Equilibrium. What is that? Do you have it? Can you find it? If you are achieving it, please share.
As we teeter on the brink of an intense election in the middle (hopefully this is at least the middle!) of a pandemic – I am finally sitting down to write you. It just didn’t feel right in the Spring and Summer to talk about clothes, but now hopefully we have all somewhat settled into a new routine and discovered that yes, we still get dressed. Despite an extremely well done piece in the New York Times that announced and was titled ‘Sweatpants Forever,’ (highly recommend) which details how the pandemic pushed the fashion industry’s unsustainable retail bubble to pop. If you have been reading my newsletter forever and/or have worked with me – you likely know when it comes to style, fashion, buying, and getting dressed – I subscribe to a strict edict of know thyself, get real, buy what you need, and only what you love. This philosophy doesn’t negate trends, it rather observes them peripherally and utilizes when it feels and is right. Case in point, even though I lived in San Francisco for 6 years, it took me until the fifth month of a pandemic to get me into a pair of Birkenstocks. I then bought a second pair ten days later and guarantee I will wear them for the rest of my life. Casually though… not with an actual outfit, even though one of them is metallic pink. Forgive me, I digress.
So while we are mostly getting dressed for video calls and outdoor activities, there is something about getting dressed everyday that is life-affirming, dare I say sustaining, in and of itself. The routine of it, the comfort from that small sliver of normalcy, all the while encased in the audacity of getting dressed for a short commute to a work from home set-up. This simple act fortifies one for the day and helps balance the scales of “before” in our favor. Though Coronavirus has upended nearly every facet of life, I have found it a beautiful time to reflect on life as a whole and believe a level of equilibrium can be found through shedding what doesn’t work, focusing on what does, finding what is missing, and organizing what is worthy. This advice is not for the faint of heart and the evaluation should be all encompassing. It includes thoughts, activities, and the things you surround yourself with – including your wardrobe. The lesson – quarantine is temporary, but style is forever.
