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5 signs you need to update your wardrobe

As Jennifer Pinarski heads back to the workforce, she realizes that a fashion intervention is desperately needed.

1MomFashion-October2013-iStockphoto Photo: iStockphoto

Follow along as Jennifer Pinarski shares her experiences about giving up her big city job and lifestyle to live in rural Ontario with her husband, while staying home to raise their two young children.

Do you remember the time, before you had kids, when you had a job where it was important to show up in clean, fitted pants each day?

Yeah, me neither.

After four years out of the workforce, I can count on one hand the number of times that I've gone clothes shopping for myself. The clothes in my closet are an oddball mixture of running skirts, thrift-store sweaters, button-up blouses, plus three pairs of pants that no longer button up. Don’t get me started on the bra and underwear situation either. It’s not that I am proud of how utterly horrid my closet looks, but when money is tight, new clothes for me was the first luxury item to go on the chopping block.

But there comes a time in every moms life when enough is enough (I hit that point this week).

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If you’re guilty of one (or in my case, all five) of following wardrobe sins, get thee to a mall (or consignment shop or a girlfriend’s closet).

1. Nursing tank tops are part of your day-to-day wear. I weaned my daughter a year ago, yet I wore my favourite Bravado nursing tank several times a week. Unless there’s a 100% chance that you’ll be breastfeeding during the day, let the nursing tank go.

2. More than one piece of clothing you’re wearing has holes in it. A few weeks ago, I shared Kim Bongiorno’s hilarious before-and-after blog post on Facebook. What started out as a fun post to share with friends turned into an awkward thread of confessions, where all of my friends pretty much admitted it looked like a moth frat party took place in their closets. If your socks, shirts and pants all have holes in them, please put them in the rag bin.

3. Your pants don’t button up. Guilty (like I said, all three pairs I own are too small). Working has meant I spend a whole lot of time sitting and I haven’t adjusted my home baking consumption accordingly. I’m at my heaviest post-baby weight ever and not even a Bella Band can help me now. There’s only one time when it’s acceptable for a grown woman’s pants to not button up, and that is when she’s pregnant. Money is tight, but the risk of my kids yanking on the legs of my jeans and pantsing me in public is worth the $30 for a new pair.

4. Your “nice” pyjamas are what you wear to the grocery store. Every mom has that nice pair of jammies that get worn 25 of the 30 days in the month. Well, when the nice jammies are worn in public to the grocery store because a) your nursing tank is dirty and b) your usual clothes are now in the rag bin where I told you to put them, please go shopping.

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5. That weird stain you thought would wash out hasn’t. I believe that layering clothing was not invented by stylists, but by moms. All of the thrift store sweaters I own were to cover up either a grease stain on the seat of my pants or a fruit stain on the front of my shirt. Each time I do laundry I cross my fingers that the washing machine and dryer will magically remove the stains. They usually don’t, but you can tell by looking at my clothes what we had for dinner for the last four years.

When was the last time you bought new clothes for yourself? Do you have any other bad clothing stories? Tweet me (or better yet, tweet a picture!) @jenpinarski.

This article was originally published on Oct 07, 2013

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