My Wardrobe, Myself

This is part two of a three-part series about the oldest items in my wardrobe. In my last post, I wrote about all the pieces that I’ve owned since 2013 or earlier. There were just twelve items that held that distinction: nine garments and three purses, but many of them are still being worn/used regularly ten-plus years later.

Today, I’ll review all the items purchased between 2014 and 2016 that are still in my closet today. I’m only going to cover clothing, shoes, and purses, as I didn’t do a great job of tracking my jewelry and accessory (e.g., scarves and hats) purchases. I plan to do a separate post or series about my jewelry, in which I’ll write about my favorite pieces, as well as which ones have been with me for many years. Leaving the jewelry and other accessories out of this and the next post will also help to keep these essays from becoming overly lengthy.

This will be a very picture-heavy post, and since I’m writing about a larger group of pieces, I won’t go into as much detail about each one. I also won’t delve much into cost-per-wear information, as that data takes a lot of time and effort to compile, plus I stopped tracking wears at the end of 2018 and can only guess at wears since that time. I will, however, share my most-worn items from this second group, the ones that continue to be favorites today, and some additional data points and thoughts about these “oldies but goodies.”

Items I Still Own from 2014 through 2016

Here’s a “bird’s eye view” of the 25 wardrobe items that have been in my closet for the past seven to nine years:

These items can be broken down by category as follows:

• 5 toppers (2 cardigans, 1 jacket, 1 coat, 1 vest)

Except for the gray tie-waist cardigan, all these toppers were in my “holding zone” for several years due to menopausal weight gain. I considered selling the cobalt anorak, but I recently brought it back into my closet after deciding that I like the way it looks and feels on me now. It’s possible that I might purge the black draped cardigan soon, though, as I have several other black cardigans that I typically reach for instead of this one.

• 4 bottoms/dresses (2 dresses, 1 skirt, 1 pair of pants)

I once had a large collection of maxi-length skirts and dresses in my closet, but the few shown here are the last ones remaining. Because the skirt is very stretchy and forgiving, I continued to wear it even with weight changes. However, the other three items were in my “holding zone” for several years and were only brought back into my wardrobe last year following my weight loss.

• 4 warm weather tops (1 sleeveless, 3 short-sleeved)

Two of these tops (the first and third ones) are shorter in length to be worn with skirts, while the other two are longer and are paired with pants. At one point, I considered letting go of the black-and-white-striped tee, but I decided to keep it and like the way it fits again now. Three of these four tops (all except the striped tee) were purchased at resale stores, and they’ve all been wardrobe workhorses for me.

• 5 long-sleeved tops

The two waffle tops are from Eddie Bauer and like the ones I wrote about in my last post, are now only worn at home. I wouldn’t purchase them again today because I don’t find curved-hem tops to be all that flattering on my body (see my list of wardrobe “don’ts”), but I still like them enough for their current wearing purposes. Because the waffle-weave fabric is thicker and the tops are relatively long, the curved hem on these tops doesn’t have the widening effect on my hips that I notice with many other garments with this feature.

The black-and-cobalt-striped top was an old favorite that I was able to retrieve from my holding zone last year, and I once again love it. I had the cobalt-and-black tunic shortened by several inches in 2021 to make it more wearable (I’m not a big fan of tunics these days), but it’s now too big on me, so it may not stick around for much longer. The navy-and-white-striped tee is a good staple item, but I don’t wear navy nearly as often as I do black.

• 5 pairs of shoes

These shoes have all been closet favorites at one time or another, and three of the five still are. I don’t wear the black caged sandals as much these days, but that’s mostly because I’ve changed the types of dresses that I like to wear and these shoes don’t work well with many items in my closet. I also really like the burgundy boots, but I don’t own all that many burgundy garments to pair with them. I’ve continued to hold on to both pairs of shoes because I still like them, and hopefully I’ll find ways to coordinate them with future outfits.

The black wedge booties were worn so often that they’re now pretty worn out! They were resoled at least once, and I was happy to be able to find a replacement for these boots recently on eBay. The 2015 version of the boots has been one of the most worn items in my closet by far. When I stopped tracking wears over four years ago, I was already at 184 wears! Hopefully, the new boots will serve me for as long and as well. As for the peep-toe booties, I still hope to replace those, too, but they’re still in good enough condition to continue wearing them. They were purchased in late 2016 and had already been worn 54 times by the end of 2018 (and many, many times since then).

The pewter Taos sandals were also a 2016 purchase, and they got up to 36 wears before I stopped tracking. These sandals continue to be a favorite (I also own them in black and have replaced the original pair with a very similar option), but this may be my last year with them due to signs of wear. I know that none of these “oldie but goodie” shoes are on the cutting edge of fashion, but they’re what I love to wear, and I think they look fairly classic. I sometimes jump on board with shoe trends, but because I have fussy feet, if a style works well for me, I tend to stick with it.

• 2 purses

I used to own a lot of purses, but now my collection is fairly small. I don’t use either of these purses all that often, but the black studded purse on the right used to be a favorite. I love the silver stud details on both purses, but the quality of the bags is not up to the standards of my Brighton favorites. The purse on the left comes in handy sometimes, though, as it’s a small size that works well as an evening bag. The larger bag was a gift from my mother from a store near where she lives, but the lining has had to be repaired twice. I still use this purse on occasion, but I usually like a bag with a bit more structure these days.

