Fashion has a reputation for being petty and superficial, but the truth is that clothes have the power to change our lives—at least, temporarily. As British author Caitlin Moran once said, “when a woman says, ‘I have nothing to wear,’ what she really means is, ‘there’s nothing here for who I’m supposed to be today.’”
Last Friday I was going through my closet looking for something casual to wear on that chilly winter afternoon when I spotted a worn-in navy blue cardigan. It looked exactly how I remembered it did: long and slouchy, with one wooden button in the front and a hood in the back. I immediately threw it over the beige tank top and torn blue jeans I was already wearing as Moran’s words rung in my head.
Honestly, I’m not sure when I bought the cardigan—or when I stopped wearing it. I had to be about 17 or 18 years old at the time, making it four or five years old. Standing in front of the mirror in that old cardigan for the first time in what seemed like ages, I realized something really interesting.
While certain pieces can transform us into the women we hope to be, others have the power to takes us back in time, to the women we used to be.
After nearly four years of undergrad—four years of coursework, internships, relationships (both romantic and platonic) and just about everything in between—my carefree, laid back self got lost somewhere among all the stress, while the cardigan got lost somewhere in my dresser.
Finding it was like a little reminder to take a step back from my busy and overly connected life. The cardigan hadn’t changed despite all the ways that I had.