Green Machine


Dress: Crossroads

Shoes: Chie Mihara

This dress has weathered the storm of So. Many. Wardrobe. Culls.

No, seriously, look; Here it is waaaaay back in 2008 meagre months after I started Frocks and Frou Frou.

And here it is on Christmas Day 2006 (!) when the blog was but a twinkle in my eye.

My sister Mae is also wearing a dress made by Crossroads that season – They had a freak rush of really excellent summer dresses that year, and I think both Mae and I binge shopped there in the lead-up to Christmas. I don’t think they’ve had such a good range since then (guys, whoever your designer was in 2006…. you should have held on to them!)

I don’t have much in my wardrobe that dates back that far – I know it’s wasteful (though I do try to recycle my clothes where possible with remixes, or passing them on to other people through donations or selling them for future “neutral shopping”)

I’ve nearly retired this dress so many times, but it always makes its way back into my wardrobe. And every time we have a real scorcher of a day, I’m happy it has.

Thank Goodness for my two-part culling process.

I’m mindful of the statistic (real or not) that women wear 20% of their wardrobe 80% of the time, and I have a lot of clothes not being worn, so I periodically pack away a chunk of my lesser-worn items, and if I don’t go fishing around in the box for them before the next Big Cull… out they go!

 I’ve fished for this so many times I think I need to start giving it a free pass.

How do you deal with an over-full wardrobe? Do you have any well-loved old pieces in your wardrobe that you rarely wear but can’t bear to get rid of?

navabi Curvy Blog Award 2012

17 thoughts on “Green Machine

  1. Is it just me or is your site a little funky these last two days or so? I get a banner of

    Warning: stripos() expects parameter 1 to be string, array given in /home/frocksan/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wp-slimstat/wp-slimstat.php on line 118

    above the banner of shoes and it’s not quite kerned right…Anyone else?

    1. The banner’s down to a messed-up update of one of my plug-ins I think. I’ve deactivated the plug-in until they fix it, so hopefully that’s sorted. Not sure about the kerning…. It seems OK on my machine, so hopefully that’s related to the plug in too!
      Sorry about that 🙁

  2. I’m fairly ruthless, but I do have quite a few things that have sentimental value and so can’t be got rid of, even though they are dated/worn out/no longer my style/too big/too small. My solution is to keep them in my parents’ house where the “but I might need it!” excuse doesn’t get worn thin by the “I need more space!” demand. Definitely give that dress a free pass! It looks great on you and if you still love it after 6 years I think it’s a real winner 🙂 Also, it’s PERFECT with those shoes!

  3. The only thing I have that has survived many culls, but hasn’t been worn in years, was a supre army green t-shirt that said “army” on it in a size M. My senior college (yr 11 & 12 only) had no uniform and I used to wear it with a super feminine ruffle-y black skirt. I was wearing it the day I met my husband. Thirteen years later and it still looks just like new, except my 11yo daughter has claimed it as a pj shirt. I still love that shirt and if it fitted me at all I would pop it back on.

  4. I def think after that amount of service the dress deserves an amnesty! And it does goes so well with the shoes!
    I have lots of old stuff put away- not a good culler at all, but most of it doesn’t fit!

  5. This dress is amazing. Too bad, it is not new. So no chance for me to buy it.
    I have a few pieces which survived more than 5 year in my closet, mainly cardigans and shoes. Love your blog.

  6. The dress is great & still looks fab on you, Lilli! It has shown it is timeless & deserves to stay the course with a free pass 😉
    I have biannual culls before Spring & Autumn. The resulting purged items are either donated or sold on EBay. The proceeds from my EBay sales are then used to buy more clothes. This process has made me far more selective in my purchases as selling on EBay is time consuming & as you probably know you, you rarely make anything close to what you spent (although this past winter a pair of my Duo boots went for over $200 – crazy!). Most of my purged items are because of fit issues so now I make sure whatever I buy fits me & works with my wardrobe otherwise I return it (unless it was one of my many regretful ASOS purchases that cost more to return than they do to purchase!).

  7. this dress is so cute!

    sorry i’ve been awol on here, my laptop has a virus :(((( i have mostly been keeping up to date on my phone, which sucks for commenting.

    thanks for the hot tip on the mens wedding band! christian is much like the sophisticate in the fact that he wants something different to the norm in mens wedding bands. i loved those rings on etsy you linked me to!! WOW! meteorite!!! LOVE!!!! <3

    xo

  8. The dress is beautiful! No wonder you’ve saved it a few times!! I need to do the whole packing away bit with my wardrobe…perhaps I’ll do it this week?? I know I hang on to bits as a “maybe” but if I don’t wear it or miss it then culled it must be!

  9. I know exactly what you mean!! I’ve been trying to be good since downsizing my closet and now that I have a small 2-door one, I have been doing culls every half a year 🙁

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