twelveofour

Note the time and the date: Fashion doesn’t fit in my life right now.

I’ve got bigger fish to fry in my life (debt, career, other moves) and that has corralled my wardrobe into a comfortable and safe black on black no-fuss zone which I’m quite happy with because it requires little to no time to get up and get dressed. I still care what I look like, but I feel more comfortable in a uniform of quality clothes that can mix and match easily than a closet full of trendy and now items.

I’ve taken to wearing the same thing every day. Literally. Like this up top? It’s easy and gets me to a meeting and back. It’s both anonymous and so me (the Frida braids, the necklace, the casualness of the sandals). So I get up and put on a variation of the same black on black outfit as the day before. It’s a product of busyness — in the truest sense of the word I’m busy with multiple projects and just don’t have the headspace to think about a creative outfit — and It’s also a product of burnout — emotional and physical.

Why? Because at the start of the year I was pretty clear with my number one goal to achieve this year was zero debt. I bought a house, took vacations, and bought clothes and shoes. I was living the American Dream! This piled up after pretty much years of playing it fast and loose with my two credit cards and my vague eventual plans to pay it all down. Bad news.

Good news: I’m much more far ahead than I ever thought I’d be be end of March, but mannnn, I never imagined it would be so exhausting. I was in a five figure debt territory and now I’m hovering in around manageable thousands that will be gone in a matter of months — as long as I’m continuing to work at my full time job, work overtime, work on side projects, work on selling my superfluous clothes, etc.

So where does fashion fit in all this? It doesn’t. Fashion only technically fits into my life in the basic need to put clothes on my body to get out the door. This means I have less to work with, so the items in my closet don’t serve a fashion purpose more than they are business right now. Other than seeking out only quality items and pretty much getting rid of anything else, I amnot spending the oodles of time I used to on outfits and clothes as I used to in my more free-wheeling credit card days.

C itizens Mark blazer (Size 2, c/o) | Theory silk pants (m) | Newbark sandals (8, run 1/2 small) | cave collective necklace

Even though I couldn't pinpoint one standout show from NYFW that appealed to me from an inspirational point of view, I am starting to see some lovely things to takeaway from a 10,000 ft. view. For example, how awesome is it that so many designers put all-black looks with such consistency? I'm pulling together my top three here, but in reality there are dozens. Maybe the designers are equally bored with the strange middle ground fashion is in: between embracing digital completely and not knowing what to do with the non-exclusivity of fashion now. Just thinking out loud! Anyway, I like how the changes in texture keep it all interesting and break up the notoriously difficult to photograph black-on-black.