Pleasure Practices with Sami Schalk: Remix your closet

Give yourself a little fashion challenge to become more ethical and responsible.

Happy February, beautiful babes. If you follow me on social media, you know that I post my #TeachingLooks. I started posting my teaching outfits a few years ago to document and share the joy of my experiments in professional wear. For the first few years I taught, I wore a lot of black blazers and pencil skirts with simple jewelry. It was really important to me as a new 28-year-old college professor that I looked the part: mature, professional, and put together. I quickly found, however, that wearing clothes that didn’t make me feel like myself—that didn’t bring me joy in some way—made me feel even more like an imposter wearing a costume.

The first time I taught a large lecture class with 240 students, I used it as an excuse to update my teaching wardrobe. Over the years, I have honed my colorful professional style. I wear lots of dresses and skirts with tights and boots, including my collection of colorful Doc Martens. Last year I also began playing around more with makeup, expanding what I think of as work-appropriate makeup to include a little glitter and some face gems. For a while now, I’ve been wearing a different look for every class in a semester; but this year, I took on a new challenge: no buying new work clothes. Instead, I’ve been remixing my closet.

You might be wondering, “what about this is pleasurable?” First, I thrive on novelty, so giving myself a little fashion challenge for this semester makes me happy; it makes me look at my closet with new eyes and rediscover a love for certain pieces with some re-styling. Second, it brings me pleasure to really use what I have and not participate in fast fashion or excessive consumption the way I used to. I want to do better for our environment, but also to resist the exploitation that comes with quick, cheap fashion. When I don’t repeat outfits (as the semester goes on, I literally put clothing I’ve already worn in a different part of my closet so I can better see what I have left to work with), I learn what I gravitate toward the most, what I am most able to style differently, and which pieces I avoid or put off until last. This allows me to recognize what pieces should be donated so that only the things I really like stick around.

Here are some tips for remixing your closet. Remember, this is about pleasure, so if anything here isn’t pleasurable for you, do things your own way!

1. Know what you have. If you haven’t done so in a while (like in over a year), take stock of your clothing.  Note what fits, what you love, what needs repair, etc. Donate or find an alternate use for things that no longer work for your current body, gender, lifestyle, or work situation. After taking stock, if you realize you don’t have many clothes you like, this might be a good time to get a few staples that will last and be easy to pair with more unique items.
2. Bring on the accessories! Incorporating jewelry, belts, ties, shoes, hats, and scarves into your wardrobe gives you a lot more freedom to create a variety of looks from the same set of things. I’m a fan of waist belts and big, bold jewelry. Once you have a sense of the clothes you like, you can start to keep an eye out for accessories that would complement them. I like finding affordable, unique accessories at thrift stores, maker’s markets, and Etsy.
3. Learn more about fashion for your body type and style. Plenty of shows teach about styling, but I’ve learned the most about how to style and where to find clothing I like that fits me by following people on social media who have body types/sizes and/or fashion styles that are similar to my own. These accounts (some professional content makers, but many just regular yet stylish humans) not only give me ideas for how to style outfits, but put me on the new slow fashion and ethical fashion brands.
4. Play! Try things on in different combinations. Let your fashionable friends help! To find what feels and looks best on your body (according to you, not according to trends or someone else), you have to try things out. Take pictures, pose in a full length mirror (with good lighting, ideally!) and move around. Sometimes I like to test a look in a low-stakes environment like a trip to Target or a hangout with a friend so I can see how it feels as I move around.

Maybe you won’t wear as many different outfits as I do in a semester, but the point here is to both lean into the joys of decorating our bodies. Find pleasure in becoming more ethical and responsible in our engagement with the fashion industry. And remember, every time you try on something new or out of your comfort zone, look yourself in the mirror and say “I’m a brave badass bitch!”