Dare Not to Compare!

There have been some great posts on folks' blogs lately, from saving money and spending less/spending wisely and investment dressing versus faster fashion.

These topics seems cyclical to me. 

I did a post myself on investment dressing in May of last year that generated a 114 comments!

I think as one season begins to wind down we are naturally drawn to the next season.  At the same time, we review the current season's purchases and decide what worked, what must go, what was a "what the hell was I thinking?" purchase.

These reviews make us determine if the next season's wardrobe options contain any gaps and if those gaps exist  how will we fill them?  Are we spending too much, too little?  Are we getting a good bang for our buck?

I do not know if men suffer from this as much as women - GSL, if you are reading, please chime in, dear man!


In the early days of the blog world or online I would see something attractive on someone and think "wow, I love that, I think I'll have one of those, too, please." or I might think "I don't have that, why don't I have that, am I the only person in the whole wide world that doesn't have that?"

I would forget that I wasn't six feet tall.  Or a size 0. or didn't live in California or wasn't invited out weekly to cocktails.    So there were deadly mistakes....

I'm not going to lie: this sweater was a mistake and I gave it away a few months later...

Quite a while ago now I switched and began to use blogs and retail sites as pure inspiration.  And if there were rules or "must haves" I treated those as suggestions.  I am convinced that these so-called lists of essentials have made us all kind of clone-like.  Sure we may be tasteful, but is it us?

Well some of it is.  But do we always want to be tasteful?  (This is the rebel in me coming out!)
 
One thing that less expensive clothes allow us to do is dabble in styles not typically our own.  The boho top or the minimalist dress, the corporate suit or the romantic lace top.

One of the best purchases I made in 2013 was a faux leather H&M moto jacket.  I have so much fun with it.  I would never have bought the real leather version as I would have second-guessed myself as to whether or not I would wear it enough to justify the price.  It turns out I might have been able to!

The sequin dress below was a J Crew score for a very cheap price 3 years ago.  When I wear it with a plain black tuxedo blazer, and black heels it looks quite tasteful and fun, as opposed to the Studio 54 version! 

I read a quote the other day by Iyanla Vanzant that really struck me

I'm not all that familiar with Iyanla, except that I know she has a show on Oprah's network, but I was so struck by this quote that it stopped me dead in my tracks.

I am trying hard these days to be grateful, and I am especially trying NOT to compare myself to anyone else anymore about ANYTHING.  When we compare we are either putting someone else on the short end of the stick our ourselves.

So my two cents (we don't even have pennies any more in Canada!) is this: dress how you want to dress and buy where you want to buy and spend however much you want to spend so long as you can afford it.  There is no one path to happiness and no one definition of beauty or perfect taste. 

So while I may be using someone like Sophia Coppola as a muse, with a bit of Kerry Washington sprinkled in like fairy dust, I will not be comparing myself to these women.  I would encourage them not to get caught up in what I'm wearing either, in case it makes them sad...



Kerry - I'm dressing and drinking for the three of us: you , me and your baby...
 

No Sophia, you CAN'T borrow my $40 Monoprix dress...Sacre Bleu!


 



Dress and please yourself.  I am pretty sure if you do so, others will be pleased for you.   

Some days we are thin, some years, not so much.  Some things work, others, not so much.  I will continue to make mistakes, but they will be interesting mistakes!

Have an awesome day and no matter how jealous you may feel as you look at these drop-dead gorgeous photos of me remember this: I have a whole team working on me, around the clock.  Don't beat yourself up.... :-)

Have a great day and stay safe out there!