Debbie Roes at My Wardrobe, Myself has been writing a series of posts about the oldest items in her closet (Part 1, Part 2). As I commented on her first post about items she's had for 10 years or longer, "I don’t have any clothes that old (due to significant body size change) but I do have a purse, a few pairs of shoes, other accessories, and a water resistant wool cape (which was a vintage piece when I bought it over 25 years ago!) in that category."
But in her second post, she wrote about clothing, shoes, and purses purchased from 2014-2016, and I do still have clothing I wear dating to that time period. I have kept track of my clothing, shoe, scarf, and necklace purchases in my wardrobe spreadsheet starting with purchases in 2013...and I have tracked my wears in these categories from then too. (There are some specialty items like coats, winter boots, exercise items, sleepwear, etc., that I don't track, but I do track the vast majority of my items...those that I wear on a day to day basis.) So I actually have a lot of information about my wardrobe from 2013/2014 to now.
I thought I'd join in on this discussion today by introducing the oldest clothing in my closet, dating back to 2014.
My very oldest items are these two cardigans from Coldwater Creek that I purchased in March 2014 in size L (!), which gives you a sense of how my size has changed over time. It is utterly inconceivable to me that I could still wear them...and yet I do. I'm sure they have a closer fit than they did back then, and the sleeves are tight enough that I wear the cardigans with sleeveless tops for comfort, but I absolutely can still wear them! I just have somewhat narrow window during the year when a sleeveless top + long-sleeved cardigan is my preferred type of layering. I am a bit disappointed that the cost per wear (CPW) on these cardigans is still above my <$1 CPW target, but I'm getting very close. I am also only about halfway to 30 wears for them, and I don't necessarily expect to hit that benchmark because of the limitations to how/when I wear them (though I'd love to be surprised).
I'd like to show how I've worn these items, but while my tracking spreadsheet has been updated meticulously, I haven't always been that good about taking daily outfit photos. I don't have any OOTD photos from before 2016, and I have really only started taking them routinely since about 2020. But I do have at least one OOTD photo for each of the items in this post!
Here's the maroon cardigan in a sandstone/grey outfit for the summer to fall transition period. I actually loved how this outfit turned out! The maroon color is in the same family as the sandstone, but a richer, darker tone, which worked very well with the other pieces and the season. The scarf is a perfect bridge piece tying these colors together.
The peacock blue cardigan is a nice color and shape to layer over the sleeveless print blouse and a slim-fitting knit skirt (which you will see in more detail later in this post, actually) for an early summer look.
I'm happy to report that my next oldest item is a thrifted piece! I bought these pants at Goodwill in May 2014 for $15, higher than pants typically are but a steal for Eileen Fisher brand. These pants have met both my <$1 CPW and 30 wears goals, and they have held up beautifully. These knit pants are magical in that I fit them when I was a size XL and now...though they are tighter now than they used to be, of course! Recently I've been wearing them more like leggings, only worn under a longer shirt/cardigan.
In these 3 outfits from 2019 and 2021, you can see my current favorite pairing with these pants - my long sleeveless cheetah print blouse. This is one of those Pleasing Pairings that I enjoy wearing again and again as a base outfit, just changing up the topper and the accessories to create variants on the look.
Next are two knit skirts that have a similar magical quality in fitting me across a range of sizes. They started out as 4-season skirts in my wardrobe, but I currently wear these skirts in cold weather with tights/leggings because that creates a smoother look. Both skirts have hit my <$1 CPW goals but are still a bit short of 30 wears. However, they are in good shape, and I can imagine getting to 30 wears with them. (Long winters provide plenty of opportunity, right?)
The grey background with black polka dot print is a really versatile one, particularly in winter when I wear these two neutrals a lot. It's also easy to pair grey or black tights and grey or black boots with this skirt. A lot of scarves have grey and/or black in them, which makes it easy to use a print scarf to tie the skirt with just about any accent color. The first outfit is based on both grey and black with a print scarf adding a bit of winter pizzazz. The second outfit incorporates multiple shades of grey with a muted mint accent color.
The black space dye skirt (which you saw above with the peacock blue cardigan) is also quite versatile, and right now it serves as my primary cold weather black skirt! (I otherwise have a black linen skirt I wear occasionally in summer as well as a maxi skirt that I don't wear often at all.) The space dye pattern is quite subtle so I am easily able to combine it with another print...or several, as you see in these two OOTD.
My last clothing item from 2014 is my French bunny top, which is such a favorite whimsical piece. The top had a flowy, somewhat oversized fit when I bought it, so it continues to work for me today, though these days it's a bit more of a body-con fit than I prefer so I layer over it. Luckily I have LOTS of opportunities during the year for layering. This one is definitely a weekend/holiday top rather than a work one as it's just a bit too cute for me to wear into the office (though WFH is a different story). My CPW is great, though I still have 9 wears to go to reach my goal. However, even if it doesn't reach 30 total wears, I will definitely be upcycling this adorable rabbit image in some way when I'm done wearing it!
These two OOTD feature another Pleasing Pairing - the French bunny top + crystal statement necklace. I love these two pieces together because the necklace is reminiscent of a crown on the rabbit's head.
With the changes in my size since 2014, I had really not expected to still have anything dating back that long. So even though it's only six garments, it's still a very pleasant surprise to me.
Of these six garments, the maroon and peacock blue cardigans are the most under-utilized and most likely to not make the 30 wears goal. That makes sense to me because they spent a good bit of time in my wardrobe as closet orphans because I didn't have any similar solid colored sleeveless tank tops to pair them with. As I've talked about before, I really like the modern twin set color formula, so having a coordinating top in the same/similar color is important for me to get my best use out of a cardigan.
But looking at the maroon with the sandstone tank, I think that pairing has some real possibilities to explore. I also purchased a peacock blue tank (a bit darker than the cardigan) in December 2020, and I'm just now realizing that I really need to try them together! Another favorite way to wear these cardigans is with my black Cheshire tank, which I haven't done in a while (I somehow managed to never photograph those OOTD because I have often been very lax about taking pictures of weekend outfits, sadly).
Unlike clothing, accessories from 2014 and earlier are better represented in my wardrobe. I will follow up this post later with a look at my oldest shoes, necklaces, and scarves.
What are the oldest clothing items in your wardrobe? Do you own anything purchased 10 years ago or longer? How about from 2014? Has your size changed much in 10 years or has it been pretty stable? How has that affected your wardrobe?
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