Farewell!

 Wow. Here we are. Until I have better words to befit this occasion, I’ll just tell you what pieces I threw together for this outfit and will get back to you later.

- Bird Print Zara Dress worn as Shirt
- Secondhand Harem Pants
- Secondhand Necklace
- my trusty Michael Kors Sandals

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Please scroll down! There is more to see here!

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One thing that must be said at this point is, a big

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THANK YOU

(see how big that was?)

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-  to all those that donate/d or volunteer/ed their time to the Haiti Mission Project, or any worthy cause for that matter
- to all those that followed this blog and commented on our Facebook page or here, it really helped me keep going
- to my 6-year old neighbor Lucy for keeping me entertained and creative during many a long photo session
- to the Haiti Mission Project board, especially Rachel and Lindsay, for all their hard work and encouragement
- to all those inspirational predecessors and co-bloggers: The Uniform Project, Meike of Das Kleine Blaue, Laura at Free Fashion Now and so many others
- Eliza Starbuck, for her passion for green living and relentless creativity; and of course for giving me the experience of a lifetime by letting me walk for her at the Green Fashion Show in Amsterdam
- the wonderful people who create EcoSalon, especially AmyDuFault, whose articles are a constant source of inspiration
- Elle Magazine Holland for having excellent taste and featuring me and the project in their magazine
- Magi and Kristina, who forewent many a afternoon of shopping so as to not tempt me 

And most of all I thank my husband Markus – whithout whose encouragement, motivation, technical savvy, photography skills, server management props, wardrobe , generosity, time, effort and superhuman patience it wouldn’t have been possible for me to last this year.

So I’ve had some time to process this and thought Meike’s monthly wrap up (10 Things) of her blog would be the best way to sum up a couple of things.

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10 Things I Learned this Year

1. Boy, off-the-rack clothes nowadays, sure don’t last very long. While I previously had the horrible habit of tossing things out too quickly, I had to discover that they wouldn’t have lasted much longer anyway.
2. My style and taste constantly change and adapt. There is just nothing I can do about that, I’ll always want something different. That being said:
3. Change and Innovation don’t always have to come brand new or store bought. Vintage pieces, an unexpected mash up of existing colors or wearing pieces differently than their original purpose can go a long way.
4. Your whole outfit looks better when you feel better, so exercising, getting your nails done, doing your hair or make up can make all the difference. This should go without saying, but because I know I have not followed this advice in the past, I’ll restate it. Wearing clothes that are too tight, shoes that hurt or sweaters that are too thin or thick for the weather is just not worth it. Style is important, but comfort is key!
5. Restricting your choices and forcing yourself to try a new color combo can be all the “new” you need. One thing that I found immensely helpful in creating over 300 outfits from the same pieces was the “item of the week” [where the readers of this blog would choose a thing out of my closet that I would have to re-invent in 7 different ways] To help me further, sometimes I literally drew 2 pieces at random out of a pile of clothes on my bed and forced myself to dream up a whole outfit around them.
6. Accessories are so overrated! They are always touted as an easy outfit-changer, but I disagree. Yes, I love them but they can also complicate things immensely. I have a tendency to over-match things, which is why accessories can sometimes be more of a burden than a playful addition. I have found that am not as addicted to them as I once thought. When looking at your body as a whole (as in a picture such as the ones featured on the blog), accessories don’t make that much of a difference. Unless they are humongous – in which case they quickly become uncomfortable. Playing around with silhouettes and shapes makes much more of an overall impact.
7. PIQUE may be a bit complicated for everyday use, I admit, but I have found it really helpful to ask myself the following questions when out shopping: 
   - Do I need this?
   - WHY do I want/need this?
   - Is there no secondhand alternative?
   - Is the quality worth the price (just because it costs  180 bucks it doesn’t mean it is made any better than H&M cheapies)?
   - Will it make dressing easier or will it just complicate my life because I’ll need to buy more stuff to go along with it?
   - Will I still want/need it in 3 months from now?
8. Big Brands are not all terrible (though admittedly, for the most part they are; think labor conditions).  Sometimes, especially with hand bags  or one-size accessories, big brand names can be really helpful in shedding an item mindfully when you are done with it. A used brand name handbag that lost its appeal for you, will be much easier to re-sell on ebay than your non-brand name bag, that you might toss when it does not get sold, because people have already seen or touched one and know exactly what they are buying. With brand names it is easier to find a new home for your cast-offs and make sure that person doesn’t end up tossing it right away.
9. There is such a thing as (Over)exercising  your creativity. At one point this year, I was ready to be over with this project. I had quickly realized, I wasn’t nearly as stylish as I thought I was. Not even close. Generating internet traffic was also harder than I thought and the donations hadn’t flowed as plentiful as I had wanted them to flow for the sake of the Haiti Mission Project. And all  I wanted at that point was to quit. I wanted was to re-wear proven favorites, wear something that didn’t need mending every couple of seconds and I didn’t want to wait for the camera’s battery to load before I could go to bed. While this sounds bad, it was a blessing in disguise. Before this year, I always felt this frustration that there were just not enough occasions for me to wear all these different outfits that I had dreamt up halfway in my head and translate all this creativity. Now I found, there is such a limit. And suddenly I feel much less frustrated. I have a much more liberated approach to choosing clothes and no problem re-wearing something that works. I don’t feel like there are all these different options I still want to try with this or that piece, because really, I tried most of them. And a lot of them not to my aesthetic advantage.  But that’s not the point. The point is that before this year I was like a dog, which had spent all day in his cage, having all this pent-up energy. Now, I feel like someone took me on a good, long walk and most of the energy is out of my system. While I feel tired, so to speak, I also feel less antsy and anxious. Relaxed. I have already thought of a way that may help me maintain this feeling in the future, but I’ll get to that in a couple of days.             
   You might ask, whether over-exercising my creativity didn’t create a whole new level of pressure: to keep having to come up with different outfits. Admittedly, I did feel pressured a few times. But on those days, I tried to remember that this is a blog, a project, an attempt to do better and not the outfit-militia. Thus, some days I just wore what I wanted and then took two or more pictures on a different day. Some days you wear more than one ensemble anyway, so I just gathered some additional pictures on those days that I felt like having my picture taken to use on those rainy days that I didn’t.
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10. I would love to tell you that I changed fundamentally during this year. I would love to tell you that I became a much more complete, spiritual human unmoved by such petty things as fashion. A person who doesn’t occasionally fret over what to wear, who walks past shop windows unfazed and rather spends all her time focused on math and philosophy books. Yeah, I really would love to tell you that. But alas, I am still virtually the same. Just with a few better habits when it comes to waste, dressing and shopping. I still swoon over the occasional handbag. I still plan out outfits before traveling. I still think about my own desires and wishes too many times. But I’ve also learned to stop and pause. Think before I buy. To remember how unjust and unbalanced this world is and whether this purchase will make a long-term difference to me. Or whether my time and money isn’t of better use somewhere else?  Most of the time, the rational answer to that question is: yes. And whereas before this year I would most always ignore the rational voice in my head, I am now ever so slightly more inclined to follow it.

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So thanks, for joining me. It’s been a rad ride!