One of the pleasures of having clothes is giving them away. Not necessarily to charity, but to friends. Things I have loved, worn to death, or simply stopped knowing what to do with. The gratifying part is seeing them rehabilitated. A dress that made me look vaguely ill looks terrific on someone else. A sweater I had all but sentenced to retirement turns out to have a second act. It’s a humbling reminder that clothes, like people, can suffer from being in the wrong company.
But sometimes clothes can find better company without leaving your closet. You just have to wear them differently. We are surprisingly rigid about clothes. A dress must be a dress. Pearls must be worn to something involving a seating chart. And jeans, naturally, should fit. These rules are rarely written down, which makes them all the more difficult to break.