The Secret To Enjoying New Clothes Is Getting Over The “Hump”
For someone who writes about clothing, I don’t buy clothes very much. The last thing I bought for myself was a $14 pair of drugstore sunglasses and that was a full year ago.
For a while now, I have been pretty much “settled” in my style. I feel like I can dress appropriately in every situation in any temperature with the wardrobe I have. I don’t need anything. Do I WANT certain things? Of course. But I certainly don’t need anything.
At this point, all the clothes I have provide me with enough happiness and satisfaction, that if I were to never get anything new for the rest of my life, I would still be perfectly content.
How did that come to be? How come I feel so comfortable with the clothes I have? Well, with every piece of clothing in my closet, I have successfully gotten over the “hump”.
What’s the “hump”, you ask?
Well, do you know that insecure feeling you have when you buy or get something new? The delicate way you wear a new item? You’re careful about it, aren’t you?. You walk a little differently and sit a little differently. You’re aware of it throughout the day because you don’t want it to get soiled or ruined or wrinkled or whatever.
This is all very normal. But how do you get from feeling like this, to feeling comfortable wearing your new item? How do you get from point A to point B?
That’s a great question. Because understanding how to get over the “hump” is the key to enjoying your new clothes.
When we get something new, regardless of the price, we’re always a little hesitant to really USE it, aren’t we? We’re afraid to step out of the house into the mud, rain, snow, or heat. We’re precious about our new item.
At the same time, though, we want to “break it in”. We want it to “develop a patina”. We want to develop a relationship with the item.
Well, those things can’t happen if we treat the item with kid gloves and keep it hermetically sealed, metaphorically, in fear of damaging it.
The “hump” is that first scuff on a new pair of boots. It’s the spilled drink on your new shirt. It’s the scratch in your watchband from your fingernail. It’s the pulled yarn in your sweater. It’s the smear of wood ash on the crown of your hat. It’s chucking your jacket in the back of the truck. It’s the ice cream stain on the crotch of your pants.
At first, these things can be very frustrating! But then something interesting happens… we start to feel much more comfortable using that item, don’t we? It’s as if that item has gone through its rite of passage and has successfully entered our wardrobe rotation.
That moment feels like when your “new” item stops being new.
And it’s at that point when we can really start to appreciate our clothes… when we stop fussing over them and just allow them to help us on the adventures of life. Because before that point, the new item is kind of the “point”. We want to play with our new toys, so the newness, and the novelty, of the item is the whole point of the outfit.
Once we get over the “hump”, the item is no longer the point and we just put it on to go about our daily business. We put on the boots because it’s muddy outside. We put on the jacket because it’s raining. We wear the sweater because it’s cold out.
That first scuff sticks out like a sore thumb. But after a while, it disappears among all the other scuffs until the item takes on a whole different look and character.
This seems to happen overnight, doesn’t it? And then we take a look at that item and try to remember what it looked like originally. That’s when the feeling of real satisfaction in and appreciation for an item really become apparent.
When you buy a new item and introduce it into your rotation, you are calling that item to service. It’s there to serve a specific function. That function is not “to be new”.
Unfortunately, a lot of people never get over the “hump” with their new clothes. They baby their new items and never really feel happy or satisfied with (or comfortable in) them. So, they buy more stuff and the cycle continues. This happens a lot with “nicer clothes” because a lot of guys don’t have many opportunities to wear those items.
How does this make a man look? It makes him look unsure. It makes him look timid. It makes him look ill-at-ease. None of these are good looks.
More importantly, a man who feels unsure because of what he’s wearing will be tentative to live his life. He won’t approach that pretty girl. He won’t introduce himself to the CEO. He won’t be an involved husband or father because he will be concerned about wrinkling his shirt or staining his tie.
The key here is to wear the new item. Scuff it. Get it dirty. Also, stop buying new stuff for a while. If you’re constantly getting new stuff, you don’t have any opportunity develop relationships with the stuff you already have. You’ll never get over the “hump” with the items that are already hanging in your closet if you buy new stuff all the time.
So, if you really want to enjoy your new clothes, jump feet-first into using them! It will feel a little uncomfortable at first, but it’s the only way to really be comfortable in your style.
