Confession: I am in love with the idea of a minimal closet.
Other confession: I am terrible at keeping one.
I guess I am too many women, all at once, though sometimes not for ages. Nonetheless, I purge and purge the unworn. I pull unloved textiles from their hangers and wish them well for the next life, promising to not buy anything unneeded every again.
But that is not me.
Instead, I pop into the Goodwill to look for some much needed housewares and think to myself, one look at the dresses. I see an image in my head of certain boots and I wonder if this image is something real, or did I imagine it and I find myself combing through pages of Google to find out they do exist and are, as it may appear, on their way to my home.
As it happens, over the year I’ve gained a “90s grunge meets the thrift” wardrobe, and I cannot say it makes me unhappy. After all, the 90s seem so much simpler and cleaner than our current, messy lives.
Are they really though? Or is it just our childhood nostalgia writing it’s own chapter?
After all, people idolize the 50s and all the beautiful things in it: full skirts, pastels, saddle oxfords, Elvis, ice cream parlors, soda shops…. but the 50s had much ugliness to bear as well. Racism, sexism, homophobia, an inflated sense of self importance.
These are things that peeve me still today, but there was a point in time where they were socially acceptable. Indeed, they still exist, even as I type this.
But were the 90s ever really a time of innocence and staying out until the streetlights went off and accepting homemade goods from neighbors? I think so, but memories can be tricked. We remember what we want to remember and the very best version of it.
And these were thoughts that came from floral Dr Martens and a thrifted skirt.