Should You Keep Clothes That Don’t Fit Anymore?

I’m at the moment a senior in school, and I’ve placed on just a little weight, which implies I’m not becoming into a few of my pants as I used to. I’m proud of how I look and haven’t any need to alter my weight, however I’ve some actually cute pants that I hesitate to eliminate in case I can match into them sooner or later. At what level are they only taking on closet house? Ought to I simply say goodbye? — Peter, Ithaca, N.Y.

To maintain or to not hold one’s previous garments as one proceeds by life — and particularly by main life levels — is a perennial conundrum. It’s, in spite of everything, not only a query of “Will I/can I ever put on it once more,” however considered one of cash, practicality, historical past and identification. Our garments comprise multitudes of recollections and associations, in addition to variations of our previous selves, all of that are deeply entwined with questions of self-image and physique dimension. These will be awfully exhausting to toss away.

Among the finest current illustrations of this phenomenon will be present in a e book by Kim A. Poldner, a professor at The Hague College of Utilized Sciences, known as “Love Letters to My Clothes,” which options nonetheless lives of clothes, together with poetic recollections of every, very similar to an autobiography in fabric. Then there’s Lorelei Vashti’s “Dress, Memory: A Memoir of My Twenties in Dresses,” which was impressed by a query very very similar to your personal.

But nobody can hold each single piece of previous clothes. That approach hoarding lies. So how do you determine what’s value saving, particularly when match is a matter? It’s doable to outgrow a garment in additional methods than one.

You would go the Marie Kondo route and ask your self, “Does this (nonetheless) carry me pleasure?” Does a garment carry you pleasure to put on or just pleasure to think about: to see and keep in mind the great instances by which you wore it and even the artistry with which it’s made.

You may additionally ask, “Does this make me really feel dangerous?” Hoping you possibly can put on one thing once more when the probabilities are low is usually a quick path to unhappiness. Seeing the merchandise is usually a fixed reminder of a distinct time in your life, and a distinct you. Holding on to it might probably look like clinging to the previous relatively than embracing the current, like an train in wishful pondering and remorse relatively than reconciliation and discovery. And that’s undoubtedly not value it.

In case you are, as you say, completely happy together with your new physique form, protecting lots of garments that don’t match is a bit like digging your personal rut. Man Trebay, our males’s put on critic, mentioned “ruthlessness” was the best way to go. Don’t let your self get caught in eager for what as soon as was. Prune away. It could be liberating, like shedding an previous pores and skin. On the very least, it provides you with extra closet house.

And there are different upsides. In the event you love a garment, however it not works for you, contemplate donating it so it might probably take pleasure in a second life with another person.

Lastly, there’s a third approach, between protecting one thing and eliminating it fully. To wit, reworking it. Both by tailoring (a very good tailor or dressmaker can work miracles with dimension enlargement and contraction) or transmogrification, turning a favourite garment into a part of a reminiscence quilt, say, or some D.I.Y. artwork. Yesterday’s cute pants may very well be tomorrow’s cool craft mission. All of it relies upon the way you have a look at it, actually.

Your Type Questions, Answered

Each week on Open Thread, Vanessa will reply a reader’s fashion-related query, which you’ll be able to ship to her anytime by way of email or Twitter. Questions are edited and condensed.