Why technical?

A pattern began to emerge as I sorted through the 180 items. Taking advice from Project 333 that inspired this process, I have discarded anything that does not fit, is worn out or I don’t like. I’ve tried to keep clothes that I love, clothes that I actually want to wear, and these mostly what would be described as travel or technical clothing. Generally, high quality, man-made fabrics that are light, easy to wash and dry, and comfortable. When we travelled, year-round, in the motorhome five years ago our entire wardrobe of clothing was made up of these clothes. I’ve still got most of them and they are neither worn out, nor do they look dated. That’s the beauty of this style, if style is what you can call it – lifestyle, maybe. The possibility of another motorhome or camping car, as they are known in France, has dawned again and so I have decided to convert my entire wardrobe to technical clothing.

I’ve never been a stylish person. I’m not good at choosing clothes and feel uncomfortable dressed outside of my comfort zone. Throughout my working life I have adopted a number of strategies, trying to choose clothes to help me play the role I was fulfilling at the time. There was a period in the mid-1980s when I bought suits with labels such as Planet, Alexon and Aquascutum – I’m not sure many of these exist anymore. I must have been feeling affluent in those days, although I do still have an Aquascutum winter coat that I bought in a charity shop – it’s one of the only charity shop finds that has been saved from the black bags.  This period was followed by the Marks and Spencer suit era, which moved on, or downwards to the Tesco F&F and Asda George period. As we started to plan our motorhome adventure we discovered technical clothing and the temple of technical that is the Rohan store. At last I had found a style that I felt suited me, gave me confidence and I enjoyed wearing. Spending on work outfits stopped as we prepared to down-shift and got rid of virtually everything that did not fit in the motorhome.

                                                                 Drying the washing

                                                 

Life on the road came to end and we found ourselves back in the UK looking for work. It wasn’t really the outcome I had planned when I walked down to the clothing bank after my last day at work. I had to replace all my work clothes and this is when I discovered charity shop shopping. We moved house several times and each time I needed more and more wardrobe boxes. Once we bought the house in France and I started to commute monthly between the two countries I developed a dual wardrobe – the trouble was that whatever I wanted to wear was in the other place!

In summer 2013 I was preparing to move to France permanently and spent the final six weeks living in a shared house. I sent several boxes of clothes down with the removers and by post, until eventually I had a capsule wardrobe that could fit into two suitcases. This was my first taste of Project 333.