Thinking about color

Alright. So I have always been a neutral girl. Buying only black, brown or white shoes so as to insure that they can be worn with anything in my wardrobe. At one point a few summers ago I was looking through my clothes and noticed a trend of A LOT of white t-shirts (because they matched any color of sweater, which still remains to be a fashion necessity most months out of the year) and quite a few darker things like maroons and blues. Ummm... something needed to change. So I set a small goal for myself to have a t-shirt in each color of the rainbow. Not a big deal for most, but pretty lofty for someone who's closet could be described in little more than the word 'bland.' That summer was full of thrift shopping as I hunted dozens upon dozens of racks of t-shirts for purples, yellows, greens, pinks and variations of blue. None of these had any sort of designs on them, mind you, they were merely solids of one color or the other. But it was a big step. I was still under the impression that white and black and brown were the only colors that could ever truly match another color such as purple and my sweaters stayed the same while the colors under the sweaters changed to all shades of a butterfly's wing.

Once I had a variation of colors in my drawers I had another road block to overcome. I love layers with a passion and I could always be found with a cami underneath a t-shirt. However, this cami was always the same white lace cami that matched everything. Trendy, not. So I took another breath and went on a search for colored and printed camis to layer with. This was an adventure as I started putting colors together that I had only seen on other people. My wardrobe was growing and it was definitely worth all the time spent scavenging for a good deal. It was really hard for me to attach these clothes to my own personal history of dullness so I invented a character who loved bright, fun clothing and slowly dressed her up to be me.

I've still got a long ways to go before my clothes are the way I really want them, but I did get my first pair of shoes a few months ago that are not white, brown or black. They are green. I only bought them 'cause they were $5 and fit (which is hard to find when you wear size 10). I figured I couldn't go wrong with a $5 experiment and have found that I LOVE them and though they may not 'go' with everything, I wear them with everything and they make my feet happy to finally be included in my color wearing.

I am slowly buying t-shirts with designs to include in my wardrobe. Some stay and some go as I figure out exactly what I am going for. And that's why thrift stores are so amazing. Because for $4 you can't exactly go wrong. Wear it once and it doesn't work, throw it in the recycle pile and move on only short the dollar amount of a fastfood meal. Sounds like a good deal to me.

However, there are those times when the things from the thrift store become my favorites. I can never decide if it's the article of clothing matched with a great price or the fact that it's an article of clothing that I usually wouldn't have looked twice at except for the price tag was right that makes me love these misfits all the more.