lorimarsha

Well I hope you don’t find this recent project to be too “it’s all about me” but I seriously needed help. Do you have days that you look into your closet and say “I have nothing to wear” or “I see these clothes but I don’t have the brain power today to figure out an interesting outfit.”? Well, that’s a common experience with me, lately.

Last year I joined a flickr group called “Wardrobe Remix” where members post pictures of their outfits. The idea is to “remix” items in your closet in new and creative ways. Well, I thought it was a fun idea and the days that I decided to post pictures, I really spent time putting things together. It was also fun to look at everyone else’s outfits for inspiration.

As a result of being involved in that group, I amassed an embarrassing large portfolio of photos of me wearing my clothes. So….the other day after having one of those mornings of feeling no love for what I saw inside my closet, I had an idea. I went to my flickr site and created a set of photos of my favorite outfits. From that set, I was able to design a mosaic of images and a 16″ x 20″ poster from a website called Big Huge Labs.

I got the poster in the mail a couple of days ago and hung it on my closet wall. It’s such a help to look up and see some ideas for combining garments. Even though I rarely where the same combinations, it provides a nice jumping off point to get started.

Clean out your closet and join us for our wardrobe swap on Sunday, March 30, 2008. Held at my home in Redlands. Email me for directions.

Why recycle?

Our culture glorifies the new. Trendy garments with built-in obsolescence quickly lose appeal when they appear on the “what’s not” side of the “what’s hot” fashion column. So they’re relegated to the back of the closet….stuffed into a bottom drawer… and, if they’re not dumped into the trash, they eventually find their way to thrift and consignment stores where they languish under the humiliation of multiple markdowns and overpopulated racks.

As every savvy recycler knows, treasure often hides between purple power suits and polyester broomstick skirts. And the thrill of finding a mustard dupioni silk blouse or a fine gauge British wool dress makes the sometimes exhaustive searches worthwhile. I am proud to say that I design all of my garments from recycled materials. They begin their lives in other forms. A skirt morphs into a dress… a dress is divided among three new dresses…an undergarment moves outside. I compare this redefining of garments to the joy of an unexpected adoption…. the designer dog abandoned by the socialite , then loved dearly by the little boy whose parents finds her at the pound. Under the right conditions, abandoned possessions live a fuller second life.