First Outfit, Plus Spring/Summer Closet Swap-Over

Hello, my friends! If you guessed "closet clean out and swap-over" as my two-day activity while not at work this week, you were correct! 

I also went for a Mental Health Walk, got groceries (uneventful and stress-free), and created my first outfit of the spring/summer season. It's been a busy couple of days. 

I actually had this dress out for my fall/winter wardrobe, but never got around to wearing it, so I thought it would make a great "fresh start" for spring.

• Dress - Styled by Adrian, vintage 60s, thrifted; last worn here in December 2018 with my trout shoes
• Shoes - Poetic Licence; last seen here in June 2019 with linen and leaf green
• Jacket (below) - Dolce & Gabbana, vintage 90s, thrifted; last seen here in June 2019 over my Spanish Ladies dress

It's a glorious vintage dress - one of those lucky "perfect fit" items that stays in my closet year after year.

I paid $14.50 for it in November 2014 (here) and this is its 8th wearing, so I'm well under $2 per wear.

 It's a bit hard to see here, due to my hair obscuring it, but the collar stands up. You can see it better here, when I first wore it (my hair was shorter then!).

Ha, I wore this same brooch in the same place on the dress then! I still have every piece of jewelry that I wore with it in 2014, too.

Nancy of Nancy's Fashion Style (here) is doing a "Good Buy/Good-Bye" post on denim jackets, so I jumped at the opportunity to add a denim jacket to my at-home look. 

I could wear it over my shoulders...

Or slip it on.

I love the open fit (it's a very small size!), and the 3/4 sleeves.

I bought it in December 2017 and I've worn it 13 times - it was free on a buy-two-get-one-free deal.

I had to do a purse since I had my jacket on.

The best part of the jacket?

The leopard lining!

And look at all those dome studs!

This immensely satisfies the rocker chick in me.

I did a "zigzag and dot" theme for this outfit in my accessories, to go with these earrings. You can see the cool raised green satin zigzags on the dress fabric here - they are outlined with sparkly turquoise thread.

I gave the earrings a scrub with a soft toothbrush and soap and water. They're nice and light to wear; the clip-on is very comfortable.

• Earrings - vintage 60s, West Germany, vintage fair - purchased here for $10.00
• Brooch - Coro, vintage 60s

I enjoyed rediscovering some of my Fancy Purses when I did the closet swap-over, like this supremely cool studded purse. The handles are wooden, the green part is faux leather, and it's just studded on one side.

I had to do quite a touch-up job on the handles when I bought this - I used black permanent marker, and it worked like a charm.

• Cuff - Alexis Bittar, consignment, Vancouver
• Purse - Melie Bianco, thrifted

I love a cool handle - this one splits open and holds together with magnets.

I stuffed some empty bags in it to make it look full in the pictures, but check out the pretty pale pink polka dot lining.

• Fulvia Ring - Wendy Brandes

Shoes:

The Return of the Kermit Shoes! I bought them on sale in 2012 for $90.00 retail (as the now-gone She She Shoes), and this is their 14th wearing.

 Sparkly! The surface of the shoes are wooly and the dots are slightly raised.

As I was taking these pictures, I felt a pull on my dress.

"I would like some attention, please."

As you may have guessed from the fuzzy slippers, I didn't keep the shoes on. I did wear the dress all day, though, as well as all the jewelry.

"Blah, blah, rub my tum, Woman!"

And much tummy-rubbing was had. 

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And now, let's get into the Spring/Summer Closet Swap-Over! 

Let's start with the exterior of the closet. This is after I've pulled all the stuff for the giveaway pile from behind the steamer in and effort to not look as messy for you. 

I adore my steamer and use it nearly every day. It will be in regular use as I steam all the wrinkles out of my spring/summer clothes. Behind that is my lingerie chest, where I store my camisoles, sleeveless layering tops, and vintage slips, as well well as a bunch of my tights. On the floor beside that are two boxes of scarves.

And here is my closet. It's about the size of a small bathroom. I had it custom-built around 2007-8 just after I lost 50 lbs - it helps motivate me to stay fitting in all the beautiful clothes that I own.

These are the "before" shots. I'm pretty good at keeping it tidy - everything has its place and it only gets messy when it's too full.

I have a feeling I won't be doing a lot of shopping over the next several months, so I don't think I'll be having an overcrowding issue this season.

This is the right side of the closet, looking in. Short skirts live over my jackets. When it was designed, it was intended to be jackets over skirts, but it works better this way.

The 8-storey "Tower of Power" shoe storage holds 42 pairs of shoes, not including those on the floor under it; however, I have fewer pairs up at the ceiling, and have taken up one row with my Fancy Purses. I also store wigs, my wedding accessories and odds and ends of other vintage, sentimental and costume things behind the shoes, and up at the ceiling.

