Last week I posted a challenge on LinkedIn, asking my network to join me in supporting Arianna Huffington’s #stylerepeats movement. The idea behind it: women are expected to appear at every event in a new outfit. That means women spend a lot of time shopping for clothing and accessories and styling their outfits — time that could be better spent on their core businesses, with their families, etc.
Thank you Beth Massa, Majlis Schweitzer, Jeanine Van Varik Houben & Odeaya Uziahu for joining me in this challenge!
I remembered around lunchtime on Monday that I had not planned out my repeat outfit for the week. Based on my agenda, it had to be Monday’s outfit that I wore three times. Not a great choice of a men’s style button-down shirt (cotton stretch) and jeans, considering the temps went to 26 degrees and I was going to be golfing two of those days. But #stylerepeats is about saving time and energy.
Day 1:
Office day = desk work, followed by some putting practice on the golfcourse with tech guru Mary Sobiechowski. I was more self-conscious than usual about my clothing, thinking about keeping the outfit clean for two more days.
Day 2:
Online shopping for a client; Skype video call with a colleague. catching up on emails and phone calls; followed by my first business meeting on the driving range with marketing expert Sid Gupta. It was boiling hot! I was glad the bucket of balls was only half full…. After half an hour I was drenched in sweat and feeling disgusting. It was hard to concentrate in the meeting. Had I not committed to doing #stylerepeats, I would have worn a short sleeved shirt that’s not as tightly woven, and lighter-weight pants. There was no salvaging this stinky, sweaty combination for Day 3. I was forced to wash the shirt in the sink. I hate handwashing. It’s just not me. To be honest, #stylerepeats feels like more work than #justwearwhatyouwant, and work that I’m not willing to do.
Day 3:
Online shopping for multiple clients. In my freshly hand-washed and ironed shirt and jeans I felt fine, although not exactly clean. My handwashing skills are somewhat lacking… The good news is that I once again didn’t have to see any clients, although I noticed that I was still feeling really self-conscious about wearing an outfit I wasn’t wild about, and one that I knew wasn’t really clean.
Conclusion:
If I’m going to commit to more #stylerepeats, it’s going to take a lot of practice before I get comfortable with it. I should also try a less extreme formula, e.g. instead of 3x in one week, choose one outfit and wear it once a week for three weeks in a row. Or wear the same pants three days in one week with different tops, shoes and accessories to change up the look.
The goal of #stylerepeats is to spend less time on clothing and accessories. During my experiment, I felt like the mental energy I spent worrying about stinking or spilling something on my clothes outweighed the time I would have spent picking out clean clothes every day (which admittedly doesn’t take me very long).
Do you like #stylerepeats? Tell me about your experience here in the Comments.
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Thank you, that was enjoyable to read.