Styling Librarian: Style Clothing Exchange

This year I challenged myself to write a blog that I’d enjoy without feeling obligated to post but to share when I’m inspired. So far, this has been a wonderful personal outlet and I appreciate all the colleague, librarian, literacy advocate, family, and author support with my endeavor. One component that I also challenged myself with is the “style” part of my blog. I had style-specific goals that I’ve mentioned in a few other blog posts. Here’s my new update:

I addressed #2 of my style goals (see below) with a good friend who was just as interested as I was in running a clothing swap. At the time we began discussions on the clothing swap, we talked about focus on a specific season, how to manage amount of people attending, organize the swap portion, and where/when we should manage the swap. We decided my house, after Spring Break, and used a few different blog pages that we thought were helpful and inspiring:

http://www.getcrafty.com/home_nakedlady.php

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2010/06/18/dress-yourself-for-free-host-a-clothing-swap/

http://www.lifeorganizers.com/cm_articles/16_organize_a_clothes_swap_189.html

http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/style/5-strategies-for-throwing-clothing-swap.htm

Then after we created invites, talked with friends, made a Facebook group invite, and waited to have it finally come along, we were ready! We had fun planning out food, wine, and signs. Our friends came over and sorted out all the items into categories. After we sorted, we chatted for a little while and then got down to digging through the clothes. First we went from room to room and picked up items and discussed what we liked and didn’t like. After we reviewed everything we started by trying out all the clothes we each found appealing. After we were done trying those out, numerous people suggested to one another to try out other clothes. We discovered outfits and items we normally wouldn’t pick up. It was quite fun. Afterwards, some went home with an amazing amount of items and others went home with one, two or three items. I personally walked away with a lovely velvet jacket and a black strap dress that I felt pretty confident wearing. I took barely any pictures (was busy trying on clothes) but overall, it was quite the fun event. Also, I agreed to simply bag up clothes for two places: 1. High quality clothes would go to my favorite local library thrift shop (I dropped off 3 full bags today.) 2. Other clothes went to Goodwill.

Only one little problem: When we began planning the clothing swap, I didn’t realize that I would need to get rid of 3/4 of my closet due to moving to Hong Kong. My interest on which clothes worked narrowed quite a bit!  New post coming soon about wonderful stylist Holley Shephard @getputtogether coming to my house for a cleansing of the closet. http://www.puttogether.net  Also, I plan to post on a different type of clothing swap that I enjoy twice each year at my school!

My new styling-specific goals (for 2012) are— updated:

1. Continue being the organized neat freak and clear out my closet three times a year for donations.    not a problem, personality isn’t changing. I actually did another sweep through the closet before my appointment with wonderful stylist Holley Shepard by her suggestion. It was quite helpful. I reviewed clothes with three goals: identify clothing: what clothes do I dream of wearing, what will I never bring myself to wear– REMOVE, and sort through the rest and pull what I don’t need. It was fun to have these goals in mind instead of the normal reviewing of whether I use clothes and which ones should be donated.
2. Collect special quality clothes that are “like new” and co-run a clothing swap at my house with some close personal friends.  Donate all “left-over” clothes to the local library thrift shop. — getting there, soon.
3. Meet sometime in the next few months with a clothing consultant, before my next closet clear out, and get advice about how to redesign or update my wardrobe.  (I already met with my hair stylist for new product- see below- and also met with a talented Clinique consultant –I am a Clinique fanatic.)  I will be contacting this consultant since I appreciate her point of view, blog, and practice: @getputtogether  http://www.puttogether.net/
    I had a wonderful experience in mid-January meeting with consultant Holley Shepard @getputtogether   Her suggestions, ideas, and clothing pictures continue to inspire me. Knowing I can email her a picture for suggestion or simply approval is reassuring and appreciated. Having a core shopping list and pictures of types of clothes to purchase is extrememly helpful. I plan to continue using ideas shared and also blog about them randomly. For now, I’ll say that the webpage: http://www.puttogether.net is the perfect resource for beginning a personal reflection on style interests and needs. 3/12 New post coming soon about the closet overhaul I just went through. 5/12
4. Begin finding specific styles, beyond my love of casual, from brands I can then watch for at thrift stores, eBay, and other wise shopping/sale areas.  – this will be a continual project. Shopping is exhausting for me vs. exciting. My big focus is finding discounts and reasonable prices on clothes. Suggestions from Holley have really been helpful. I found new pants, skirts, and shirts. Unfortunately, I have had bad shoe karma. I’ve ordered shoes and returned them in addition to going to boot sales and not finding a thing that really fit both personality and needs. I found ways to combine and use various pieces of clothes together. Changed my perspective about quality, clothes care, and shopping resources as well. 3/12 LOVING MY NEW BOOTS that I bought two months ago, comfortable and cute. 5/12
5. Never go anywhere without a book, for goodness sakes: no patience for lines, wasted time, or loss of a good opportunity to read. Love this goal, always following through on it.
6. Slow down and actually read the style sections in the magazines I consistently enjoy (Ex: Real Simple and O Magazine) – meh, often what I see doesn’t match my style, but I’m looking patiently for ideas that inspire me more now.
7. Post on The Styling Librarian blog once a month about style, beyond books.  Address other goals within the posts. – I’m a little late on this. Kept putting off since I had new ideas and kept thinking I needed to blog in a lengthy manner about this topic. Shall lighten this expectation. Perhaps blog about one little new treasure, etc. 3/12 NOT CONSISTENT, I find this to be fine. I can lower expectation as my blog evolves. 5/12
8. Probably the hardest one for me:  actually pull out a skirt or dress (I have a few that are tolerable) and wear to work at least two times per month.  I’ve invested in cute new tights, just need to follow through. LOVING accomplishing this goal now that I have a few new cute skirts and know how to accessorize and wear dresses I already had. What fun it is! I’m up to doing this weekly already! Pictures of some of these outfits actually made the blog in book blog pictures in the past month.  STILL KEEPING THIS UP! May, 2012.

Past Blog Posts on Style:

http://thestylinglibrarian.com/2012/01/07/styling-how/

http://thestylinglibrarian.com/2012/01/19/style-and-book-treasures/

http://thestylinglibrarian.com/2012/02/17/styling-librarian-style-february-update/

http://thestylinglibrarian.com/2012/03/31/styling-librarian-style-the-elusive-topic/

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