Get Redressed – my challenge for February

You know how you take some things for granted until they’re pointed out to you? That happened to me recently when Redress invited me to take part in their Get Redressed Challenge. The challenge runs all year and is about inspiring people to buy fewer clothes and make more use of the ones they have, at the same time encouraging them to purchase high quality pieces when they do actually spend money.  Um, but that’s what I do anyway!? However, there is an aspect to the challenge that I hadn’t thought about so much. For February, the challenge celebrates durability – which, translated for social media purposes, involves sharing images and stories of clothes that you’ve had for more than five years. As you might have noticed, a lot of the pieces I post about on this blog are from op shops, which might mean they are old, but they’re new to me. But I do own a lot of items that have been mine for a long time – jewellery from childhood and 25-year-old socks, for instance! This February challenge made me realise I have quite a few pieces in my wardrobe that have been there for years, so I thought I’d show you a few  in this post. Apologies in advance that these are all pictures from a while ago – it is about 40 degrees today and I’m really not up for a fashion shoot! But my brain is still kind of cool enough to have chosen items to suit the season.

I bought this very light cotton blouse from a workmate in Tokyo for about $2. It really only makes an appearance in stinking hot sweaty weather – hence it came along on a trip to Bali last year, one of the few pieces to join me that was not batik and not DIY!

The dress I’m wearing in this shot came with me to Indonesia too, but on a different trip. I made it nearly 20 years ago for a ’60s-themed party, from some material my grandma gave me that she had probably had since the ’70s (I’m guessing she bought it in Malaysia when she visited my dad’s family when I was really little). At the time I remember thinking it was a really loud pattern and that I’d never wear it in real life, but what a difference a decade or two makes! The necklace and sandals are much-loved summer staples – so much so that despite the sandals only costing me $1 at a Tokyo flea market, I paid $70 to have them resoled last year (the shoe guy thought I was nuts).

This dress is another summer favourite – I’ve had it since I was about 12, but thanks to the fact that I’ve hardly grown at all since then and also due to it being a wrap dress, with a few tweaks (namely press studs at the back so it doesn’t blow open on windy days!) I am still able to wear it now (although this pic is from two years ago!).

If you want to see more, check out Redressed on Instagram – they’re posting some of my images as well as those of others taking part in the challenge. I’d love to see your long-serving wardrobe heroes – why don’t you post your pics to Instagram too? Just hashtag them #getredressed and we can all pay tribute to summer style stalwarts!