A Dilemma of the Stylish Kind!

I had to get that top altered at the eleventh hour for the upcoming party. The dress code mandated wearing something floral, pastel, or summery, and I was surprised I had just that one thing in my entire wardrobe to match the requirements. It was a first-hand affirmation to a piece my friend Mitali had sent just a few days ago. With a brilliant stroke of humor, the author describes the dilemma most women face when it comes to deciding what to wear. Despite having a closet spilling all over with clothes, the commonly heard statement is “I have nothing to wear”.

My better half and I do differ at least in one arena. Anytime I ask him to buy clothes at the store, he has the same answer that he already has too many and does not need any more. Embarrassed as I am to acknowledge the truth, I cannot say the same for myself though I am the one who shops more frequently than him. In my own defense, I would like to get it straight that I am not a shopaholic. It’s just that the psychology of men and women operate in different ways. So is this another point to validate that men are from Mars and women from Venus? Well, let me not get into those complications and momentarily focus on the dressing issues of my fraternity. Why do we have lots and yet nothing to don? Delving into the psychology of women, I have come up with some observations.

So often have I heard young mommies raving about the wide selection of apparels for their little girls! And as I was bringing up my boy, I realized there wasn’t much to choose from. Well this scenario escalates to encompass the adults too. Not that men cannot expand their horizons, but let us accept the fact that their clothing choice is limited when compared to their female counterparts. It will not be an exaggeration to say that ladies have attires for every season. For the fashion-conscious female, the summer and fall clothing is clearly distinguishable from what she wears in the winter and spring. So this explains the reason for having plenty.

In the wildest of dreams, would anyone have imagined two decades ago that social media would dictate one’s clothing choices? A new trend that emerges in the social media landscape becomes popular overnight with a beeline of consumers going for it.

At the other end of the spectrum, we have those who are extraordinarily conscious about their social media appearance. Someone funnily remarked that prior to a friend’s wedding, she was going through her albums on Facebook to make sure that she did not repeat any of the outfits she had worn earlier. She was worried that her potential photo likers would think she wore the same clothes all the time! For the Facebook/Instagram addict, exhibiting a wide range of outfits in the photo collection amounts to conveying a message akin to the maxim that “variety is the spice of life.”

Now what essentially are the reasons for running out of clothes although you have “God’s plenty”? Well, most times we buy without thinking. Something at the store catches our eye, and we decide at that moment that it’s a must-have. We may not have taken into account when and how many times we are going to wear it. The wisdom comes much later when we realize it cannot be worn on all occasions and that we have to wait for that special day to wear it. Also, we buy at the spur of the moment without taking into consideration whether the piece matches with any other clothing or accessories we have. So there comes one unnecessary addition to our collection simply because we mindlessly shopped.

“Hey where did you buy that dress/top?” is a question often asked. Whenever women see something beautiful others are wearing, the tendency is to buy it. One common mistake we tend to make is that it may not look good on us just because it suited someone else.

Buying clothes of the same kind or color is another slip-up. We end up having too many outfits in our favorite color or design, and there comes a point when we get bored of donning the same look and feel that we have nothing to wear even though we may be running out of space in that closet!

Being kind and emotional is a soft trait often admirable, but not when the expectations are unrealistic. You may have a deep sentimental attachment to those clothes from yesteryears that you can no longer wear. But not getting rid of them with the hope that you might some day fit into them after losing those twenty odd pounds can be utterly foolish. Most times they stay as showpieces, and you even tend to forget they are in the pile.

A very dangerous attraction that women get lured by is a sale running in a store. We get so intensely drawn to the low prices that we happen to buy stuff that we might have otherwise never purchased if the price was higher. It may not be our type, yet we buy the clothing because it is on sale, and the chances are it will stay unworn because we did not like it in the first place.

I have brainstormed and come up with the reasons behind this stylish dilemma. Yet I have not said anything new. It’s just plain common sense, but we still keep repeating the same mistakes. As wise as I may seem at this moment, I am not quite confident that there won’t come another one of those days when I’ll be standing before those clothes in my closet with a lost look and mutter to myself, “I have nothing to wear!”