Dress me!

My apartment is looking like a hurricane hit it. The last two bags of winter clothes headed to the dry cleaner for the season are by the door, sweaters are in piles waiting to be cleaned or put away, and there's an explosion of summer clothes that I've moved from the back of my closet but can't fit into the front since warmer clothes are still there. With temperatures ranging from the 40s to upper 80s this week, I'm confused: What season is this??

When I look through it all and try, unsuccessfully, to shove a few more hangers' worth into my closet, I get so frustrated I give up, and look instead for some new place to start a pile. This chaos has shut down my wardrobe creativity. I've forgotten how to dress for this season, so just go for the easy and obvious (and boringly safe). It happens each time the weather changes - suddenly the clothes I'd become so comfortable and familiar with and could mix up in a way I liked without even really thinking about it are gone and here are all these new guys that I need to get to know again. I have purged my closet pretty aggressively (I wrote about that in Closet Bulimia a few months ago), so this is all stuff I want. But I'm overwhelmed. I need a weekend to get reacquainted and see what works now. Some pieces I will probably wear the same way I wore them last year, but some looks won't work anymore since new styles and trends have affected my eye.

I know this could seem like a trivial point of discussion, but if you view your wardrobe as a personal form of design and as an expression of your mood and personality (as I do and as I know a lot of my friends do), it matters. A bad outfit might not ruin my day, but it can certainly get me started off on the wrong foot (or shoe).

I'll work it all out - these are all items that I've picked out and spent money on, after all. But my inclination to play it safe when overwhelmed makes me realize how helpful it is to have the help of an objective eye. I am really lucky to have friends who are fashionable - and some, like Jane, who work in fashion - and who can push me to be more adventurous and try new shapes or pick one piece that will bring new life to a 5 year old suit (which Jane did!). I do almost all my shopping with friends now and they have helped me define my own style much more than I could have on my own, as contradictory as that sounds.

I was interested to see that a lot of the hooplah around the introduction of Top Shop into New York focused on the staff, who are meant to function as stylists. I haven't been to the New York Top Shop, but if it's anything like the London one, I'll probably want to run out screaming. Maybe one function of the stylists is to prevent customers from doing that! Even if it's not to retain customers physically, I think it's smart strategy. At the higher end, shops offer edited collections and personal service. But, to me, stores in the middle just have racks and racks of stuff. It's too much. No wonder people end up buying what everyone else does. Will chain store stylists encourage more people to explore their personal style? I hope so! I love seeing people break out of "safe". I saw a woman yesterday who I'd guess was in her 60's, dressed in understated khaki, but with bright lilac tights. The surprise of it made me smile and point her out to my friend, Aarti, who said "that'll be you when you're 60." Something like that, I hope.