One of the fringe benefits of having girls as opposed to boy is that it is possible for me at least to upcycle my clothes.This summer I managed to achieve this not once but twice.
Daisy has taken a big bag of all my old silk camisoles that I failed to off load on eBay plus my treasured but languishing collection of Jigsaw thermal cardies, she looked so lovely in them that I decided to let them go and begged her to hand wash them and under no circumstances were they to go near a tumble drier. And yes, I am the worlds biggest optimist.
The more surprising upcycle was a bag of cardigans that had eaten away at my guilty psyche, it had been a couple of years since I had bought them. On impulse I spent far too much money on some cotton cardies from Kew, I really though they were the answer to all my problems, great colours, lovely shapes, etc, etc, in fact the colours were faded and really belonged on the beach and really the shapes were a little boxy and they lacked the fluidity of my COS cardies. So they sat unloved and unworn. Then recently Kitty adopted some Uniqlo cardies of mine and I thought maybe she would like them. She loved them, and what is quite sobering is that despite the fact that they are L & XL they look lovely on her, they drape so much better draped over her tiny frame she is an 8! So really they were probably not big enough. Now she is happy and I am happy especially as she wear them a lot, and now they can be machined washed without fear of loosing a couple of crucial millimeters.
I have found that by just not going into these shops saves repeating my mistakes, but I confess that despite all my very best laid plans my fingers have twitched in GAP recently. I did not succumb but really there are some lovely jumpers in there!
My favourite fashion writer has thankfully jumped ship from the Times and gone over to the Telegraph, Lisa Armstrong is such a good writer and now you can read her on the brilliant Telegraph website. Her description of hair disasters is identical to mine and the book she describes I have ordered on amazon, any book that recognises the style of Nancy Cunard will always be welcome on my bookshelf.
2 comments:
Funny, I just did this same thing, upcycling (good term, thank you!) some clothes to my daughters, even parting with a fabulous, expensive enough pair of Michael Kors ankle boots. I reluctantly admitted that the two times a year I could persuade myself to stand the pain of the heels was not enough to justify the closet space. They kept reminding me of the siilly triumph of hope over reality that took too much money from my bank account--at least with my daughter happily wearing them, I could see that money buy some value.
I do better, too, if I just stay out of shops most of the time and certain shops all of the time. I'm doing better, but it's still all too easy to get caught up in the promise of the retail moment!
I must admit I get as much pleasure watching them wear my bad buys as I would if I could wear them. I am glad you have joined this great club too, although your upcycling of Michael Kors raises the bar to a whole new level!
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