If the Clothes Fit: Making Your Wardrobe Work During Weight Loss

It’s a good problem to have, really, but how do you deal with the fact that your clothes are too big but you don’t want to invest in a whole new wardrobe for your in-between sizes? Actually, if you had as much weight to lose as I did or more, you would need several wardrobes in a number of sizes.

I’ve heard women say they aren’t going to buy clothes that fit because they don’t want to spend money on wardrobe until they read their goal. I haven’t been able to do this. I tried, but I just don’t feel good in oversized clothes. People who’ve never been in this situation don’t understand. They think it must feel great to be swimming in your clothes, and on some level it does, but hiding your hard-earned shrinking figure within your 2X tunics is somewhat…depressing. You should feel good about how far you’ve come and you should look sassy. But how do you accomplish this without breaking the bank? During my own wild, weight loss journey, I’ve found a way.

I don’t know about you, but my problem is that I have WAY better taste than my finances allow. It seems I have Jamaican Blue Mountain taste with an instant coffee budget. Plus, the minute I can fit into a smaller size I cannot get rid of the clothes I just shrunk out of fast enough. There’s something celebratory and “no turning back now” about it. Like the Russian tradition of downing a glass of wine after a toast and flinging the glass into the burning fireplace. So, I take the best of my large clothes and bring them to my favorite resale shop. Actually, I have a series of three stores that I take them to.

I start with the highest end, the one that makes me the most money, and whatever they don’t take, I bring to the next one, and so on. I know, time consuming, but with the money and credit I receive from the sales, I can buy clothes in my current size without guilt! In fact at One More Time in downtown Montpelier, I have $180 in credit right now, and the coffers are constantly refilling since I keep upgrading (or down-“sizing”, as it were) pieces. Not only is it fabulous when you are dying for some retail therapy and have no money, but it allows you to keep refreshing your wardrobe and stay fly.

Article Author: Ann Hagman Cardinal

Ann Hagman Cardinal is a freelance writer as well as the Director of Alumni Affairs for Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her first novel, Sister Chicas--co-authored with two other Latina writers—was released in 2006 by NAL/Penguin Books. …

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