What I Can’t Live Without: October 2024 Edition

A monthly catalogue of obsessions

How often do you rewear your clothes? 

There’s an oft-cited statistic that most people wear 20% of their clothing 80% of the time; impossible to quantify but seems plausible enough. But recently I’ve stumbled upon an internet fashion discourse that discounts the 80/20 rule. It seems, of all things, that many people aren’t rewearing their clothes.

As my brain processed the information contained in these tweets, I felt like I was having a stroke. Am I supposed to believe that there are people out there who will buy a pair of pants only to discard them after a single use, like a piece of toilet paper? As someone who takes great joy in documenting my daily outfits, I’ve never once thought that someone would judge me for wearing an item of clothing more than once—that’s literally what they’re for. I just went to my pants drawer and counted 15 pairs of jeans, 34 pairs of pants total. Most I’ve have for years. I’ve reworn every single one.

I think it’s safe to say that any reticence related to rewearing one’s own clothing is rooted entirely in personal insecurity. If I got invited to a wedding tomorrow, I already know exactly what I would wear—the Mara Hoffman popcorn dress I got in 2021, or maybe a pink Pleats Please I haven’t pulled out in a few years—both of which I’ve been photographed in many times before. I promise you, not only does nobody care if you’re wearing the same dress, they probably don’t even notice. 

Left: the Pleats Please dress circa 2015. Right: the Mara Hoffman dress circa 2021.

If a garment makes you feel beautiful, you should be wearing it all the time. Now when I buy things, I aim to wear them until I die. Realistically, my body and tastes will change and I’ll probably cycle through two or three new wardrobes in my lifetime, but that’s still the goal.

This is the beauty of growing older. You know who you are. You don’t give a shit. And you’re definitely rewearing your clothes.

What I’m Considering

From left to right: @cate.cate.m, @thankyou_ok, @nrips

Small button cardigans

Recently I’ve noticed my taste in knitwear shifting from big and chunky to prim and delicate. I think it started with Emilia Petrarca’s Shop Rat post on agnès b. snap cardigans, after which I started noticing them everywhere, as if I had taken a Matrix-style blue pill. I really like this Pringle of Scotland one, which I saw on my travels last month, but at $600 CAD I’m marked safe from ever making this purchase.

Fluevogs

I worked retail at John Fluevog Shoes for seven years in my early 20s, and had to get rid of all the pairs I acquired after the Great Neuroma Incident of 2021. But recently I’ve been itching for an evil-looking pair of boots and these two styles, the Countess and Amrita, really fit the bill. (Albeit in a full-size larger than I used to wear when I worked there.)

What I Bought

Earlier this year, I attempted to replace a bunch of my ugly printed socks with simple red ones from Uniqlo. Unfortunately, the Uniqlo socks were awful. Unisex sizing meant the heel pad hovered somewhere around my ankle and the thin fabric was constantly slipping down, getting scrunched inside my shoes. It was unbearable. I made several more halfhearted attempts at getting my sock drawer in order, involving some white Aritzia ankle sock, and an ill-fated polyester purchase that turned my feet a sweat factory. But now I’m trying again in earnest, with five new pairs of Province of Canada socks. They’re a bit too high for my liking, but that matters less with winter on its way. The perfect sock continues to elude me.

What I’m Reading/Watching/Enjoying

-Freak friend Naomi Skwarna wrote a beautiful piece for the Toronto Star on this magnificent Joyce Wieland quilt that tucked away in the bowels of Toronto’s Spadina subway station. A masterpiece.

-When I saw The Walrus had published a story titled “We’re in the Golden Age of Garbage Clothing,” I have to admit I rolled my eyes. Even for a general interest publication, the story feels a little late, no? But when I got past my initial snarky feelings, I realized it’s actually a great piece. I loved the author’s personal angle and I even learned a thing or two. Did you know that “a mountain of cast-offs in the desert of Chile is literally visible from space”?

What I’ve Written

-Inside a Graphic Artist’s Bowen Island Haven for Maclean’s

-This woodworker perfected her craft during a summer of racial justice protest for The Guardian

-Apparently a story I wrote for Canadian Business was referenced in the intro to this episode of the Doughboys podcast. Cool!

What Made Me Laugh

Last word