The Dumbing Down of My Wardrobe

05/19/2009

Unlike most people, I’m usually depressed when winter comes to an end.  It is by far my favorite season.  I love snow, I love cold, I love being home in the afternoon when it’s dark early and the kids are at the dining room table doing their homework. I love the holidays and the parties and I always welcome the switch from summer foods cooked quickly on the grill to slow cooked, time consuming meals.

But this year, I was more than ready for winter to go and the reason had nothing to do with the weather and everything to do with my wardrobe.  It’s because of fleece.  Yes, fleece – with its mass-hysteria popularity - has ruined winter for me.  Does that sound ridiculous?  Maybe, but take a moment and think about it.  Has fleece taken over your closet?  Are you perhaps wearing it right now? I’ll confess that I am! Can you envision a large group of people gathered without picturing a large group of people wearing fleece? How many fleece blankets kept you warm this winter?  Do you see what I mean?  Like Rachel Ray, it’s everywhere. And too much of one thing – even if it’s a good thing - is still just too much. 

Please don’t think I don’t like fleece – I positively love it! And that’s part of the problem.  What’s not to love?  It’s so warm and comfortable.  It’s lightweight and perfect for every type of weather, except the dog-days of summer.  It’s soft and it’s cheap and it makes the coziest socks ever!  What it’s not is attractive. 

This past winter, I embraced fleece in a way I never would have dreamed.  It started out innocently enough.  I had had surgery and my head was wrapped up in a crazy concoction of a bandage and the only thing I had that I could get over my head easily was an old fleece top that I had gotten as a gift a few years ago. It had spent some time up in New Hampshire sitting around a campfire whose embers had jumped off and burned a few holes in it here and there.  And I think the pocket was ripping off a bit at the corner. It was a drab green color and did nothing to help my complexion, and it was big and just ugly. My mother HATED it!  But, God, it was SO comfortable.  So, after I recovered on the couch in my green fleece, I excitedly went though my closet and found a few other pieces that I had accumulated in the years since fleece hit the market and saw them with a new fondness.  Even the one whose color I thought was horrible before, looked much nicer now and I promptly put it on.  It was too big and I had to roll up the sleeves.  Perfect, I thought.

It wasn’t long before I was wearing fleece every day – even to work!  I had a closet full of other choices but fleece is what I chose time and again.  It just always seemed so right.  And then two things happened that forced me to realize that things had gotten out of hand.  I realized that I was now consciously basing my outfits around fleece.  I wasn’t just grabbing it on my way out the door, I was picking it as the key piece in my outfit.  This has to stop.

The second was the night we were heading out to a Christmas party and MJ said, holding up two jackets, “Do you want me to wear my dress fleece or my regular one?”  Dress fleece?!  Isn’t that a TOTAL contradiction in terms, just like jumbo shrimp?  Dress fleece!  Oh no, I thought. This has got to stop.

Unsure of how exactly to wean my family off of fleece, as I know my husband and kids will never give up the comfort, I took the first step and threw away the green ratty one I wore during my recovery.  I think I may have taken it out of the trash one time before I bit the bullet and tossed it back in.  I took my denim jacket out from the back of the closet and I even bought a new, stylish and attractive jacket, hoping to make better outerwear choices.  I put the majority of my fleece items away, keeping one out “just in case”.  I’m still wearing it a few times a week – hey, it’s gray and it matches everything.  As if that were the reason.

And so, like the rest of you, I’m hoping the warm weather comes to stay soon.  Fleece is not a good choice for the summer months so I won’t be tempted to wear it everywhere I go. If I stay strong, maybe by the time fall rolls around again, I’ll have gotten over my desire to be stylish and will again embrace the warmth of fleece for those long, cold winter nights. If not, I’m sure I’ll wear it anyway.  It’s just too good to give up.  And why not?  Everyone else will be wearing it too.

                                                                                                         

Comments

[Janet]

Heather, who would have thunk it? Us two fashionistas decked out in fleece! Dress fleece! I'm never getting over that one! Hope to see you at the end of the month!

[Heather]

This made me laugh out loud. Moving to Colorado a couple of years ago, my entire winter wardrobe is some sort of fleece. And yes - I own dress fleece!

[Trish]

I love it! and I am wearing fleece right now too!