“WHY DON’T YOU JUST MAKE YOUR OWN CLOTHES?”

THE SHORT ANSWER: I still have the knowledge, but I no longer have the space, time, or resources.

THE LONGER ANSWER: It takes an immense amount of infrastructure and labor to make clothes (fast fashion has made them so cheap that we’ve developed a kind of societal blind spot around this). When I ran a clothing business, I had all of that infrastructure in place—machines, materials, tools, workspace, industry connections, patterns—and I was in my studio for hours every day, so it was easy to just stay after work and make myself a dress. At that time, I did make most of my own dance clothes.

But that's not my life anymore! If I wanted to make a dress now, I’d have to unpack all of my machines and have them serviced (they’ve been in storage for years) and then I’d have to find a fabric source in my current town. For a good quality jersey knit, I would likely pay a premium (it costs a lot more per yard to buy a few yards of fabric at a hobby shop than to buy an entire bolt of the same fabric at a warehouse in the Los Angeles garment district, where I used to source my materials). By the time I had enough fabric for some trial-and-error and the necessary machines functioning, I would have already spent a lot of money—like, possibly two or three hundred dollars—and, more importantly, a great deal of time. Then I’d have to take over our dining room to do the project, which would be inconvenient because that’s where we eat our meals.

Finally, there is no guarantee that the dress would come out particularly well, especially not the first time, because I haven’t sewn a garment in years. It would probably take a couple of tries to get it right, and that would eat up more fabric and more time.

So yes, it could be done because I know how to do it. But it wouldn’t be efficient—I would spend way more time, money, and labor getting to the finished product than I will spend shopping for and buying a dress. If someday we live somewhere with space for me to sew regularly, I’ll likely get the machines back out, start a small fabric collection, and work towards a setup which will allow me to make clothes again in an economical and enjoyable way. But because doing it right now would be exhausting and expensive, it's not actually an appealing prospect. Instead, I’ll go to a consignment shop or thrift shop and find something secondhand that works for dance, and I’ll enjoy the hour or two that I spend there, which is a very appealing prospect :)

THE METAPHORICAL ANSWER: I’m like someone who owned a sushi restaurant five years ago when she lived near the coast. Now I’ve sold the restaurant and I live inland. If it was 6pm and we were hungry and I wanted to go out to eat at a sushi place, and you said to me, “Why not just make your own sushi?” I would say, “But it would take days for me to prepare my kitchen to make sushi, and I’d have to buy a whole bag of sushi rice, whole jars of ginger and wasabi...just to make one meal? And where would I get the sushi-grade fish?”  

THANK U FOR COMING TO MY 3-PART TED TALK

I would add a sub-level — i was missing this in my own wardrobe until I recognized how much I needed it a few years ago, and having this little module of clothes and shoes for all seasons has been a game changer! So my level -1 is “Dirty Deeds.”  For things like yard work and gardening and painting and other various chores that get dirty. I’ll go to goodwill every so often and pick up a t-shirt or sweatpants or sneakers and I have a whole drawer dedicated to these things. Not glamorous or sexy, but I end up wearing them almost every day. I’m wearing some now! 😆

An important category for me to consider is clothes for my period. I know there’s certain things I can’t wear if I don’t want any accidents, and having designated undies for that too. But even just clothes where I know I’m gonna be bloated and if I’m going out I need to accommodate that.

Love how DETAILED this is, this is so helpful

Now I want to figure out how to make my pajamas reflect my personal style

Thank you for the diversity in the examples! As a fat woman I rarely see myself represented in videos like these, and it honestly makes my brain go "oh this advice is not for me" even if I know that that's an irrational thought 😅. Representation is so important! 🙏❤️

It's worth to note that most of the time during history women had outfit expeditions for a lot of occasions, and if you dive into 18th century for example or even to the 50s and 60s you would see how much of a woman's life is devoted to fashion and changing clothes to match the occasion, especially if she is in upper echelons of society.

Society as well had more defined dress codes. If you travel to less developed countries or especially countries with different structures that don't have late capitalism and insane consumerism, where symbolism bears a great role you can still observe this.

