Hi.
It’s two days to 2023. And since Jan 1 won’t be Friday, permit me to wish you a happy new year here and now.
I know many people have been dropping nuggets and advice on what to do to make 2023 a successful one.
Before you shut your ears to the unsolicited advice, let me quickly drop mine.
It’s a lesson I want you to take from this story about a particular teacher in my secondary school.
He used to wear one shirt four days in a week.
And the only reason he didn’t wear it for five days was because my school had a particular uniform for teachers to wear every Wednesday.
This man would wear a shirt on Monday and Tuesday, give it a break on Wednesday, and repeat it on Thursday and Friday.
And the worst thing was that he repeated the same trousers too.
Trust us students, we began to gossip.
Is it that this man’s salary wasn’t enough? We wondered aloud within our circle.
We concluded he was either broke or the school’s salary wasn’t enough.
But my school was a big school. It couldn’t afford to pay teachers less.
Or was it that the teacher was stingy to himself? Or he had other problems he needed money for and deemed clothes unnecessary?
At a point, we began identifying him by his shirt. I mean, we could tell if he was the one approaching on Friday by taking mental note of what he wore on Monday.
Reminiscing about it, I am forced to conclude we students were just jobless.
I mean, was the teacher’s repetitive outfits our business? We were just jobless out of lack of adulthood responsibilities I guess.
But while I regard those actions of us as frivolities in hindsight, I blame that teacher for something.
He made us guess his account balance.
And that was where he had it wrong.
That’s what I want you to take into 2023.
Never let anybody (not even your life partner) guess your state of finances from your looks.
Even if all you have in your wardrobe is ten clothes…
Even if all you have is N10,000 home and abroad, never let anyone guess so.
How do you achieve that, you wonder?
It’s simple.
By restyling your clothes.
Many a time, when I speak to guys about the content of their wardrobe, most of them tell me they don’t have many clothes.
And this wins my admiration. How some men rock a few pairs of jeans and tees all the time without looking like they repeat clothes is something to imitate.
You too can be like that. And here’s how:
If the content of your wardrobe is few, you can wear them in multiple ways without looking like you are repeating clothes (even though this is none of anybody’s business though).
It’s called restyling.
For instance, you pick a particular shirt today and rock it with the sleeves folded, tucked into a pair of pants.
Another day, you pick that same shirt and rock it unbuttoned, use it to layer your sleeveless dress, or wear a jacket atop it.
Restyling your clothes is the perfect way to repeat your clothes without actually looking like you repeat your clothes.
I do this with Ria Kosher’s clothes and I encourage my customers to do same too. And the best part is that it doesn’t require you to buy new clothes or break the bank.
So, strive to create different looks from one cloth in 2023 and nobody will ever guess your account balance.
Not even me.
The Writer who knows how to do Fashion,
Victoria Willie
Creative Director, Ria Kosher