We’ve had some lovely sunny days, and after some wonderful winter purchases, I’ve been warm enough to start thinking about a 2019 Signature Wardrobe Summer Plan.

2019 Summer Plan

This year, I’m taking a slightly different tack from previous years, just to see how it goes. There are two main components:

1. In previous years, I’ve worked on a street v house split, mainly focused on street clothes. But the reality is I probably spend less than 5% of my time away from home, so I need to spend more time and effort planning what to wear at home (and money buying it). And like many of us who work from home, headology is going to be a big part of that.
2. I’ve generally worked with “outfits” because that’s the modern term for a clothing ensemble, but in the old days, they called it a “costume”. Following some movie conversations with assorted Katys and Toselands, I’ve been thinking more about how costumes represent the characters, and the situations they find themselves in. It sort of falls into the appropriate category.

So this year, my focus is on Summer costumes to wear at home.

Though as Katy pointed out, I’m probably not going to change clothes during the day as I swap from role to role. And as Toseland said, I already have both housekeeping and writing outfits, and what’s all the fuss about anyway?

Characters

I’ve got two characters to shop for:

Housekeeper/Gardner/Handyman

She works for about an hour or two in the morning, and about an hour at night. Most days she cooks, cleans, washes clothes, waters the garden in a combination of lifting, carrying, stepping, lunging, and wiping. Plus she sits down to plan menus, pay bills and shop online.

In the past, she’s worn a semi-fitted cotton-linen blend dress and has been known to catch the bus to the shops in it.

It’s a look that works going forward.

Writer/Editor/Graphic Artist

She works for six to eight hours a day, mostly sitting. Though she’s ordered a height-adjustable desk so there’ll be some standing coming up as well. Occasionally she paces as she works ideas out, and watches the birds from her Library window.

For the most part, she slouches at her desk in track pants and t-shirts. But compression tights she needs to wear now are basically bandages, and the texture catches on the fluffy lining and annoys her. When she goes to the library for research, she wears street clothes, usually jeans and woven linen tunics, but similarly, not good with compression tights.

The kind of dress we’ve been talking about for the housekeeper will work for the author too.

Which is great, because I love dresses!

Budget

Seeing as I’m working from scratch, need a load of new underpants, am working towards losing weight, and have some wiggle room in my 2019 budget, I’m going to say maximum $1,000, but try to keep it under $500.

Appropriateness

Right. Summer.

Electricity prices are skyrocketing, they’re threatening rolling blackouts, and I don’t think it’s worth putting the air-con on for one person. I’ll be relying on the old fashioned closing all the doors and windows until a little before DB gets home.

Plus, I’m still taking the drugs that make me prone to sunburn, so I need to think about more rather than less coverage. And the winter hasn’t really helped the fluid retention, so whatever I wear has to leave room for compression tights and swollen feet.

I might also consider working at the local library a few times a week (for their air-con), though that puts me in the realm of street clothes and I have plenty of those so I’m not going to even think about that.

Though having said that, the right kind of dress could be both street and house.

Style

Going back to the building blocks:

• Colour: red, white and blue.
• Pattern: one large graphic image or a few words are enough to make me happy.
• Silhouette: My favourite is a 3:2 ratio – long top over a long bottom (e.g. tunic over jeans.
• Design Line: Semi-fitted.
• Texture: Light and Smooth.

Which gives us a fairly clear picture of relaxed-fit cotton or linen clothes for starters.

If we were developing an actual tv/movie character’s wardrobe, at this point we’d be looking for brands and current season styles that epitomised their essential nature, e.g., happy prints, complicated detailing or horror black. Or maybe just buying stuff from whatever retailer was funding/sponsoring the show.

Wardrobe Review

Still not bothering to unpack my stored Summer clothes as I haven’t lost enough weight to need to.

Which leaves me with the following house clothes (that fit) for these two characters to wear over Summer:

• 1 tunic
• 4 dresses
• 3 lightweight track pants
• half a dozen t-shirts

Though I only like two of the dresses and one of them is perhaps a little too snug…

Planned Purchases

Right now I’m good for hats, t-shirts, track pants and socks.

Needs

I need undies.

And I know I said house clothes. but last Summer I found most of my shoes were too tight to wear, or in some cases actually get on my feet let alone walk around in. This Summer, I’ll need at least one pair of flat shoes/sandals for days when my feet are very swollen. And that means something adjustable I can buy and wear now as well as later. I’d prefer buckles (can’t stand velcro), though I doubt I’ll have much choice when we get down to it.

Wants

Another dress or two that fits and that I really like, because I’m a tiny bit worried about what words will come out if I’m not happy with my clothes…

Shopping Plan

So.

Priorities

1. Undies! Lots of them! Over the last few years, I’ve noticed a marked decrease in the quality of my usual brand, and I’m not prepared to put up with the latest incarnation. Sadly there’ll have to be some experimentation before I find something better, say $100.
2. Adjustable shoes. I feel old just thinking about it – should I look for school sandals? Say $150 per pair.
3. Dresses, say $125 each.
4. Space for something unplanned and amazing to present itself, say $200.
5. Provision for exchange rate madness, overspend (etc.) $150.

Get Ready

I’m a little bit nervous about shopping for Summer. Partly it’s the amount of walking that’ll be required, and the difficulty of getting what I’ve planned against what’s available.

But I can mostly get by with what I’ve got, so maybe it won’t be that bad.

How is your 2019 Signature Wardrobe Summer Plan coming along?