Essentials.

Art/Life Project No. 1 is teaching me valuable lessons about clothing.

Now, I’m a fan of fashion. I don’t think you could call me a clotheshorse (and would prefer you didn’t because when you think about it, it’s hardly an attractive name to call someone, especially a girl) but it’s certainly true that I like clothes and have plenty of them.

When I began the project, I took an entire afternoon to separate my clothing into colors and place them in separate bins in my closet. This served several purposes. It showed me what I had already for each color, (yellow: nothing, black: everything) and it focused my brain and my hangers on the color of whatever month I was in. Looking into my closet in August, for example, I’d see a selection of purple garments on the clothes rack, nothing more. I like this part of the project. Dressing this way is so simple.

This is one of the lessons I’ve learned. In putting together a wardrobe for each month, I’ve gotten to the heart of what a gal truly needs to feel properly dressed for pretty much any occasion. (I suppose if you worked in a law office or something you would need some other items; then again, I suspect if you were working in a law office you wouldn’t be doing a year-long art project wherein you swear to wear only one color each month.) Here’s what I’ve found that I need each month:

2 pairs of pants
1 skirt
1 dress
1 pair of tights/pantyhose
1 nicer blouse
1-2 t-shirts
2 “shirty” shirts (like a button-up jobby and a long-sleeved knit piece)
1 sweater
1 tank top/camisole type undershirt

That’s about it. Like twelve pieces is all you really need. Out of those twelve pieces (and of course I’m not counting bras, pannies, socks, or coats and shoes) you can create many different outfits. Skirt with t-shirt, skirt with dressier shirt, skirt with t-shirt and sweater, etc. Pant A with tank top and “shirty shirt,” Pant B with long-sleeved knit shirt… The possibilities, while not endless, are numerous. In fact, if anyone’s a math whiz, I’d love to see the exact number of combinations possible, here, though keep in mind pantyhose + t-shirt does not a complete outfit make. Depends where you’re going, I guess.

The other lesson I’ve learned is that when you dress all in one color, even if the colors don’t match, they match. Sure, it’s a lot of green or it’s a lot of pink, but if it’s all green or it’s all pink, well, there you have it. A dark pink shirt with lighter pink pants is rather nice, really. Not that I’ve tried that one, yet. That’s March. But all my greens definitely don’t match and it still ends up being all right in the end. If you ever are at a loss with what to wear, consider going monochromatic. You’ll feel less like a grape than you think you will if you put on all purple. You might just feel beautiful.

I’m getting excited; Sunday is a changeover! I’ll be wearing grey all month next month and of course my artists switch over, too. Before the month is done I’ll post an October wrap up. I still haven’t figured out what I’m going to say about Camille Paglia. Thank goodness I have three more days.