100 days in a dress in a van? What was I thinking?
In a new year, people make resolutions and challenge themselves to be better or try new experiences. In a pandemic year, people are pondering what is really needed and what is not on every level and they need new ways to think about time in order to get through these particularly challenging days.
Getting to the heart of what matters, to reflect upon who we are, what we want going forward is top of mind. Activities like de-cluttering a closet act as a gateway to minimizing all the stuff that weighs us down – a popular endeavor just now. Only keep what we actually wear. Only wear what we enjoy. Lose the weight so we finally can wear what we have been storing or pass it on and just accept and love the bodies we have. In the midst of all this, along comes Wool& (wooland.com) – a merino wool clothing company, spun off from Wool & Prince.
Wool& kicked off its early days selling merino wool apparel with a sustainability ethos targeted to women with a 100 Day Dress Challenge. A knitter I follow on Instagram participated. The dress style, called Rowena, was a swing style, long-sleeved dress with pockets, a ballet neckline, offered in neutral colors of merino wool. I thought it was cute, but a little on the short side for my tastes but a clever canvas to display her latest knitwear. I did not think the Rowena was a dress for me. However, it still got me thinking about the joys of modern, washable, soft, low odor, merino wool beyond leggings and tees. I would periodically go on the website and so of course, it would pop up again later in my social media feeds.
The initial Wool& challenge was issued for a limited group at first, but then they resurrected it. In the current challenge, if you post daily on Instagram about your 100 days in one (and only one) of their dresses, send them your email that you are doing the challenge, include hashtags in your social media posts so they can follow along, complete a survey at the end, then you receive a $100 gift certificate toward their merchandise. Participants call it their reward dress. I think it is very clever marketing!!
As we launched ourselves in a slow roll of full-time vanlife in June 2020, I had to set aside a simple black sheath dress and matching long jacket from my former wardrobe. I was able to wear this ensemble since graduate school. A close friend once remarked about how I had worn it to pretty much every adult function. It was still in perfect condition. It was simply way too large. I have lost a lot of weight and more to the point really gotten back into better form, being over a foot smaller in all my major body dimensions, but that’s a journey for another post. Anyway, I did miss that simple item and the idea took hold that maybe I should have a simple, little black travel dress. I tried a couple of others, but they didn’t hit the mark the same way. More morbidly, with the ravages of the pandemic, I could see that there might be belated memorials and delayed weddings popping into our travel plans and an appropriately adult every occasion dress could be helpful. However, the reality of our vanlife is that a dress needs to work for me on any day, not just special occasions.
Looking over the website of Wool& last fall, I noticed the range of styles had greatly expanded. Many frankly were too office work oriented for me, being an early-retired geologist who still loves to play in dirt. One dress caught my eye – a sleeveless, swingy, tank dress with two pockets, they call a Sierra. I pondered this dress for several days. It was a nice neutral, simple, figure forgiving, but not as figure flattering or dressy as my former ensemble. I was drawn to the black version and the washed navy immediately. The grays didn’t grab me. I did not love the cool olive green. Canyon red, a tomato soup made-with-milk type of orange tone, was in my wheelhouse, but might not suit all occasions, if there ever were any again. It also bothered me a little that if I got a little black dress after intentionally minimizing the presence of black in my van wardrobe, then would that be a backward step in constraining my wardrobe? Finally, I determined that black goes with pretty much everything, but the washed navy was enough gray and purple toned that it might not harmonize well with my blues. Black it was! I pre-ordered knowing that the dress’s arrival would be late November. Then that slipped into December and it finally arrived mid-December.
We were heading to Florida after the holidays. I couldn’t see myself wearing black in Florida, so I didn’t think I’d even do the 100-day challenge. Then I put it on…and posted on Instagram and Facebook. I did this again, and again, each day over the holidays. It was fun and simple enough to do while at our family holiday base in Vermont. Here we have more single season items stored. I had a wider array of sweaters and leggings and accessories from which to choose to accompany the dress. Then we were getting ready to get back on the road, to Florida and then the Southwest. Would I continue? Should I bother?
