Delicious Autumn!

How I'm approaching the fall season this year

The beginning of September has been unusually warm in Helsinki. The overnights are chillier, but the daytime temperatures have reached 25 degrees Celsius (that’s upper 70s Fahrenheit), which is rather unexpected for this time of year. The leaves are turning, the geese are flocking, but I’m still wearing summer clothes and swimming in the Baltic Sea. The way I see it, I might just as well take advantage of the warm weather while I can. I will wear linen and walk bare feet for as long as possible, because I’ll have more than my share of darkness and freezing weather coming my way. People in town are already wearing tall boots, heavy knitwear and leather jackets. In theory I get the excitement that comes with the new season, but in practice it has to feel mighty sweaty under all of those fall clothes when it’s so warm out.

In the spirit of Total Recommend’s recent newsletter, I’m not planning to buy anything specific this fall. I have nothing on my shopping list after I already bought the one thing that I had hoped to find: a proper hat. It’s a beautiful homburg, made in Finland in the 1960s, licensed by Stetson.

Here’s my homburg and how I’m going to wear it.

Now I pretty much have what I want and need. I have plenty of lovely outerwear. I have my favorite sweaters, a bunch of good shirts, skirts, trousers and blazers. I look forward to wearing my 1940s three-piece suit that I bought in May. I might try to wear parts of the 1930s morning suit I found in July. Even my fall/winter shoe situation is quite decent, although give me a month or two and I will start to complain about it. 

I’m not doing a No Buy. There’s a chance that I might buy something, but I’m not going out of my way to buy for the sake of buying. If I happen to stumble upon an amazing gem, I might pull the trigger and just go for it. Life’s too short to not allow a beautiful surprise to sneak up on you. I feel good about this. As much as I’ve rooted for discipline in the past, it feels nice to be able to allow some ease in for a change. I still think that there’s a time and a place for a strict No Buy, but this is not it and I’m not there.  

I’m thinking about spiffing up my jewelry game this fall. I’ve decided to do this many times in the past, but this time I am committed. I almost always wear the same jewelry: a pair of small gold stud earrings, my mother’s old gold and topaz pendant, and my engagement/wedding ring. I’ve been collecting vintage jewelry over the years and I have a lot of it, but I very rarely reach out for it.

A small fraction of my vintage jewelry collection.

I’m planning on putting in some extra effort to wear my jewelry more, to find out what I should keep and what to sell. As much as I love collecting, it’s starting to feel somewhat unnecessary to have all this stuff that I never wear, be it jewelry, clothes, shoes or accessories. 

As I was reading Irene’s brilliant newsletter about wardrobe editing, it occurred to me that I no longer look at the vast amount of clothes I have with a sense of anxiety.¹ I used to always need more closet space just so that I could make room for more purchases. The biannual closet clean-out was the only way to do it. Stuff went out at the beginning of a season so that more stuff could come in, and it always made me feel guilty. I saw the process of a wardrobe edit through a consumerist lens, which was always geared toward more and more shopping.

Now that I’m in a much better place with shopping, and after I dramatically changed my culling technique, I feel that I can finally grasp the core idea of a wardrobe edit. It’s not about the stuff in your closet. It’s not about the space you have at your disposal. It’s not even about becoming more organized. It’s about who you are. The only reason for editing my wardrobe now is to better accommodate my sense of self, both mental and physical. The difference is major. 

Some of my favorite fabrics. Still wearing my heavier linen pieces (center and right). I need to fix these 1940s pinstripe wool trousers that were used as a part of a theater costume and crudely modified. (left). I hope to bring them back to life.

After the weather cools down, I’ll pack away my summer clothes and take inventory of what I wore a lot and what I didn’t wear at all. If I tap into my feelings, I’ll know if something is a keeper or if it’s time to move on.² I’m not planning to become a minimalist this fall (that is not who I am), but I am looking to do some wardrobe editing anyway. As my vintage business is dramatically changing gears this fall (I’m in the process of re-branding, moving, and establishing an online presence), I’m going to let go of some of my personal vintage collection in the process. I feel it’s time. Change breeds more change, and it’s good. Once you part with one thing, it becomes easier to see the big picture. With the big picture comes clarity.

There’s a type of customer I often encounter in my vintage shop: an older woman comes in with a bag of exceptional, beautifully made vintage clothes, and asks if she could sell the clothes to me. I inquire what makes her want to part with the clothes, and she will say somewhat laconically “I just don’t have use for this anymore”. She will add that she only wears a small portion of her wardrobe and it’s time to clean the closets. Even a few years ago I didn’t quite get what these women were doing. If you have all this great stuff, why not keep it and wear it, just for your own pleasure? I’m starting to understand the women a little bit better now. At some point you just don’t feel the need to own everything. Letting go is to become your own person.

1. Shoes are a different story. On the one hand I struggle with the scarcity mindset because I have difficult feet, and on the other, I’m haunted by the idea of the perfect shoe but it doesn't exist. This is highly ironic, because when it comes to wardrobe categories, shoes is the one that I know best. I know what I like and what I don’t like. And yet, here we are. I have anxiety over my shoe situation. Here’s an old newsletter about my relationship to shoes. I still stand by every word. It’s just a little challenging to practice what I preach sometimes.

2. I’m looking at you, Tibi Style Class -induced purchases. I’m still in the process of unpacking it all. Let me know in the comments if this is something you’d be interested in reading in the future.

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