A Year Wasted Or Well Spent?
In an interesting article in today's Telegraph UK, a study sponsored by British clothing giant Matalan (of course it's sponsored by a fashion company) says that women spend an accumulated year of their life deciding on what to wear. The survey of 2,491 women averaged the following:
16 mins - weekday mornings
14 mins - weekend mornings
20 mins - weekend "night on the town"
52 mins - holidays
Jezebel (which brought this to my attention), suggests that this "deliberation" is not out of insecurity but practicality, fantasy and in a sense, luxury. I'm just glad that they didn't disagree that women do spend that much time thinking about what they wear. Being in fashion, I'm pretty sure my average is higher.
I bring this up because I was having an internal conversation yesterday about how much thought goes into what I wear. Now, perhaps I should preface this with the fact that this is by far a major topic amongst my closest friends and I. We are constantly plotting and discussing outfit choices for the most mundane things and whetting each other's appetites with links to what shoes/bag/shirt/bottoms would work for each other, etc etc. Call us shallow if you want, it's our jobs. But then again, I become engrossed in such conversation because it is my job to dress people (models, mostly), inspire how people dress, write about it and basically function as an indirect marketer for brands and companies by portraying their goods in an ideal light - it's my research.
(complete sidebar: I just spent the holiday weekend with some wonderful young professionals who work in education, law and government who were having an equally deep conversation as I would with my friends about what to wear to the next Heartthrob. Fashion is our business, just like education policy in public schools is my weekend guests' business. If only I didn't play with clothes for a living, I may have felt more comfortable commenting in their conversation. Moving on...).
This all being said, I have definitely spent more than a year of my life talking about what to wear, but what about dressing myself? First, personal fashion is not a priority when I'm going to a shoot (why ruin nice clothes when I sweat and snag and roll around on the floor all day) or sitting in front of the computer, which is my daily routine. I have a weird schedule, so I typically find myself wearing my gym clothes (which takes as much thought as finding clean clothes) at home often or jeans and a t-shirt. Both do involve more thought about footwear, whether it means taking 10 minutes to find my running shoes or picking out what pair of sneakers matches (or doesn't) best to my shirt. Bottom line, I'm a simple dresser when it comes to the everyday.
However, I do have a healthy social schedule, usually associated with representing myself as a voice in fashion and style in Boston. This is when I begin to freak out. There's a good chance I go through 5 different options and eventually settle on something in the middle. If it's something fancy pants that references black tie attire, then I go into panic mode (although Sam Mendoza makes my life a dream during those times, there's always the outstanding issue of shoes and other accessories). And holidays, for the record, I'm typically in my pajamas.
Although I believe that I have a skewed version of the time and thought put into getting dressed, I do agree that regardless of the situation, the effort is all aligned with practicality, the fantasy of portraying an image and most importantly, luxury. Not necessarily the luxury of my clothes (lots of which are from Target), but the luxury of having the time to choose amongst many options. For all of you who've made it this far, please join me in this discussion below in the comments. I'm beyond curious what everyone has to say for themselves about how long it takes for you to get ready.
And apologies if this seems self indulgent, I've been in New Jersey with minimal social interaction for the past week.
Mine:
0 mins - weekday mornings
I go to work in my Pj's, My office is in a tiny town and I see like 3 other people a day.
5 mins - weekend mornings
Yard sales and Brunch are pretty low key
10 mins - weekend "night on the town"
anything black with rips and shreds and im good to go...Jewelry takes the most time.
10 mins - holidays
I grab any ridiculous dress that i cant pull off anywhere else...because my family loves me either way.
Posted by: punky | July 10, 2009 at 11:37 AM