My wardrobe in the van is limited and the span of seasons encountered for this leg of our meanders was already fairly daunting. True winter the first weeks along the east coast meant I need additional warm (usually more bulky) layers. I can get cold to my bones. Early summer-like heat and humidity in Florida translated to days when I might change out of tops more frequently. The high country of the Southwest transitioning from late winter to early spring also runs the gamut from starkly cold dawns to mostly sunny, warm afternoons and then back down again with the sun. Due to a multi-day bike event in Moab, UT that we were participating in, I was taking way more bike clothes to cover the changing conditions than I might have otherwise. Adding a black dress, leggings, and my old Champion powerliners (Bermuda length compression shorts) and a couple of travel blouses I really liked with the dress posed a space challenge. Most of all, I thought, if I hate this, then I need all the clothes I would have taken before the dress arrived. I knew I didn’t need most of these while doing the challenge – including another travel dress, maxi skirt, and knee length skirts I love traveling in – but what if I cannot take it any longer? My packing cubes were bursting at their seams, but somehow, I shoved it all in. Ok that and Rob built a rack over the sliding door to accommodate more of my stuff and our bike helmets – a life saver.
Off we went, cabinets stuffed, with the first third of the challenge behind me.
Once we landed in Florida, I absolutely hated wearing black. Uh oh. The floral-patterned linen-cotton tees I had brightened up the vibe some. On the hottest, muggiest days, I wore the dress solo. Now temperature and humidity were not the source of my disdain, the dark color was. I am not tall. I ordered the standard length which comes to the top of my knees – quite nice actually. However, I felt morose in black from neck to knee, day in and day out. I had pretty limited options to lighten the dark and not add to the humidity of the day.
In fact, my limited range of accessories lead me to share the amazing places that we were visiting on Facebook and Instagram – which people seemed to enjoy. My poor friends and faithful followers inundated with posts of me, day after day, standing in the van’s kitchen area – because that is the only place you can really stand in a van. Whoopee – hello, here I am again! Yep, what inspiring fun – NOT. I took a shot each morning so that when we came across cell service (I often had no idea if/when that would be), I would be ready to upload it. I decided to use the layout app on my phone to add some of the landscapes, sunsets, critters, and flora we encountered in our explorations. What variety my dress lacked, at least the locations could provide and spice things up. Maybe then the posts wouldn’t be quite so annoying.
Then a funny thing happened. People from all phases of my life reached out. Many expressed their delight at seeing my smiling face (mine?!) and also were enjoying the vistas our “escape pod” -aka our campervan- enabled me to share. To them I am indebted, truly. People have been good and kind and funny and crazy positive. I never could have done this challenge without such encouragement to do so. I am an open book to my friends and family, but posting so publicly and daily is not a comfortable task. Similarly, I have a hard time getting my thoughts out of my brain to write blogs for public consumption with much the same hesitancy. After the color black fatigue, posting pictures of myself daily was a huge negative for me to overcome with this challenge.
I enjoy the dress still. The Sierra is more of a midweight than the lighter weight dresses Wool& offers. I like the heft and hand of this weight. The temperature range of comfort is outstanding. The dress spot cleans easily. I washed it on cold in all manner of machines in homes and laundromats, whenever I felt like it. I dried it flat when I had space to do so, but mostly, I used the dryer available to me on lower settings. It did not fade, shrink, stretch, snag, or get holes. I cooked, walked, hiked, biked, and kayaked in it. I tucked it into pants and belted it. I prefer the swing of the skirt, so those were honestly my least favorite ways to wear it. Some days when the terrain to be covered seemed pretty mucky or dusty or there was a high likelihood of snagging myself on things, I spared myself the worry and donned it pre- and post-outings. I looked forward to popping it back on. It was so comfy I fell asleep in it. Mostly I hung it up each night on a velvet covered hanger with a lavender sachet to ward off any bugs that might be interested in wool. Every morning it was ready to go.
My takeaways:
- The dress is a great travel piece. I think I have worn it more than any dress or likely any piece in my wardrobe. It is comfortable, flexible, reliable, and durable and has earned a place in my space-limited van collection.
- There is a time and place for black, but not every freaking day!
- By the same token, I do not need any item that I enjoy wearing in every color of the rainbow. I do love rainbows, just not in my closet, only up in the sky.
- Dresses (and skirts) do not require work settings and special events to be worn. Time to consider more space for them.
- I liked being active and celebrating my feminine side at the same time.
