A new month is upon us! Time to reflect on the past month... since I haven't been posting new outfits, you may have already forgotten my quest to wear all my jackets, but it was there, and I feel I've learned some muy importante things about my relationship with jackets.
First things first: I'm not really the Chronic Jacket Hoarder I thought I was. As mentioned in a previous post, practical use has taught me that blazers are NOT jackets. They don't provide full chest coverage, they're thinner, and they're not really appropriate for my current job. So far, they've only been practical for DFS once it cooled down (it was far too hot to wear a blazer inside most of the month). Conclusion? My jacket collection is still practical, however I must keep a wary eye on my blazers. If they don't get used, I'll have to purge a few and keep the ones that do double duty as toppers for fancy occasions and interviews.
Just as it turns out jackets are different from blazers, it also turns out that Summer jackets are different from Fall jackets. Sounds like a big "duh," right? I blame it on our difficult-to-discern seasons - who knew we had Fall, let alone Fall jackets?? Although many of my jackets are technically warm enough for Fall, they do not fit my Fall/Winter style persona, which is more militant and less playfully tomboyish.
Finally, one of the big kickers this year has been my work uniform, which precludes indoor jacket-wearing 75% of the time. This has put a huge lifestyle emphasis on outdoor-weight items rather than decorative, indoor items. It just is what it is and, while I may one day get to dress sans uniform, I have the current reality to deal with.
After all this, I do have a few items lingering in jacket purge-atory. Note that these aren't items I'm *planning* to purge. They are jus the items that didn't get wear and, thus, pieces I will keep my big, hairy eyeball on in the future. Some of these surprised even me!
1 - Allsaints leather jacket - yes, I'm clutching my heart, too, just thinking about it. But the banded waist and not-cropped-yet-not-full length is hard to style now that I'm not wearing sheath dresses every day. I'm also suspecting that the color is not the best on me. I was much more drawn to my warm medium brown steampunk jacket and chocolate brown trench. I don't currently have tons of leather-appropriate destinations, either. I'm not rushing into things, but it could be possible I should liquidate this asset...
2 - If the last pic didn't give some YLFers a heart attack, this one will. I LOVE this jacket... but I didn't reach for it once. I need to make a concerted effort to style this in a casual way. At the very least, I'm leaning toward keeping it in hopes of a new work environment - hopefully it won't be woefully dated by then.
3 - I've mentioned this one before, and it really makes me sad just thinking about giving it up. The F21 faux shearling bought at the first annual socal YLF meetup. I still love it! But it *looks* too wintry to wear in our warm Falls, and it doesn't keep *me* warm enough to wear much in Winter, and it doesn't look that good zipped up over a tunic. But it's very sentimental!
4 - Many of you won't like this one, anyway, but I love the pseudo-gear look and triple zippers... and it was a present from DH. I still love everything about it... except for the fact that it doesn't breathe worth a damn. Seriously, I sweat like crazy in this thing. No idea if saving it for travel to cooler climes would help at all, or if it I would just end up in a frozen bubble of sweat instead.
So, dear friends, any advice for an emotionally-addled would-be purger? What would you do?
