What Would I Be Wearing?

So, sometimes I have really weird thoughts.

Just like my fashion tastes. I mean, who but me would wear this:

Yes. OK, a little weird, I'll admit. And, yes, I went out in public in this. But, hey, I loved it!

Anyways, to get on point.

As I was wearing this I started realizing each item had a huge story. Each story different, separated by time and place. Yet each of those together had brought me to where I was now, here. Another place, another time.

I wondered, "If I hadn't experienced what I had what would I be wearing today? Would my fashion style be crazier, or more sane?"

The hat is the oldest piece of this outfit. At least the oldest as to coming into my possession. When I was  seventeen-eighteen I knitted for a local yarn shop. I made a decent amount of money doing so, plus I was able to trade for quality yarn without spending my own cash. This hat is one of my favorite things I made myself from that time.

Back when the world saw me as a knitter. I brought my knitting everywhere with me. For every stitch counted. Every moment was money being earned or not.

The skirt came from my time as a Ruby Girl, the second time. Being a Ruby girl changed me in so many ways. Or did it develop me into more of me? I'm not sure. But it was one the hardest and best things I ever did. Some of my best (and worst) memories come from then.

One time while shopping with friends I found the material for this skirt at Walmart and loved it! It was on sale for a super good price. The skirt cost me $1 to make ;)

The shirt was a hand-me-down from a neighbor we met when I first moved to Montana with my family. Back then I was obsessed with embroidery, and knitting, a little. I would take my embroidered tea towels to every boutique-type business or gas station to see if they wanted to buy my work.

The lady who gave me this shirt was one of the first people I asked to buy my embroidery. I now see a lot of her, and have received a good deal of clothing from  her.

The boots came from a family we met at a church we've been regularly attending now for about three years. We almost didn't go to that church... my family has been the type to believe independent of man, straight from scripture not the pulpit. Yet we all needed fellowship. And so we went. It's been a great growing experience, even though we still believe to study from Bible over man first.


And so, my crazy outfit really has a lot to say. And I realize this is true of all my clothes. They all tell a story of my life in Missouri, Montana, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Texas. Some of the stories are complicated. Some of them determined where I am today. Some of them are merely reminders of memories I'd rather not dwell on... yet how can you throw away a skirt simply because of where you got it from, or who it reminds you of?

I keep the clothes as long as I need them. The memories will come or go anyways. And they will continue to blossom as I live life and experience new things.

Yet, sometimes I wonder, as I did while wearing that above outfit, "What sort of person would I be like, what I would be wearing, if I had done that differently?"

It's an interesting question.

And a reminder that what I wear is influenced by who I am.

What memories do you associate with what you are wearing today? Do you ever wonder what you might be wearing if you had walked a different path than you walk now?