- Glide for Women and static guard are godsends.
- I love a swing dress, but I missed my waist. Some days I enjoy figure forgiving comfort and other days I prefer a more figure flattering style.
- I missed wearing a top and a bottom. I have really great and comfortable jeans and hiking pants/capris/shorts and skirts. I really did miss wearing them.
- I enjoyed wearing leggings more than I ever have in the past.
- People responded in more respectful, kinder, or gentler ways when I was wearing a dress – both in person and online.
Ha-ha surprise! With my reward gift certificate, I did pre-order the black, open cardigan with pockets. I think it will complete my little black dress ensemble nicely – similar to my former beloved ensemble, but less dressy and more everyday attire. I know that the cardigan will also coordinate with everything else on board, just as the dress did, so I am excited for that addition to arrive in mid-June.
Curious – give a challenge a shot, but consider some of this:
The dresses and shirts are expensive and frequently need to be re-stocked, so be patient, not frantic, and get the correct size and color that you want.
You will become sick of the color no matter what you choose by the end of it, but after a while you are just on autopilot. It is good to use your mind for more important decisions than what to wear. If you hate it, there is a great re-sale group on Facebook.
The swing was easy, breezy, comfy to wear and, as I said, very figure forgiving when sized properly. I saw lots of people oversizing the Wool& dresses – no need to do that! From what I saw, it looked better to go down when in between sizes or get it tailored. A couple went too short (TMI) or too long (hello dowdy).
Reduce your wardrobe to the things you love, then see where the gaps are in it. You’ll select a better challenge item for yourself.
I had reduced my wardrobe well before the challenge. My dress fills a gap. Some report getting rid of the majority of their wardrobes fairly early during the challenge, realizing that they are enough with wearing what brings them comfort and that they have gained confidence to wear what pleases them rather than dressing to please others. That is great, but I do find myself wondering a little if they reduced around this new piece and then what happens when (not if) the reality of style and color fatigue gets really real for them.
Some people have eliminated their entire wardrobes and restocked with wool& pieces before they finish. I had to rebuild when I lost a lot of weight and my size dropped by a dozen. I wish I had been more aware of the joys and value of merino wool fabrics as that process occurred. At any rate, I loved what I got and got what I loved. Now I am filling in gaps as they occur. It is unsettling to me that anyone would hate their entire wardrobe as a result of this challenge. Is that really what they hate? You have been warned. The challenge spawns change in a significant manner for some.
If you worry people will talk, then know that absolutely, yes, they will, but listen, you may be pleasantly surprised by what you hear.
Many posted in the challenge group on Facebook that they got paid compliments for their habit of wearing dresses from colleagues and neighbors, but those same people were unaware that it was the same dress each day until/unless they were told. (We hop around too much to experience this and frankly we are rarely among other people more than a brief moment in passing.)
The private Facebook group for the people undertaking the challenge was/is a place that goes way beyond the challenge of the dress to being helpful and supportive in the challenges of life these days as well. It was/is a really refreshing positive example of social media use. No matter what, you won’t be going through the challenge with its struggles or giving up on it on your own. You are in good company.
Yes, some will think you are nuts for doing a 100-day clothing challenge, but then they will be hooked watching you do it, and then, some join in, but mostly they stay curious. (We all need ways to pass the time, track the time, move forward. It will be fine.)
Not interested in a challenge?
My overall thoughts are unchanged about the things I possess. Buy/create what you love. Love what you buy/create. Use it up. Wear it out. Make it do. Do without. I have too much stuff – even after losing a tremendous amount of weight and condensing to live a vanlife. I wish I had not accumulated so much in the first place. Consumption has consequences well beyond my immediate sphere. I have unsubscribed from many tempting sites. That helps me. I am set and then some. No need to weigh ourselves down. Speaking of weighing, maybe it is time for me to reflect upon that change. Hmmm. In the meantime, I embrace being a work in progress. We are two geologists, in one campervan -perfect for my one little black travel dress- as we enjoy no deadlines with so many vistas yet to see.
Like this post? Then check out our post about van cooking here. Or maybe you’re a fan of the Brady Bunch, we compare our Grand Canyon adventure to theirs in this post.
And if you really want to see the rest of my posted photos, here they are!
