The guest's eye can set you free
Have you ever had a friend "borrow" your closet? A house guest comes, for example, with the wrong clothes for the climate. ("I thought Canada was cold!?")
Invited to choose, your guest plucks a skirt and pairs it
with an odd tee... in this case, my chartreuse linen wrap skirt that never seemed very w
earable with a teal tee. When she twists my forgotten silk ikat scarf around her neck, I'm surprised to see the clothes' colours echoed, the combination offbeat and fresh.
That gray silk piano shawl bought for a wedding and never worn again? She ties it over a white scoopneck tee and dark denim pencil skirt.
I cannot believe how great her choices look. I want that! Wait. She's wearing my clothes.
I resolve to regard my very large wardrobe with her eyes, instead of falling back on the familiar combinations. To no longer glance past an eight year old Gigli jacket, but appreciate its still-perfect cut.
So much buying is simply the result of the eye being stimulated by something fresh, instead working to revise what one already has. I've been easily seduced by the novelty of the new, and too lazy, blind or habit-bound to realize my closet's plenty.
Invited to choose, your guest plucks a skirt and pairs it
with an odd tee... in this case, my chartreuse linen wrap skirt that never seemed very w
earable with a teal tee. When she twists my forgotten silk ikat scarf around her neck, I'm surprised to see the clothes' colours echoed, the combination offbeat and fresh. 
That gray silk piano shawl bought for a wedding and never worn again? She ties it over a white scoopneck tee and dark denim pencil skirt.
I cannot believe how great her choices look. I want that! Wait. She's wearing my clothes.
I resolve to regard my very large wardrobe with her eyes, instead of falling back on the familiar combinations. To no longer glance past an eight year old Gigli jacket, but appreciate its still-perfect cut.
So much buying is simply the result of the eye being stimulated by something fresh, instead working to revise what one already has. I've been easily seduced by the novelty of the new, and too lazy, blind or habit-bound to realize my closet's plenty.
Comments
Don't know why I'm telling you all this, but your article just reminded me of it.
normally I do not lend cothes; i had a disastrous experience. A good friend borrowed an expensive cocktail dress and returned it with a cigarette burn. When I pointed it out, she said, "I guess I won't do that again." Nor will I lend unless I don't care if i see it again.
Clearing out ones closet regularly and experimenting with your stuff, as my sister does, is a great thing to do for "fresh eyes".
duchesse, with regard to the cigarette burn. I would be mortified if I handed back an item damaged. Did your friend offer to pay for the dress, or at least to have it professionally altered or mended?
With regard to seeing old clothes through fresh eyes, it is one of my treats to myself at the end of a long period of work, to spend a morning trying on my clothes and working out new outfits. I do it perhaps 3 or 4 times a year, no more, and it is so relaxing. It also allows time to experiment which I just don't have when getting dressed for work in the morning. Of course I need to be completely alone in the house with no impending appointments and answer phone switched on.
Maybe it is not as deep as a friend's energy being imbued into the fibers of the clothing. But, still a form of switch and change that adds or detracts from the clothing or the friendship.
I think of myself as being generous but, might be slow to lend my clothes. As the youngest child in a family of three sisters who were all older I, only once almost had to inherit their special clothes- Holy Communion and thankfully it didn't fit properly and my mother decided to buy me my very own, brand new, trusseau. I am afraid I rather coveted it and I buried my face in the box, in the layers of gauze. I inhaled the smells and felt the tiny pearls beneath my fingers. I traced the lace and to this day I can feel the wonderous feel of being enveloped in silks and satins and luxury. I admire all of you who share with your friends.