Dress One : The Challenge Beings ...

Hello … My name is Skye and I have a dress problem! 

Well I don’t exactly see it has a problem but if my bank account and wardrobe could have an open discussion about me they would probably agree that I do indeed have a dress problem. 

8 years ago my life changed dramatically by moving to New York.  One of the side effects of living in New York was that I fell into fashion.  Not that in the past I didn’t care about the way I looked or wasn’t into buying new clothes (my mother will certainly tell you I liked buying new clothes!) it was just that the trek to the clothing store was probably limited to maybe once a fortnight or a next pay. 

New York opened my eyes to ducking into the closest shop and buying a new outfit at lunch time, being able to afford to buy another new dress for that black tie event or just having so many many stores to peruse and browse for the next cute addition to my wardrobe.  Let me also just say I wasn’t earning bucket loads .. anyone who has travelled to America will tell you clothing is way way way cheaper than here in Australia.

After agonising for months I finally decided to make the move back to Australia.  Which meant there was one big problem I needed to sort out before I left: my clothes!!  I had so many clothes that to get them all back to Australia may have meant hiring an entire container ship just to myself.  Okay that may be a little dramatic. But it did mean something else equally as dramatic …Bringing over my toughest girlfriend to put me in line: Rachel!  Rachel had been through this experience before with me a little over a year earlier when my cupboard had actually collapsed (under the strain of way too many dresses).  But in fairness it was a cheap plastic closet from Bed, Bath and Beyond ... my closet was obviously from beyond!

Rachel was immune to my whining of ‘one day I may just fit into this’ or ‘but that reminds me of my ex boyfriend 5 years ago’ and especially the ‘but it’s too cute to throw away’.  She even had to run intervention when I sneakily stole back the Gaelic football jersey given to me by one of my worst ex boyfriends that she believed worthy for the dumpster .. and I believed held great sentimental value.  In the end a compromise was sought with the jersey being given to a Colombian friend who was going to send it to his family.  I also held an open inspection for other tenants in my apartment building to come and take off-cuts .. and surprisingly another lady came and shipped some of my clothes and sheets to Colombia.  A friend helped me lug the rest to the Salvation Army where two full garbage bags hopefully went on to live exciting lives with new owners (a few months earlier they had received four garbage bags).  Lucky for me many cute outfits had made the cut and were squashed into my overloaded suitcases and bound for Australia.

Since moving home meant I had to spend most of my money on doing excatly that - moving home, I moved back in with my Mum and Nan.  My Nan, who was in charge of the washing, was astounded at what I had accumulated and every day I got dressed for work she would exclaim “is that another new one?” – most of the time it wasn’t, I just hadn’t gotten to wearing it yet.  My childhood wardrobe was so tiny I literally had to breathe in myself in order to fit the clothes back in the cupboard! 

I did get excited with the fact I could begin shopping in Australia again .. only to get to the shops and find clothing here was twice times the price of America!  Now being home for a year and a half I have searched and found places that are cheaper .. which probably hasn’t been the best thing to help with my addiction.  After moving out from my family’s home in the middle of this year, my only request to my two new roommates was that I needed the room with the most amount of wardrobe space, and after seeing my clothes they quickly agreed.

So what is the purpose of this blog?!

6 ago months ago I began my latest dating disaster…which funnily enough has lead me to this blog.  Well .. they do say something good must come out of something bad!  After he asked me for coffee I did what most girls do ... I looked to my wardrobe.  It was July 2011, winter here in Australia, so when planning an outfit for the first date there are many things to think about: Where is the date going to be? What is the weather? And how much cleavage should I allow to show that I’m sexy but still leaving enough to the imagination?.

I guess I chose the right thing because we had a second date and many more to follow.  Again the same dilemma of questions for what to wear on a date appeared, only this time there was one thing added to consider: what can I wear that he hasn’t seen me in before!?  After two months I realised I was still doing this.  He hadn’t seen me in the same dress more than once!  This became a running joke with him and his roommate (who is now one of my closest friends and the best breakup settlement I’ve ever received) and it became a challenge for him never to see me in anything twice (more mine than his).  To this day all these months later he never did and neither has his roommate ... and the saddest thing was I was wearing a super cute dress when we broke up - it's ok the dress and I still have each other thats way more important than any guy!

So this idea came into my head.  How long could I go wearing a different dress each day?  And tadaaa here we are!  The rules and guidelines for this project are not set in stone ... but there are a few guidelines I’d like to propose to help me on my way:

1.       The Dress A Day will commence on the first day of my work in the New Year (i.e. today 3^rd of January).

2.       The Dress A Day project will be limited to Monday – Friday (I hope no one thinks this is cheating but a girl needs to take a break on the weekends).

3.     Only dresses already in my closet can be counted as part of this project.  I would like to say I won’t buy any new dresses between now and then but I don’t want to raise everyone’s expectations or mine and not meet them!

4.       I am still deciding if there should be any limitations on wearing dresses that are inappropriate for work i.e evening gowns, ball gowns, bridesmaids dresses – Although a friend did say she would pay money to see me at work with ball gown on ... and more money does mean a new dress!

5.       I will take a picture each day of the dress I wear.

6.       If a dress doesn’t fit I must give it to charity.
7.       Feature stories, videos ... my extremely funny and intriguing stories will also keep readers entertained!

8.       Suggestions are always welcome!

Emma my roommate and best friend is also a great person to give me advice on my fashion choices and you will learn more about her later .. her comments may appear every now and again ...

Yours in dresses,
Skye

Day 1
Dress : Floral Summer
Bought : A Year Ago.
Price Range : $10 to $15 (On sale).
Where bought : 7 Angels outlet on Swanston Street Melbourne CBD.
Emma's Comments : I think the dress is too big for you .. Me : why do you say that? Emma : Well it just fell off your shoulder!
What I like about it : Its comfortable .. light weight and has a fun print.
Tag Info : Hmm there is no tag! Maybe I cut it off?
Photo Credit: EJackman

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