Where I Bought These Items

Although I covered brands in my last post, I’m not going to do so here. Almost all the pieces shown above are from different brands. In fact, the only brands that are repeated among this second set of “oldies but goodies” are Vince Camuto and Eddie Bauer, with two items each (a top and a jacket from Vince Camuto and two tops from Eddie Bauer).

Pretty much everything in this group of items was purchased through an online or brick-and-mortar retail establishment as well. Only six of the 25 items were bought at a consignment or thrift store:

I haven’t always had the best of luck with resale purchases and I rarely shop that way these days (mostly due to my chemical sensitivity issues), but I consider the six items above to be among my successes. They’ve all been worn often, and have all held up well and stood the test of time.

What Has Been Worn Most Often

Now let’s look at which of my 2014 through 2016 purchases have been worn most often over the years. Though these pieces are not necessarily my favorites today (I’ll cover those in the next section), I used to reach for all of them regularly. Here are the 18 “all-stars” that I bought seven to nine years ago:

As I mentioned earlier, the three pairs of shoes shown have really been wardrobe workhorses for me, and the purse was also carried a lot over the years. I’m sure you’re not too surprised to see a lot of black and black-printed items in the mix here. Black continues to be my favorite neutral, and I like when black is combined with another color in a garment. There are really no surprises among these “all-stars,” and I feel that most of them adhere well to my “style guideposts” of dramatic, polished, and elegant, too (you can read more about that concept in this post from 2020).

Although I’m not sure exactly how many times the above items have been worn since I bought them, I’m confident that almost all of them are in the one dollar or less cost-per-wear range at this point. The only possible exception might be the black Eileen Fisher long vest, as it was an expensive purchase. It also has a limited season for when I can wear it, as it’s too long to be worn under a coat. It’s a very dramatic and fun piece, but the weather must be warm enough to wear just a long-sleeved top under the vest, but not so hot that I would be sweating in such an ensemble. Even if the cost-per-wear is higher than I’d ultimately like, I’m still happy that I bought the vest. It’s the type of special piece that I love to wear, and I think there’s room in our closets for a few such items.

My Current Favorites from 2014 to 2016

My style continues to evolve over time and even though many of these longtime purchases saw a lot of wear over the years, many of them are no longer among my favorite pieces. Fortunately, however, over half of this group of “old-timers” are still highly beloved wardrobe items. I would buy any one of the items shown below again today, and I see myself wearing all of them for the foreseeable future.

As you can see, there’s some overlap between this group and the one above (most worn items). Again, it’s not surprising that black and black prints feature heavily. My most-loved prints continue to be stripes, polka dots (which I just heard on a podcast are “hot” for Spring 2023), and abstract watercolor-style patterns. In terms of fabrication, I mostly prefer knits, but the black velvet coat (a “steal” from a consignment store in early 2014) is an example of a woven piece that I enjoy. My preferred silhouettes are either fitted or “streamlined,” and I don’t like the extremes of either super-snug or overly boxy.

I included the black wedge boots in this group, although I’ll probably be letting go of them soon now that I found an exact replacement in better condition. I also included the striped maxi-dress because even though I tend to prefer “midi” lengths these days, the tie-waist silhouette of this dress is very flattering on my shape and I feel great in it. I also love that I can wear flat shoes with maxi-dresses and skirts, which means that I will likely keep at least a few of them around for that reason. I know that I can also wear flats with other skirts and dresses, but for some reason I feel frumpy in them and prefer to wear at least a small heel.

Conclusion – and Your Thoughts?

As someone who has experienced a lot of “closet churn” over the years, I’m happy to have a decent number of “oldies but goodies” that remain in my wardrobe. So far, I’ve covered 37 such items between this post and the last one, and I’ll be addressing at least that many more in part three. If I’m only considering my out-and-about wardrobe, I would say that around half of the pieces I own are at least five years old (but perhaps I’ll do an actual calculation in my next post).

The numbers aren’t as high for my at-home wardrobe, as those items are worn a lot more frequently and wear out sooner. Of course, some of my previous out-and-about garments have been downgraded for wearing only at home, such as the waffle tops that were shown in both today’s post and the last one. This isn’t always something that I can do, but it’s nice to be able to get more life out of some of my clothing this way.

It’s been interesting for me to examine which of my closet pieces have stood the test of time – and why. The more that I become clear about my personal style and what I most enjoy wearing, the more likely I am to have items with good longevity. Of course, the quality of my pieces has some bearing on that, as well as how often I wear them. However, over the years, my reasons for purging things usually had a lot more to do with my not loving and wearing them. Everything will wear out eventually, but it’s nice for that to be my reason for passing closet items on, rather than my having made mistakes in purchasing them.

Thank you to those who weighed in last week about the oldest items in your closets. If anyone else would like to share what you’ve owned the longest and why, I know that many of us would like to read about it. I also welcome anything else you’d like to share in response to the topics discussed today. I’ll be back soon with the third and final post in the series (unless I opt to do a “wrap-up” post, too…), in which I’ll cover the items in my wardrobe from 5 to 6 years ago (2017 and 2018).