Organizing my clothes

[happystuff]

Great picture, rr! Looks like you had a blast!

[iris lilies]

Yesterday, after my last visit to shopping mall clothing stores 8 months ago, I went again and this time to the high-end mall in St. Louis. It’s a lovely place with no screaming or running children. It is populated mostly by senior citizens walking around in their tennis shoes and then often resting in the very many little seating areas they have. They have stores for younger people, but I went in the middle of the day on a weekday.

I went to the stores that serve my demographic: Talbots, J Jill, and Eileen Fisher. The Talbot store was busy, really the only busy store I saw that entire mall with the exception of one jewelry store. Little old lady customers were lined up at Talbots, each taking an enormous amount of time to conduct their business. One lady had to write a check and it took a long time to do that. Another one had to cut off the tags on the clothing she had just purchased, and that took her a long time to do that and she had to stand in front of the cash register while doing it. Another one had some sort of long transaction with a return that didn’t seem very smooth. It was amusing to see ma seours keeping the sales ladies busy but I imagine those sales folks are trained to put up with senior citizen women because they are the store’s bread and butter.

I like Talbots because it has petite sizes. I look for petite whenever I can get them, but I have vowed to not limit myself to petite when not available and have vowed to dedicate time to hem them when necessary,.

I was surprised that the perfect “travel set “ I bought at J.Jill had pants that were perfectly proportioned for me. They were not Petite sizing.

I keep hearing about Eileen Fisher clothing and how the quality is so high and how in the thrift stores it is the cream de la crème of department store items. So I made a serious effort to check out Eileen Fisher and I have to say, I was so incredibly bored by everything in the store. Had to pass. I can see that sure it’s classic in its own way but… I will pass.

My new color scheme is dedicated to a neutral palette making it incredibly easy to breeze through a store looking for only the colors I will buy: white, ivory, cream, oatmeal, tan. I also wear black, but I don’t need ant black items right now.

[iris lilies]

So, clothing fabric report:

there are so many unfamiliar newish fabrics on the market and I am undecided if I like them or not because I don’t know how well they wash and hold up. There is model. There is viscose. There are other quasi “natural “fabrics made from natural fibers, but highly processed with chemical chemicals.

what experience do you all have with these new fabrics? Old-fashioned rayon is a lot of fun because it takes die beautifully, but boy does it wrinkle easily.

I like classics in cotton and linen, and these can be mixed with a little bit of polyester. I hate wool. I impulsively ordered a cashmere light wrap that hasn’t come yet in the mail, but I got to thinking that if wool makes me itch, probably cashmere will too. I mainly avoid cashmere because of the lectures we got from DH’s auntie in Scotland who made very high-end cashmere clothing. She turned up her nose in disgust at department store cashmere items. My impression is that cashmere takes very careful laundering anyway so I’m not sure I want to dedicate attention to that.

[rosarugosa]

IL: I wash my cashmere sweaters in mesh bags on delicate cycle in the washing machine. Sometimes they need a light go-over with an iron. I find cashmere less itch-inducing than other wools.

I have the impression that knits with a modal component tend to pill more readily, but that is based on a limited sample size of, I think, only one sweater I once had.

[happystuff]

As for wrinkles - I was recently informed by a child of mine that "wrinkles" are okay now! They are now, apparently, part of the "in" look. LOL.

[iris lilies]

As for wrinkles - I was recently informed by a child of mine that "wrinkles" are okay now! They are now, apparently, part of the "in" look. LOL.

Ha.

well, I do not mind classic linen wrinkles, but since I am attempting to dig myself out of “bag lady “look would Avoid wrinkles as much as possible.

[iris lilies]

One of my online purchases is made of this mouthful of fabric content:



‘ Lenzing Ecovero viscose’ with recycled polyester (about half and half) with a bit of spandex thrown in.

i’m now to the point where I look up every bit of fabric content foreign words. This Lenzig stuff is supposed to be more eco friendly than regular viscose.

Viscose is, I guess, just the thing we used to call “rayon.”

edited

[Tybee]

I wish the artificials felt better. Somebody tried to tell me once that Rayon was a natural fabric, so I'm not sure where the line is--like the bamboo fabrics--is that really so different than cotton, but they feel weird to me.

[iris lilies]

I wish the artificials felt better. Somebody tried to tell me once that Rayon was a natural fabric, so I'm not sure where the line is--like the bamboo fabrics--is that really so different than cotton, but they feel weird to me.

If rayon is a “natural fabric “is a controversy that rages.

I think breathability is a big factor for me. as mentioned, I DO remember the wonderful clothes of the 80s when wild colors and patterns were woven into rayon fabrics. Rayon seems to like synthetic dies.

[happystuff]

I'm sort of looking to v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y redo my wardrobe with easy, travel-friendly, functional wardrobe pieces. Figure if the clothing looks good and is functional while traveling, it will suffice at home as well. But since I hate clothes shopping and don't do it often at all, this may take a while. LOL