May Giveaway : What's Your Staple?

Dreamers Blouse and Autumn Sky Skirt
Photo by Hannah Kelly

I have been thinking a lot lately about what makes a garment a staple in one's wardrobe; a 'go-to' item that you always feel good in and, in a pinch, you can grab from the cupboard and throw on without thinking too much about it. These items can tend to be a bit more boring to the wearer, purely from having been worn so many times. The familiarity makes it seem unexciting compared to the novelty of a new purchase. On the other hand though, they can be a source of comfort and pleasure. After all, there is a reason that we keep going back to them! I often read, on my favourite style blogs, bloggers saying they don't know why a certain garment has never made an appearance on their blog when they wear it all the time in real life. I think this is to do with this attitude we have towards our staples, of their being 'boring' simply because we ourselves are so used to them.

I absolutely partake in this love of the new, I think it is part of human nature, and growing up in consumerist culture it is almost programmed into us to seek out novelty and 'newness'. But humans are also creatures of habit and lovers of comfort, and I think it is equally in our nature to become emotionally attached to objects, to hoard and love and use and care for items that we feel are precious for whatever reason. I feel like the absurd abundance of stuff that we have access to today can tend to lessen the importance of objects to us, particularly how cheap everything is. It's easy to develop a throwaway attitude because as soon as something begins to look old and tatty you can replace it again for next to nothing. Forget about good as new, just get more new! I think that the popularity of vintage though shows that we do still have an interest in more 'special' individual objects over the 'new'; things that have a bit of history or meaning to them. I like to think of people in centuries past, before we had access to a never ending supply of affordable everything, and what clothes and objects would have meant to them. A dress would feel a lot more special for a lot longer when you only owned three or four of them!

I am not suggesting we should return to such times by any means. I do have a bit of a fascination though with clothing 'staples'. My absolute dream would be to design a dress or item that someone loved so much and felt so comfortable in that it became a staple for them. Perhaps it wouldn't seem so very special or impressive to them because they wore it so much, but the very idea of making something that you feel so comfortable in, that you can pull it on no matter what mood and feel good fills me with excitement! On top of this, having something you will wear over and over is an awful lot kinder to the environment than having a throwaway wardrobe that one gets bored of with each passing trend. I want to try and make clothes that will last a bit longer!

Mountain Dwellers Dress
Photo by Hannah Kelly

Personally, my clothing moods range all over the place and I am interested in lots of different styles. My 'staples' however always seem to be comfortable dresses with a bodice that is shaped to the body but not overly fitted, and a loose or full skirt. I guess there are two obvious reasons for this: it is generally a pretty flattering shape, and the simple fit makes it comfortable for moving in and doing stuff. Other staples include collared shirts (to wear under cardigans!) and full/gathered skirts (because I feel full skirts are most flattering to my body type). It is probably for this reason that you see these particular styles reflected in the stuff I have made for Frances Baker. For example, when I was making the Mountain Dwellers dress I was trying to create something that would be nice and warm so you would always want to put it on for the chillier days, and with a loose silhouette that would be really comfortable to wear but would look good with lots of things. I wanted to make something you could just throw on over tights in the morning and feel warm and look cute with minimal effort! I'm not sure if I achieved all those lofty goals but in any case that's the kind of thing I try to keep in mind with my designs.

I am definitely aware though that my 'staples' are likely to be very different to your 'staples', and so we reach the point of this post! I want to know what kind of clothing makes a 'go-to' item for you.

As thanks for your thoughts, I am having a giveaway for any one item of your choice in the shop (etsy or bigcartel, it's up to you!) To enter, all you need to do is comment here, telling me something about what makes a clothing staple for you. You can tell me what your favourite go-to item is in your wardrobe, or maybe a dream item that you feel would pull a lot of outfits together, or your thoughts on what makes the perfect dress shape, anything you like! For extra entries, you can share this post on facebook (don't forget to tag Frances Baker / @hifrancesbaker so I know and can enter you.) Don't forget to leave me a way to contact you in your comment :)

Entries close at 9pm Australian EST on Sunday May 27th. I will pick the winner by putting names in a hat because it will be way more fun for me than a random generator. (Multiple entry people get their names in extra times of course).