Grey is the new Brown

My sister in law enlisted my help in a wardrobe overhaul, she wasn’t the first. I'm asked frequently by friends to “take me shopping and tell me what to buy”. I don’t know if it’s truly a compliment or a commentary on the amount of shopping I’m perceived to do, but I take the compliment, as I don’t actually do much shopping.
In fact I rarely shop, and I do it even less on purpose, a binge shop makes me nauseous ironically. It takes all the joy out of it. Finding clothing shouldn’t simply be for utilitarian purposes, but rather an exercise in self expression, and a little self indulgence.

The phrases “I’ve had this forever” and “thrift store’ are my most frequent answers to the questions “Is that new?” or “Where’d you get it?"

This vest for instance was bought 6 years ago (on sale of course) in ... London, i think. I loved it right away but until this week I hadn’t found a way to make it work. This season’s love for kitch, corals, and comfort have created the perfect backdrop for its debut. It’s made an appearance twice this week, it’s found a new place to hang at the front of the rack...also known as the Olyptical Trainer.

But it’s not all feathers and turquoise. The fore mentioned sister in-law, the one who needed the overhaul, truly was in need of help. She had developed an affinity toward brown. It wasn’t all her fault, we all went through an earthy phase around 2004. Her love of brown however had gone from a simple attraction to a full blown compulsion. The intervention was successful and last year we wrapped a five hour mall blitz with colours and textures her shelves had never seen, and not a stitch of brown made its way back into her closet.

Well Grey is the new Brown, and last week I discovered I had a problem. My love for the “Hoody” (or Bunny Hug if you’re from Saskatchewan) combined with my obsession with this seasons worn and faded greys, has made for a monochromatic assault on my own shelves. I found myself in a shop recently ogling just such a hoodie, as though i’d never layed eyes on one before. It was like it belonged with me, like it jumped off the rack and into my hand, begging to go home with me and join my colourless family of knits. I had to tell myself, out loud, “I don’t need another grey hoodie”.

I did leave it, but I wasn’t so strong a week ago when I found this one. To my credit it’s quite a dark shade of grey, actually quite black, which is something I don’t have at all. And after all “this hoodie would feed 100 children”.

To find out how you can Feed 100 with a hoodie click here

If clothing items were my diet, then it’s not entirely a well balanced one. Though I love shoes and fawning over gorgeous dresses, they would merely be dessert. I could survive entirely on white V-necks, plaid button ups, and grey hoodies. Ripped jeans, and vintage jewellery being my salt and pepper.