My Secondhand Year

I know it’s been a while since I last posted (and I’m sure you’ve all been checking your inbox impatiently every day for weeks now), and that’s because I didn’t want to get repetitive in terms of what I write about here. I mean you can only pontificate about the scourge that is overconsumption, especially of cheap clothes, and the surprising joys of virtuously “shopping your closet” so much before people might start to yawn, right?

Because when you distill this little experiment I’m doing this year, this is what it comes down to:

• We all need to be more mindful about what we buy.
• The most sustainable wardrobe is the one you already have.
• Shopping has become an activity unto itself (in my case, I think it’s mostly a procrastination tactic), and the result is just plain waste.

All that being said…it’s fall. The leaves are turning, Whole Foods is selling pumpkin spice hand soap, and it’s damn cold when I walk my dogs in the morning.

Oh, and I have the urge to buy something cozy (and new).

When I was a teenager, every year my friends and I eagerly awaited the delivery to our mailboxes of the epic back-to-school issue of Seventeen magazine. With it came the promise of a picture-perfect fall (complete with perfect clothes, hair, and boyfriends, of course), and it also provided most of the images that papered the walls of my bedroom. And I have visceral memories of getting those fall catalogs from J. Crew as a young adult — they were truly the embodiment of my 1990s fantasy life.

Nowadays, there are multiple Pinterest boards dedicated to “apple-picking outfits,” and it’s impossible to escape the onslaught of emails and catalogs from retailers featuring gorgeous people strolling through autumn leaves, cuddling with puppies, drinking hot drinks, or playing football while wearing exquisite wool, plaid, tweed, and (my favorite) corduroy clothing. It’s enough to make a dedicated non-shopper cave.

But then I remind myself that the fall shown in these marketing images is mostly a fantasy. Where I live (Denver, Colorado), it’s beautiful this time of year, however, there are very few days when you can actually wear a wool fisherman sweater (too hot) or evenings when a corduroy jacket would suffice (too cold). Autumn in reality is frankly a sartorial challenge: you’re cold in the morning, so you pull out one of your cozy sweaters, only to wish you had worn shorts and a tank top by noon.

Also, I just reminded myself that I have a plastic bin full of wool and corduroy things in the back of my closet. I’m getting antsy to bust it all out and reacquaint myself with what I have, and I’m hopeful that rummaging through sweaters and scarves I haven’t seen since last spring will curb my urge to shop. That is, assuming the moths haven’t gotten there first.

Because, even though I’m sitting here in a tennis skirt and flip-flops, I’m sure I’ll be “needing” some tweed layers and cozy knee-high socks for apple-picking very soon.