That also goes for the left side of the closet. Closest to the door are my blouses, long skirts and trousers, followed by the 6' "long hang" bar for dresses.

The shelves above the blouses are for sweaters and tops, and the shelves go right to the ceiling.

I dumped all the giveaway stuff on the benches in the dining room.

That pile grew substantially as I weeded through the fall/winter clothes and unpacked the spring summer stuff, but I forgot to take a picture of it. Trust me, it was massive.

I started by pulling out all of the spring/summer clothes that I store in the closet. "But where where they stored?" you're thinking, "There's no room!"

They are under and behind all the hanging items on both sides. I pack clothes and shoes into bags, tie them securely, then stack them like sandbags behind my dresses, under the blouses, and behind the jackets. This isn't all of it, either - there are 3 more tubs of clothes stored under the bed.

I also pull out all my spring/summer stuff that I've bought over the last 6 months (some of which you've already seen me wear before I tucked it away).

"And where was that hiding?" you wonder, already agog at how much I was already stashing out of sight in the above pictures. The new-to-me items are tucked behind the skirts on the shelf above the jackets and blazers. Lots of room under there!

I hauled out the vacuum cleaner and gave the room and the closet a good buzz. I was left alone for a couple of hours after that...

"I am not a fan of the vacuum."

I actually moved all the bagged/binned spring/summer stuff out of the way so that I could start folding the fall/winter clothes.

This is all of the clothes pulled out of the closet and folded. I do up all zippers, snaps and buttons but otherwise, I do kind of a half-assed job of folding. I have a steamer! I can make wrinkles go away!

This is what's left in the closet when I'm done. I clean all the shelves and dust off the bars. I did clean the mirror, but I skipped the chandelier and the very top shelves, which I didn't feel like doing.

I had to remove some of these jackets and skirts and store them after all, since I didn't have enough hangers for all of the spring/summer clothes. I refuse to buy more hangers!

And the left side. Same here, had to store away more than this to make room.

See me in the mirror, giving the "rock on/horns of the devil" to y'all? I'm wearing my Iron Maiden tour shirt, camouflage pants, and my lambswool/leather slippers. Super-klassy, but it's sweaty work.

These aren't all of my fall/winter boots and shoes - there are an additional 4-5 pairs to the left, behind the stacks of clothes (you can see them in the picture with all the hangers above).

Bye, shoes and boots! See you at the end of September! I wonder where the world will be then?

Here are all my fall/winter shoes that were in my closet that I planned on keeping out.

Some boots stay out all year round (cowboy boots, beige OTK, black OTK), and I have a good collection of walking/flat shoes.

When I was unpacking all the shoe bags, I found this bag...full of more bags!

That was prophetic, as I needed most of them to pack all the extra fall/winter clothes and shoes into! Fall/winter stuff is much bulkier than spring/summer.

I discovered, to my great anguish, that two of my favourite pairs of Fluevogs were damaged in storage.

The orange ones have big black marks on them, from touching another pair of shoes, and the yellow ones have marks from the orange shoes. I'm going to try to fix these - they are a waxed canvas on both pairs, very soft - with Crayolas. The orange pair are very worn - I'm hard on my shoes - but the yellow ones are still in good condition. I hope I can salvage at least one pair.

Once I had unpacked that bigass tub above and all those shoe bags, it was time to get out the other three flat tubs. Out come the spring/summer stuff, and away goes the fall winter. Back under the bed for these three.

I wipe down and dust all of the containers that I use. I found very little moth evidence when I unpacked - hooray!

At this point, I was about 4 hours into the swap-over, and done with the vacuum, so Vizzini came out and started making a pest of himself, hiding behind the blouses and dresses (this is before I stored the fall/winter stuff back there).

"Oh, yes, I remember this tasty item from last year."

Once I had stashed all of the bagged shoes and clothes under and behind, he couldn't get in there anymore. I have to turn all the tied bags so that he can't chew on them, or dig into the bags and ruin any of my clothes. Vizzini-proofing my closet is essential.

And here are the "after" shots! The Tower of Power, starting at the ceiling, with my party shoes/the highest heels that I can still kinda/sorta wear.

Below those, my row of Fancy Purses. I packed a few away for fall/winter. The row of shoes below that are my higher heels, still wearable.

A bigger shelf for boots, followed by the shelves of shoes that I wear the most, all the way to the floor.

 I love all the colours! So excited to wear them.

 I'd totally forgotten about some of them.

On the floor, my flat shoes. You can see some of the fall/winter bags stashed behind them, under the shelves.

Opposite, on the left, my walking/shopping shoes and boots are below the blouses, long skirts and trousers.