This is why when foreign students arrive in the US, one of the first cultural shocks (yes, they even learn for this prior going to the US) is seeing stained and greasy-haired college students attending university (a renowned institution) in pajamas, ripped t-shirts and flip-flops, yet over-consuming so much just to rarely use it, unless it's filled with sugar. 😅

counterpoint to your fashion math: just because you wear level 1, 2, 3 clothing more often doesn't really mean that you need more of it. I work from home and so the majority of time, I'm wearing level1 clothing. However, I wear the same three sets of pajamas day in and day out. Also, it's more socially acceptable to outfit repeat on lower levels of clothing, so that's why most of my time shopping is still invested in level 4 clothing.

One thing I would recommend which no one thinks about until they need it is buy a cute tote and fill it with new and comfy pajamas or leisure, socks, underwear, lotion, dry shampoo, make up, hair ties, toothpaste and toothbrush, mouthwash, hand sanitizer and snacks.  This is good if you ever have to take yourself to the hospital or someone else does. It’s a way to take home with you in an uncomfortable environment. ❤

This is freaking brilliant. I may actually start organizing my closet into these categories. I think it would greatly simplify life to ask "what level of dress do I need for what I'm doing" and head to that area. Honestly, all capsule wardrobes should include your methodology. This is probably why most of us have fallen down with that.

I never put it into words before, but this video made me realize I actually organize my closet by levels of formality (office appropriate, varying levels of casual, home) as opposed to by type (dresses, tops) or color. I watch a lot of organization content and have never seen anyone else organize their clothes the same way I do, but now it makes sense why I find it so much easier to get dressed this way (I highly recommend). Ha, thanks for helping me understand myself better!

I always appreciate the inclusivity of size - and also ethnicity and gender - you show when pulling examples for these videos. Many people wouldn't think about it, and I love that you do. Deep thanks for that.

I’m glad you mentioned it’s subjective because I find myself so much more formal than the majority of people. I just feel better put together and I don’t even realise that I’m a formal dresser until people point it out. And I’ve definitely met others who are so comfortable with casual clothes in formal settings. I love them for it too. We are all so different

level 0 formality: clothes that are worn in the workshop, gardening, for fixing the car, painting, maybe heavy cleaning. Old, maybe ripped shirts, and pants (can go from jeans to leggings), and shoes you won't be sorry to throw out.

I am 54 and have never done an exercise like this. I just always felt that vauge "I have nothing to wear" feeling. I realized that I spend most of my time at home or running errands. It has totally changed the way I am looking at my clothes. I plan to set up my closets (empty nester, so I get guest rooms too, lol) so my lounge/sleepwear is together, and my garden/paint/sew wear is together, and my "leave the house and fancy stuff" is together! What a game changer...thank you!

This is a useful tool to quantify reality vs fantasy closets. I have a hunch that my wardrobe is skewed toward the fantasy and my reality closet should get more love. Thank you for grounding your thought process in hard data. Now I’m off to crunch some numbers.  😀

I think I am going to include a category for myself called "work wear" or "trash wear". Stuff that I feel like I can wear that I don't mind if they get kind of trashed. Like doing yard work, gardening, doing a lot of cooking/baking. I tend to be very messy so I need sacrificial clothing that I can mentally forgive myself for messing up.

Thank you for intellectualizing the way we experience fashion and consumption! Truly the only fashion content I don’t mentally tune out after the first 3 minutes. ✨

love the video! the only thing I feel you missed when talking about how much more often you need level 2 and 3 clothing than level 4 is that the higher the category the higher the attention to outfits (wearing the same outfit in a formal situation is uncommon whereas wearing the same two outfits to the gym for weeks is normal) so I do believe that the felt need for more level 4 clothing than level 2 and 3 makes sense and is reasonable :)

I did an exercise like this after realizing I was shopping for my "fantasy self," a gal who appeared not need sensible shoes (Why? She would never walk!), and not my real life. Sadly, I learned I needed way more comfortable shoes and casual outfits instead of clothes that were useful for nightclubing and concert going. I also realized how often I am in "house clothes," and with that knowledge, I invested in better quality PJs and lay around outfits (hello, cashmere!). I would encourage everyone to audit their lives and the clothes for those lives, and, armed with that knowledge, proceed accordingly with their hard earned shopping dollars.

Can i just take a moment to appreciate the diversity of the models for your examples? So effortlessly inclusive. 🎉