Why Do Our
Wardrobes Change Without Asking Us?
(a thinking aloud blog post )
We don’t choose clothes the way we think we do. We tell ourselves we’re choosing colour's, shapes, styles — but really we’re choosing states of being. We dress for the body we’re in, the brain we’re carrying, the season we’re surviving.
And sometimes the shift is so slow we don’t notice it until one day the dresses are gone the tights are gone and the trousers have multiplied like mushrooms after rain.
It isn’t that we stopped loving dresses. It’s that our life changed, and our wardrobe quietly followed.
Menopause changes the body. Neurodivergence changes the sensory rules. Motherhood changes the logistics , Grandchildren , one step away from your own. Confidence changes the silhouette. Grief changes the palette. Healing changes everything.
Sometimes we dress to hide. Sometimes we dress to be seen. Sometimes we dress to get through the day without screaming at a waistband. Sometimes we dress like butterflies. Sometimes we dress like Armour.
And sometimes — like me — we used to be black on the inside and colorful on the outside because we didn’t have the words yet. Now I can be black on the outside and black on the inside or colorful on the outside and colorful on the inside because I finally know what I mean.
So why do I reach for trousers now? Why do I buy pink trousers I don’t even like? Why does practicality win when I swear I’m a dress person?
Because the wardrobe is a mirror that updates itself before we do. It shifts with the version of us we haven’t fully met yet. It rearranges itself around the life we’re actually living, not the one we think we’re living.
Maybe that’s the real truth: our clothes know before we do.
Part Two: Embracing the Wardrobe Yo-Yo
It turns out our wardrobe changes because we change. It’s a constant dance of hormone shifts, gut feelings, and daily moods.One day you need comfort clothes, and the next you feel bold enough for something new that you bought even though you weren’t completely sure at the time. And that’s perfectly okay.
The beauty is that you can just be who you choose to be that day — and that’s a real gift, especially during perimenopause and menopause, when you’re discovering who you are or just who you actually manage to be in that moment - multiple times a day.
Closing Stanza: Recreating the Future Me
One of the reasons I do those Instagram #OOTD Outfit Of The Day reels is that I was trying to get back to the old me — and then I realized: who is the old me? But actually maybe more simply I was looking for a new me all along.
What I’ve learned is that I can take a little piece from every era I’ve loved. The bubble hem from one decade, the trainers from another. I can even wear the tutu I adored at thirty now that I’m fifty two, and it still sparks joy.
There’s no set uniform, no rulebook. I can mix eras, styles, moods, and just be who I choose to be that day. And I’ll take that for now, because sometimes not having to think about who or what I’m supposed to be is the greatest freedom of all.
Comments
Post a Comment