In the beginning there were fig (or should that be 'big') leaves

I've been thinking about my clothes shopping for a few months.  Never much of a clothes shopper in the past, I found myself emerging into quite a good little clothes shopper over the past few years.  This relates directly to years of therapy that resulted in my realization that I owned only clothes that were too big or too old as well as in my desire for pretty things that fit and were trendy.  Why should I be the only one of my friends not in debt over fashion?  So off I went.  But I headed for the sales racks, the sample sales, the discount stores.  Not only that, once there, I justified buying the pretty trendy things that didn't fit just right or weren't the exact color because they were such a good deal.  Again?  Years of therapy for this? What was going on here?

I recently reconstructed my closet and in doing so had to put all my clothes on a rack in my living room for a month while my bedroom was a construction site.  As I lay on the couch staring up at the rack of clothes, I thought about my purchases.  The short vintage dress I bought in Paris to wear when I first met Derek Jeter (still unworn but still saving it for that serendipitous meeting); the long silk Calvin Klein dress I bought to wear on a fancy date to the Oak Room (still unworn, and I'm not sure the Oak Room will ever reopen - sorry Eloise); the short handmade lambswool jacket to wear over the long silk CK dress (worn once); the lovely blue Willis wrap dress that never quite fit or looked right, but was so easy and never wrinkled; and so on.  In the process of moving everything from the closet to the living room and back, I made four trips to donate bags of clothes after sweeping through my entire wardrobe again and again.  I wanted nothing that didn't fit right, wasn't the right color and wouldn't get me a compliment if I wore it.  And so I purged.  I gave things away to friends and to charity and I even sold a few things.  I also decided that I would go on a year-long shopping hiatus to reassess my buying.  I also sprung it on myself by starting a bit early - not in the new year as I'd planned, but on Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year in the US.  That gave me no time to stock up on running socks or stockings or black slacks, things every girl needs. (I knew I'd be tempted and I knew I could justify the purchases.) I've decided that I'm going to wear the clothes I own, mix and match from what's available, repair if I have to, and see how the year goes.  I'll continue to purge, but I won't accumulate, and I'm hoping that at the end of the year, I'll make better choices. 

BTW, I've put my therapist on notice.