It is one of the great riddles of the times. One of the few mysteries left in life and one of the last riddles to be solved. How is it possible to have a closet full of clothes and have absolutely nothing to wear?
This thought has plagued women for millennia. Even Eve looked around the garden and complained to Adam that she couldn’t find the correct fig leaf. Later in the story, Greek women opened their closets and sadly announced, “More robes?”
Here’s a possible reason why in the age of online shoe shopping, dry cleaning, and custom-made cabinets, you still haven’t solved this conundrum. You, my friend, are stuck in a rut. Others might even refer to you as a plain Jane. In the world of fashion, this means that you always wear the same things in the same way. However, you can wear the same things in multiple and different ways your wardrobe without even involving Mr. MasterCard.
Here are two signs that you are stuck in the fashion routine:
1.) Have you ever looked at a photo of yourself and noticed that you are wearing the same outfit that you are in the photo? It’s a very existential feeling, but also a bit embarrassing. Diagnosis = routine.
2.) Have you ever gone looking for an outfit to wear only to find that you haven’t washed your clothes for a week, so you can’t wear the outfit anymore? Romeo and Juliet are no match for you and your favorite t-shirt, Shakespeare’s characters could at least be a week apart. Diagnosis = routine.
So you have identified that you are in a rut. What is the next step? Well, you’re going to invoke the tagline from Apple’s famous “Think Different” campaign. We all have “uniforms”, that is, this blouse goes with this pair of pants and this is how we always wear them. We use them together like peanut butter and jelly. However, peanut butter goes hand in hand with many other things. For example, peanut butter and chocolate are light years better than peanut butter and jelly. The problem is that most of us don’t even stop to consider other combinations with our clothes and these other options could be really amazing, like peanut butter and chocolate.
Now that you’ve got a craving for Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, here’s an easy hack to discover other combinations. If you can reach the six inches to the left, you can. If you can get to the correct six inches, you can because that’s all there is to it. Think, “Six to the left, Six to the right.”
Let’s say you take your white blouse out of the closet and you’re going to take your black pants out of the closet because that’s always what you wear with your white blouse. Before you reach for those black pants, you’ll pause and then think, “Six to the left, Six to the right.” This means that you are going to look to your left six inches to see if there is something to wear with your white blouse and you are going to look to your right six inches to see if there is anything to match your blouse. Six inches above your black pants may be the perfect brown skirt – your chocolate. It could better complement your blouse and you could get more compliments from your coworkers. You are no longer Plain Jane.
While “Left Six, Right Six” is not the Rosetta Stone, it is bringing us one step closer to solving this age-old paradox of having nothing to wear. The secret hope of women around the world is that America’s space program was closed this year so NASA can refocus its efforts to answer this wardrobe puzzle. Eventually this puzzle will be solved or maybe we’ll just get a new taste of Tang. Until then, remember “Left Six, Right Six” and say goodbye to Plain Jane.