inaugural substack outfit post

++The spring round of my group program Making Space begins on April 2. We’ll meet on Tuesdays at 7pm eastern for 8 weeks and we’ll work through defining your style, editing your closet, and learning how to shop mindfully in a supportive group setting. Go here for more info and to get on the waitlist for an early bird discount. 

Substack feels like a very different format to post photos, so I’m sure I’ll evolve these outfit posts as we go. For today, here’re descriptions of a few outfits I wore over the last ten days or so with any other thoughts that come up along the way!

I’m very conflicted about adding links to items here. This article from

Totally Recommend

explains so well why I have really really never never wanted to be an influencer, unless it is to influence you not to listen to influencers. However: you all are autonomous adults, affiliate links are part of the way I earn income, it’s easier to put them in once instead of fielding a bunch of questions, and obviously I’m only linking things that I actually use and wear. I will include them when available, just know that I am NOT trying to sell you things.

Starting out weak, here’s a version of what I wear on days when I don’t officially take an “outfit” photo. It’s often something I have worn to bed the night before or will wear to bed that night. This is more colorful than usual because I’ve had a little project going for my activewear to incorporate some of the color combos I love but don’t feel comfortable in in my daily wear. The top is thrifted, the bag is Uniqlo, the leggings are gifted from Universal Standard, and the shoes you can’t really see are these Tevas.

This outfit is a result of trying to wear this jacket that I don’t have a problem with but somehow haven’t worn once this winter. It was…meh. The jacket is from Eileen Fisher but no longer available, the jeans are thrifted vintage, which I’ll share more about below, the tee is from Old Navy and I would recommend it if you need a good white tee, the flats are secondhand Everlane day glove.

This is my current favorite outfit. I take photos of many of my outfits (usually only on the days I get out of pajamas), and most of them are just fine, but as they say, not every day is a slay. I feel super cool and smart and badass in this one. Basically, any time there’s a chance to leave my home office and go somewhere where there are other people I’ll know, I try to take advantage of the opportunity to put on an outfit I like. This was to go to my kid’s parent teacher conference. Also special about this outfit is that I have never in my shopping life found vintage jeans that actually fit me. I found these men’s jeans at the St. Vincent de Paul outlet thrift store, and probably paid $2 for them, and I am in love. I thrifted the denim top from the men’s section at Savers. The boots are the result of a year long search for exactly what I wanted and I finally found them at Nordstrom, they’re Kenneth Cole.

Here’s the outfit with a thrifted jacket and my secondhand Hyer Goods bag.

mindfulcloset

A post shared by @mindfulcloset

In case you’ve never had the pleasure of shopping at one, here’s what it’s like to shop at a thrift outlet.

I wore this when I took myself out to a solo date to watch the Alvin Ailey II dance company perform. I didn’t feel like getting super dressed up, so I’m wearing a Zara white tee, secondhand black sweater, (obvi) the vintage jeans from above, a thrifted vintage coat, thrifted black bag, and secondhand Eileen Fisher shoes that I found on Poshmark. I’m really mad that the shoes ended up ripping my feet to shreds because I really like them. I literally walked barefoot out of the performance and back to my car and they went in the resell pile immediately.

The funny expression on my face is because I forgot to take a still photo of this one and had to screencap from a video. This was for a Suzuki class with my youngest (see above about taking any chance to be seen in public to put on an outfit). Same jeans again (duh), same boots, white button down from Able (great company, made one of the better efforts at size inclusion I’ve seen, but I fear they’re not long for this world), and the trench coat is gifted¹ from Universal Standard.

That’s all for this installment! Let me know what you’d like less/more of. Do you like the still photos? I’d love to share videos, but Substack doesn’t have a way to do portrait orientation so they look like this, with the big black bars on the sides and it’s just not pretty to me.

If you have a friend that also doesn’t want to be on IG but does want to see outfit photos, please pass this along!

P.S. I’m traveling for my kids’ spring break, so there won’t be a discussion thread this week!

1. Let me know if you’re interested in hearing how the “gifted” sausage is made. It’s not pretty.