I was just admiring this shirt in the mirror and it made me wish I could just wear a uniform. Like men can get away with buying five suits and wearing those same five suits every damn day. Sure, you might flip out a different tie now and then, but you know what you’re going to wear.
I should have bought this shirt in every color and just made it what I wear.
I’m a little embarrassed to admit that, but there it is.
Tiny Cat Pants 
See I adopted this philosophy after I read that Einstein did similar – wore basically the same thing every day in order to not waste brain cells on mundane decision making.
I buy white Hanes V-necks by the 5 packs and wear them with either Levi’s jeans, yoga pants or shorts. This is my uniform basically every day – that is, when knocking around the house.
I don’t miss the days of standing before the closet making decisions every single morning. Of course, it helps to work out of one’s home in order to make this work to one’s maximum benefit.
I own the same shirt in 4 colors. I wear khakis and a button up shirt to work every day and 4 days a week I wear the same short in a different color. I have considered taking it even further and buying only one color of pants and one color of shirt. I work in an engineering firm so no one notices what I wear and I need to be dressed business casual/office appropriate and comfortable enough to go out on a bridge site or something, or to a meet with gov’t officials or contractors. I actually actively fantasize about having 6 identical shirts and 4 identical pairs of slacks. I wonder how long it would take anyone to notice if I wore different jewelry and hairstyles every day, but my clothes were the same. I like to think about how easy the mornings would be.
Sometimes buying fantastic new outfits only serves to make us dislike our total wardrobe and the decision making processes of dressing every morning. I hope it’s at least the purple shirt you want to go back and get in more colors.
You could take a page from Cornel West and really wear the same thing every day. Well, he has 5 suits, they’re just nearly identical. And his cufflinks are blingy!
My uncle has pants assigned to days of the week (Monday/Wednesday = blue; Tuesday/Thursday = brown; Friday = grey). His shirts are similarly assigned except that he has a few extra in rotation when he needs a little variety. Since he’s a therapist and thus sees many clients once a week, I wonder if they think he only has one outfit.
But I have seen some women in academia pull off something like a uniform and have seriously considered it – have a few pair of dark trousers and a few plain shirts (plus maybe a few pieces of jewelry to play the gender game successfully). I even sometimes get stuck in a rut of wearing black slacks and some sort of white top every day for a couple weeks – usually when I just can’t be bothered to make clothing decisions. Then I get bored with myself and desire to express something else and look forward to hearing a compliment.
So go put on that dress, woman!
Einstein did it. Zevon did it. I can’t think of any examples off the top of my head, but I do know it has always frustrated me because I kind of do it too.
I have two “looks” I like and therefore two different sets of shirts with the same cut but different colours. I change up with my jewelry, but I essentially try to do the same thing because I don’t like clothes, don’t “get” fashion and just find it easier and cheaper to do it my way.
The frustrating thing is that while men are sort of patted on the head for it (“what a good idea, Albert!” “Warren, you’re so quirky!”) women aren’t allowed the same freedom. We get the whole “you must be fashionable” pressure, complete with episodes of TV designed to make fun of comfortable, servicable clothing.
I figure I don’t go around telling people to read more against their will or to eat more yogurt or to knit every evening. I wish people would just let me wear my two kinds of outfits and worry about their own lives.
I have the opposite problem. I see so many “looks” that I think, “ooh I like that,” that I actually would prefer if I had one “style” that I could call my own. But then that seems to be the way I am in most aspects of life; a jack of all trades, master of none.
Most men don’t own 5 suits, let alone wear 5 suits at once.
So, you could wear the exact same suit every day?! And pee standing up? Is there anything awesome you guys don’t get?!
Kidding.
Still…
If I buy a shirt and end up loving it, I often go back and get more in different colors. No shame in that. Like I always say, if the shoe fits, buy one in every color. (I might’ve plagiarized that…)
If I love a pair of shoes and they are available in different colors — I’ve been known to buy multiple pairs (Of course, this can cause problems: I owned the same flats in black, navy and brown and would occasionally show up to work wearing different colored shoes — but they felt the same so I couldn’t tell! it’s dark in the morning during a Midwest winter!) I would love to be one of those women who can wear the same dress every day and just accessorize differently but I’m not and I’m so frustrated by choosing clothes every morning that I’m thinking of going back to suits for work. On a related note — did you ever see The Uniform Project? http://www.theuniformproject.com/ One
I have a really hard time finding capris that don’t make me look like an asshole, so when I found a pair at Ann Taylor that looked good AND were on sale, I bought them in three different colors. And I wear them all every week. I have about two weeks worth of shirts, and I rotate through them.
I honestly don’t understand the women who wear a different outfit every day for at least a month. I don’t know where they get the energy or the money to do that.
But then again, I was happy as a pig in shit when I worked at a hospital and was required to wear navy blue scrubs every single day.
Jeans and t-shirts. Every day. Sometimes I wear a sweater if it is cold in the winter. Yeah for tech companies. The majority of my co-workers also wear t-shirts and jeans – or shorts – every day.
My t-shirts are awesome (I keep an eye out for cool designs), but it doesn’t matter which ones I wear on which day. Whatever comes out of the drawer first.
When I buy jeans, I find a pair that fit and then buy three more of the same. I go jean shopping once per year (I’m hard on my jeans; my thighs rub when I walk and after a year the jeans are typically frayed through in the thigh).
In the summer I wear sandals instead of running shoes.
I love this topic! I was thinking this about this idea this past week. I’m on board.