Dressed Like Who For What?
10 years ago, on November 13th, 2015, Racked.com1 published a story called “I Dressed Like Me for a Week,” written by me (Meredith Haggerty, hi).
At the time, “I Dressed Like” stories were popular, with braver writers than I trying out the wardrobes of everyone from Kate Middleton to Cookie Lyon (back when a solid chunk of people easily remembered that she was the character Taraji P. Henson played on Empire; a simpler and better time). The gag in mine was that I was doing something theoretically more attainable but still collapsed under the weight of expectation. Day after day, I angled to wear the same thing — a black-and-white striped sweater and blue skinny jeans — to the disappointment of my editor and colleagues. It was a lark and mostly a joke (the accompanying photos by Alex Ulreich made the piece), but I was always surprised and moved by how many women told me they related to the very real central concern: a somewhat embarrassing reliance on wearing the same stuff all the time, whether due to lack of interest, stifled imagination, or fear of feeling out of place in your own body.
Sometimes you look up and a decade has gone by. You’re 40, as adrift as you’ve been in years, and you still dress like a cartoon character in the same basic silhouette2.
Last month, I left my job at Vox Media, the company behind Racked, which later shuffled some of its staff over to Vox.com, where I worked for 7 years. A few days before that, I turned a big round age I was always guaranteed to be totally relaxed about. Now, I’m preparing to apply to graduate school knowing I could technically have mothered many of my potential classmates3. I’m more broke, less plugged in, fatter, and way more freaked out about the future than I was 10 years ago. I’m trying to grow out my bangs for the first time since like, 2016. And I still have to put on clothes every day? It’s a lot to unpack.
So I’m doing a little experiment: part writing exercise, part nostalgia trip, all self-indulgence, but hopefully funny. For one week, from November 7th until November 13th, I’ll be publishing a daily diary inspired by the old story, with writing about (we have to assume) getting dressed, aging, changes to media, changes to shopping, and the apparently unavoidable presence of TikTok. I’m calling it “I Dressed Like Me for 10 Years.”
If you’d like to follow along, you can sign up on Beehiiv here. Okay, thanks and bye for now!
1RIP, a good website.
2I’d like to say the silhouette HAS changed, now it’s oversized button down over a tank or tee with barrel-shaped pants.
3Not in the slay way.