually really rather nice. After the first few days of the Slow Fashion Season I decided to put together a series of outfits containing at least one item of clothing that rarely gets worn.

Everything below, with the exception of the skinny jeans, has either never been worn, or has only been worn a few times. The first outfit is made up of entirely second hand items (with the exception of my under garments), and every outfit has at least one secondhand element.

The weather hasn't been as glorious as I'd hoped for. I was fully expecting this summer to be the same as last year with day after day of beautiful sunshine. But as you can see I've had need of a jumper or a jacket on occasion. The weather hasn't been awful, it's been warm enough, but overcast and a bit breezy. I'm going to need some more shorts weather if I'm going to succeed and wear as much of my wardrobe as possible.

As for making no high street purchases, I was in town and noticed a sale in Accessorize, I spotted a straw bag similar to one I've been looking for. I was in the door, admiring the bag and checking the price tag (£7.00) before I remembered the challenge. I put it back on the rail and left, wondering how many more times I'd temporarily forget signing up to Slow Fashion Season before the three months was up. It would've been so easy to forget and make a purchase, and I would've been so annoyed with myself. At some point in the future a similar bag will turn up in a charity shop and I'll buy it then.

Are you taking part? How are you getting on?

I've got a fun series of outfits planned for the next installment, (well I think it's fun anyway...)
x

I signed up to Slow Fashion Season last month, it's a pledge to avoid purchasing any new items for the summer, to encourage shopping your wardrobe, shopping secondhand, and making do and mending.

I knew it'd be easy for me to do as I buy brand new items so infrequently these days. It's for this reason that I decided to make it more of a challenge for myself and take the 'shop your wardrobe' idea to it's extreme. I've abandoned my usual capsule wardrobe and plan to wear a different outfit everyday if I have enough clothes, which I suspect I do.

It feels a lot like my Wearing It All challenge of 2011, remember that? I wore all of the clothing items I owned and wasn't allowed to wear anything twice. I still have a handful of those clothes in my wardrobe. This challenge is a little different though as I will allow myself to wear items more than once, as long as it's in a different outfit.

It's a good time of year to do this as I have more summer clothes than anything else, so as long as the weather behaves I'll be able to wear a good portion of them. I'm actually rather enjoying it. I'm rediscovering things that I haven't worn in a while, and finding new outfit combinations by teaming new-to-me purchases with old favourites, and long forgotten items.

Here are the first outfits of the challenge.



Do you think you could avoid buying new clothes for three months?

No.60 on my Day Zero Project list was to photograph a landscape across 12 months and turn it into a calendar. This view is what I see from my office window at home. The field adjoins our back garden and I chose this to photograph because it's a view that's so familiar to me. When you see it day after day it always looks the same but I knew it changed and wanted to capture it.

January


February


March


April


May


June


July


August


September


October


November


December

I signed up to the Fast Fashion Fast back in June to see if I could go three months without buying anything from the high street. Those of you who read my Buyer's Archive posts will know that I tripped and fell, purse first, into a few.

Taking part made me look at my spending habits, and whilst I have purchased some high street items during the challenge, I'm happy with what I purchased (pictured above) and don't feel too bad about 'failing'.

Because I don't feel like I've failed.

What I have done is reminded myself of what I've known and felt all along. That as consumers we have a huge amount of power to influence the industry by speaking with our wallets. If we buy less, and wear what we have more and for longer, we create less demand, less demand means fewer items ending up in landfill, and less demand on the garment worker at the beginning of the line, not to mention less pollution in the process.

I don't think ethical fashion holds the answer, certainly not yet. I think the price is prohibitive for many and the availability, whilst improving, isn't great. And even when these things improve I don't believe that it will ever take the place of the high street store, but I do hope that one day ethical clothing will make up a greater proportion of the clothing market. Alongside this I hope to see high street and fast fashion stores improving their working practices, closing the gap between them and ethical fashion brands.

In the meantime I've made a promise to myself. To buy a brand new item only if I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that I will wear it 30 times or more (I'm already keeping a tally). This is inspired by Livia Firth, and was the catalyst for my #30Wears mini challenge.

Recently I read this article, about reducing waste within the clothing industry.

One statistic was this 'A survey commissioned by Sainsbury’s last spring found that 235m items ended up on landfill sites as people readied their wardrobes for summer.'

235 million items. In landfill. In spring. In the UK.

The same survey by Sainbury's revealed some surprising statistics on recycling, 'The study also uncovered the reasons people do not donate or recycle clothing, with 49% saying they did not think they could because the clothes were worn out or dirty. A further 16% said they did not have time to visit a charity shop, or could not be bothered to sort items, while 6% did not realise clothing could be recycled.'

If you feel you have to buy a particular item, I can't understand why you'd simply throw it in the bin rather than donate it. If it's no longer wearable it can still be recycled, although as the article explains this isn't as straightforward as it might seem, but it doesn't mean we shouldn't bother. Of course the obvious answer is not to buy it in the first place.

So, what started out as an interesting experiment ended in a renewed enthusiasm to 'do my bit' - to buy only what I know I will wear, to buy the best quality I can, to wear my clothes for longer, and to continue to donate and recycle what I no longer need / use / fit into. And I'll continue to buy pre-loved clothes and show that they can be as exciting as a shiny new purchase, right here on this very blog.

I will never apologise for being seen in the same outfit twice, which is something that seems to happen frequently in blogland. I'm not ashamed for featuring clothes I've worn before on my blog. I like to find new outfit combinations for my favourite items, mixing old favourites with new (or new to me) items. I consider nothing in my wardrobe to be disposable, I want to wear every item again, and again, and again.

#onlybuyitifyouloveit #wearitagainandagain

Further reading : Love Your Clothes