Let’s be real. The face of minimalism is usually someone with a good amount of money, whose capsule closet contains an Acne leather jacket, a Saint Laurent Sac De Jour, and a pair of Stuart Weitzman Nudist heels.
Girl.
Of course, the emphasis of minimalism is to focus on owning a minimal amount of products while still investing in quality pieces. The pieces mentioned above are definitely of higher quality, but way out of my price range. I feel like this is the same story for a lot of you guys that may be considering it too. I also believe that this isn’t the story of most minimalists.
I was looking at my closet full of lower-quality clothes that have definitely seen better days and decided that it’s time for them to go. It’s time to make room for nicer clothes. I may not bee able to afford them now, but it’ll feel great when I can because I’ve already made room for them. I still liked a lot of these cheaper clothes, but I no longer felt attached to them. It was time to purge my closet. As I stated in my last post, I’m not really big on color anymore. I mostly wear white, black, grey or white. I love clothes that are structured and basic but still make a statement. Basically, I love these looks Aleali May put together for a client a couple days ago:
Day 1 & 2 of styling @_OTMARA pic.twitter.com/WGTio5kwyT
— Aleali May (@AlealiMay) May 26, 2016
Yeah, those outfits are a dream. The first one stole my soul. I try to focus on buying a lot of structured/statement pieces (and an unlimited amount of t-shirts). But, back to the point! This was my process of getting rid of clothes:
1. Is it looking tattered/not up to par?
2. Does it fit in a flattering manner?
3. Can I stand to wear the color anymore?
4. Do I still feel a connection with it?
If I even felt a tinge of guilt with the piece, I donated it. It’s not worth holding on to clothing that you won’t wear. One of the biggest issues I had was getting rid of clothes that held distinct memories. I realized that the memories won’t leave just because I got rid of the items associated with the memory, and that made it easier to get rid of things.
I’m not jumping on the minimalism train because it’s a trend. I actually really enjoyed what it stood for and saw how it could benefit my life. I love clothes (obviously) but I wanted to downsize. There’s no point in having/buying an abundance of clothes when I could be saving up and investing in better pieces instead. And it really makes it much easier to look at a closet this isn’t overstuffed.
I watched people like Tara Efobi and Dani from Dani’s Dish and got so inspired. It’s so difficult finding other black women who are living/transitioning to a minimalistic lifestyle–so far, these are the only ones I’ve found on YouTube. This is a really big part as to why I created this series. I love the phrase, “create the things you wish existed,” and it definitely defines threads and such. I created this site simply because I wanted it to exist! Not too long ago, I didn’t know which direction I wanted to take my site in. And then I finally got it–I want to see more black woman who are minimalists! I was so happy to finally realize the exact direction I wanted to take, and hopefully it’ll encourage others who look like me to follow suit.
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