 I'm super-excited about wearing that Marimekko skirt again! It's so billowy and beautiful.

I store my belts in front of the mirror opposite the closet door.

The biggest hatbox contains my biggest belts, and is sitting on top of a shoebox full of fall/winter belts and scarves. The middle hatbox is for skinnier coloured/patterned belts, and the smallest is for my chain and metal belts. The shoebox on the left has soft belts, obis, sashes and a pair of vintage green gloves.

A good shot of my poppy tile art above the mirror, and you can see a glimpse of the black saucer hat I wore the other day on the shelf above my shorter skirts.

So many colourful skirts! I can't wait to start building outfits.

And here are the jackets and blazers. The section on the right are all the new-to-me items that I haven't worn yet.

Some of them are very summery (two pairs of linen trousers), but most of it I'll try to wear as soon as possible. I need to get the red pants hemmed...ooh, do you think I could do it myself with a needle and thread?? I got my sewing badge in Brownies back in the day...pic here, heh heh.

Oh, look at all these dresses!

 There are three jumpsuits in there too.

 And I spy a few kimonos, and long coats.

Here's the left side shelves - the top shelf are my archive shoes, and fancy hats.

My pant collection has grown - I can't hang them all, so two stacks of the more casual ones are folded, and beside them is a stack of odds and ends (leather shorts, acid wash and leather vests, a shrug and a sparkly beaded sweater).

The bottom two shelves are the items I'll wear the most - they are the easiest to reach! Long cardigans, short cardigans, light/patterned cardigans, folded blouses that I don't have enough hangers/room for.

The bottom shelf are my long-sleeved tops, my short sleeved sweaters, my sleeveless sweaters/tops (including my leather peplum), and two sleeveless tops that are new-to-me.

And below that we have blouses, long skirts and trousers.

I'm so happy to see all this colour and pattern. I love many of my fall/winter clothes, but the spring/summer ones are my favourites overall.

And there we are! All finished, ready for me to shop my wardrobe.

Oh, but wait, we still have some other things to get their swap.

I cleaned out both scarf boxes and tidied them up.

I put a few scarves away and brought a few out.

And I dusted and cleaned and rearranged the top of the lingerie chest.

The box and the dish both contain jewelry that I haven't worn yet. My Geoffrey Beene "Grey Flannel" cologne has been elevated on top of a wooden box, along with a No. 17 lipstick from Boots from 1985 (best colour ever); the other lipstick in the blue tube is an Avon lippy from the 1970s called "Russet" - I liberated it from Mom's collection around 1984, and it's still the best red lipstick I've ever found. I don't wear either of these anymore, but the smells of each of them immediately take me back.

I had to lock Vizzini out of the room as I finished up, as he started licking one of my new dresses.

"Mmm, this fabric is delicious!"

Vizzini! I can see your pink tongue!

I also packed away my heavier-weight scarves, gloves and toques, and hung up my lighter ones in the hallway on the coat-tree.

And lastly, time to swap my jewelry over.

Here's the "before" - like my clothes closet, my jewelry collection gets a bit messy over the season.

Ha, no judgment on the dust, right?

I emptied out all my containers and gave them a good dusting. I arranged them on Vizzini's bedroom scratching post (he has one in every room).

I keep all my jewelry in the bedroom on top of a big dresser that holds my socks, underwear, house clothes (sweaters, jeans, tees), workout wear and football jerseys.

I like to lay every thing out and then put back everything I want to keep out for the upcoming season. It's a mess, but I'm very visual and need to see it all.

The black box on the right holds all the stuff that I had stored away, plus some of my old accessories archives.

After a thorough dusting, I laid all the drawers out for my main jewelry box, ready for me to put away the spring/summer bits as I unpacked them.

I love that the drawers all come out - I often pull the earring drawer out and look at it in the daylight when I'm putting my outfit together the night before. 

Here are my additional containers, all loaded up.

My two-tier cuff-holder, a candy dish full of my bigass earrings, and my flat crystal dish where my stud-style earrings live.

I also have my Grandma S's jewelry box, where I store all my vintage jewelry. This is the "before" picture.

It also gets a little jumbly over time.

And here is the "after" shot - ooh, so many pieces that I'm excited to wear again.

So much colour too!

Here is the "after" with all my spring/summer jewelry in its place.

I enjoy having complementary jewelry for each season.

I didn't cull much - I know my accessory style pretty well - but I still ended up needing an extra bag for my cuffs.

It's not just the clothes that are bulkier in the colder months, apparently.

And now, my friends, I'm going to go get some quality cuddlin' time.

"This is news to me."

Vizzini, try to be enthusiastic! It's attention - you like attention!

"I'm trying to care, really..."

Ah well, I'm sure he'll be back bugging me soon enough!