👋 Wear Your Own Clothes

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A true friend is someone who lets you see their mess.

So welcome, my friend, to my apartment in Williamsburg Brooklyn. Take a look around. It’s messy.

The quick details:

• Adam (the husband), Goofy (the dog), and Gemma (the baby), and I all live inside a 1-bedroom apartment that’s under 600 square feet.

• Square feet means nothing to most people, especially when you have a lot of it.

• Growing up, I lived in a 4,000 square foot house. Six of my apartments could fit comfortably inside of that house.

We live this tiny little home that we’ve outgrown but we love it because it’s just that -- our home. Also, two bedrooms in this neighborhood rent for an average of $5,380. So for now, we’re sitting still inside this box of a place.

A cramped space like this can feel like a Spirit Airlines middle seat: limited legroom, belongings resting on your toes.

We have two closets. That’s it. One is in the living space and we use it for coats and other bulky items that we don’t want to be mistaken as decor in our living space.

The bedroom closet is tricky to access due to Gemma's crib blocking the door. I can only get to my clothes during specific hours. Once, I got asked to do a segment forGood Morning Freaking America at 8pm. They asked me at 7:45pm if I was available. Available? Yes. Clothed? No. I was wearing my favorite pair of stained pajamas. I dug into the coat closet and put on a bright pink jacket.

Luckily, minutes before filming, they went in a different direction.

👋Welcome to the Monday Pick-Me-Up. I did a fun experiment involving my clothes last week. I called it closet roulette and even though it was a bizarre way to get dressed, I fell in love with the clothes hanging in my closet again. Let me explain.

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4-Days of Closet Roulette

Now that I’ve given you way too much information about my apartment, let me tell you this:

I am desperate to get my style back.

I lost it, years ago.

I can blame it on the pandemic, pregnancy, postpartum.

But it’s also because I lost myself, a couple of times, and when I figured out who I was, my style didn’t catch up.

When I open my closet, it’s more of a time capsule than a wearable wardrobe. I have six sequin suits from my days going to events and being on TV. I have crop tops I used to wear as skirts…yes, skirts. I have bright-colored blouses and pants with fringes because I used to go places and see people and spend every waking hour trying to be someone.

Now, I spend most of my hours rotating between sitting behind a computer and singing the wheels on the bus to Gemma, on the floor of my apartment, as if I’m her own personal pop star.

But I can’t spend another day of my life wearing yoga pants and bike shorts. It’s just not who I am.

So in order to brush the dust off my clothes and attempt to get my style back, I decided to spend a few days doing closet roulette.

I was inspired to do this idea because a friend on Instagram posted that she’s spending time creating fun outfits from her closet and because this person at my co-working space looks like she gets dressed blindfolded every day. Her outfits are so strange and out there. But she looks so cool. I used to look cool! I want to look that cool again!

Here’s how my closet roulette worked:

• Everyday, I played a new game to pick out what to wear.

• Even if the outfit was strange or wasn’t the right look for a trip to Whole Foods, I committed to wearing it for the full day.

• No outfit repeats. Once the items were used for one outfit, they’d be placed aside and not worn again for the rest of the week.

• No yoga pants. No bike shorts.

Tuesday:

Here’s my first outfit. For this one, I walked into my closet and closed my eyes. I grabbed a pair of jeans. I moved my hands down the rack until I felt jackets, I grabbed the first one I felt. I opened my eyes and this was the outfit.

I added the top and shoes with my eyes open.

Such a funky outfit but honestly I loved wearing it. I don’t think I’d ever pair the jacket and pants but it was very much “me” or at least the old style I used to have that I missed.

Outfit details:

• Jeans: from a local store in Boca Raton, Florida.

• Top: sports bra from Athleta. I wear this as a crop top.

• Jacket: from a local store in Sydney, Australia.

• Shoes: Star converse high-tops. Get the platform sneakers for extra comfort.

Wednesday:

I did the same thing for this outfit. Eyes closed, I grabbed a pair of pants and a jacket. I lucked out that this outfit matched so well. I wore it with a black sports bra and the same shoes from the day before.

It was a win of an outfit until I wore it to Gemma’s music class. The one-year-olds loved to pull the fringes!

Outfit details:

• Jeans: Everlane high-waisted.

• Top: Sports bra from Athleta.

• Jacket: Zara, but years ago.

• Shoes: Star converse high-top.

Thursday:

I switched up the process for this outfit because I was starting to remember where things were in my closet. Even with my eyes closed, I could cheat.

I played a different game. I picked three numbers. The time Gemma woke up that morning: 5:25am. I went to my pants and counted to five. I landed on these purple velvet pair. I cursed this game. Not these! A little bold to wear after years of yoga pants. I went to my jackets and counted to the second. A jean jacket was a good pick. I went to my shirt drawer and dug to the fifth shirt. A tee from Bozeman, Montana.

It was a comfy outfit to wear all day: to my co-working space and to another class for Gemma. Without this game, I never would have paired this items together.

Outfit details:

• Pants: Forever21 from 2014 but here’s a similar pair from Draper James.

• Top: a souvineer store in Bozeman, Montana.

• Jacket: TJmaxx but here’s a similiar one from H&M.

• Shoes: Silver converse high-tops. So comfortable.

• Belt: Madewell.

Friday:

I woke up and asked Adam to give me to two numbers. He said (2) and (5). I went into my closet and picked the second pair of pants hanging up. I went over to the blouse section. I picked the fifth one. Say hello to Friday’s outfit.

Outfit details:

• Pants: white jeans from J.Crew

• Top: a pink pajama shirt with feather sleeves. This one was a gift but here’s a similar style.

• Shoes: J/Slides.

4-days of closet roulette was extremely and unexpectedly fun. I fell in love with my clothes, even some items (hello, purple pants) that I thought I’d never wear again.

I wore looks I’d never think to put together. I walked around Brooklyn looking like I got dressed blindfolded and I sort of did. But I’m glad I did. It helped me get my style back. I felt more like myself than I have in years and all it took was a couple wild minutes of quality time inside my closet.

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Why you’re getting this: I'm Jen Glantz and this is The Monday Pick-Me-Up newsletter. I've been sending it every Monday, for 9-years, to thousands of awesome humans, just like you. Thank you for letting this email live in your inbox. It truly makes my heart explode with joy.

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