A Sunglasses Epiphany

I mentioned in this post that I’ve been ruthlessly weeding my closet and trying to build it back up with things I really love so that it’s not such a chore for me to get dressed.

(If you ever wondered if you are living with First World Problems, a good rule of thumb might be that if getting dressed from a closet full of clothes is a chore, the answer is absolutely “yes”).

I’ve been trying to figure out what exactly I want to be wearing on a daily basis and what sorts of things I ought to be buying. How much should I spend? Do I go cheap or expensive? How many items do I need? Should I do a capsule wardrobe? Etc, etc, etc.

Then I went to run an errand with my girls a few weeks ago and couldn’t find my sunglasses.

I have this really nice pair of sunglasses that I wear every single day. I got them as a fluke when I happened to mention on Twitter last summer that I’d made an eye appointment to get new contacts before we went to Europe and I tagged VSP because that’s who I have vision insurance through.

They responded and said something like “Thanks! Send us your address and we’ll mail you a little gift.”

And then this pair of super fantastic Valentino sunglasses showed up on my doorstep a few days later. And like most things I didn’t pick myself, I loved it. I never would have bought them for myself since Valentino sunglasses run in the $200-$300 range.

Anyway, so I own a really nice pair of sunglasses and unlike every cheap pair of sunglasses I’ve owned throughout my life, the lenses haven’t scratched, they haven’t gotten bent, and every time I see them in a photo I think, “These sunglasses are fab.”

And when I couldn’t find them (I found them later that afternoon. . . in my sunglasses case. Who would think to look there?), I grabbed one of my old cheap pairs and cursed them all the way to the library because they were so cloudy and scratched, they hurt my ears, and they slipped around constantly.

Suddenly I thought, “I don’t need ten pairs of sunglasses! I’m better off having one perfect pair and never having to think which pair to wear or trying to buy and organize multiple sunglasses.”

This was seriously a revelation to me. I’ve always steered way to the (way) cheap side of fashion and then been unhappy when everything I own doesn’t QUITE fit right or my shoes hurt or everything pills or frays in about three washes. I guess, at almost thirty, I’m reaching the stage of life where I’m realizing that a lot of the time cheap things are cheap for a reason (and I’m sad about it).

Shortly after this, I ordered my third or fourth pair of black jeans from Twice (I’d returned the first couple of pairs because they weren’t quite right and I forced myself not to think “well, they are so cheap, I’ll just keep them”) and when this White House Black Market pair arrived (which were 80% off, happy times), they were perfect.

And because it was the RIGHT pair, rather than an almost the right pair, I haven’t spent a single second looking for black pants again. I only need one pair, as long as it’s exactly what I’m looking for.

Every single time I’ve worn them, which has been about five times in the last two weeks, I’m so so happy with them.

In the past, I’ve always picked things based pretty much 100% on price, but then since it’s never exactly right or it lasts all of five minutes, I continue looking for the same thing over and over again. And despite having a shelf full of pants, I don’t actually have any pants (or shoes or shirts) that I actually want to wear.

Right now I’m on the hunt for a single perfect pair of sandals for summer.

I don’t need ten pairs of sandals. I just want one pair I can wear every single day.

And because I’m only looking for one pair, I feel like it’s okay to spend a little more on them, rather than buying four pairs of cheap sandals that wear out quickly, don’t really flatter my (weird) feet, and never are what I want to wear when I’m getting dressed.