I’ve been wearing essentially the same outfit every chance I get for years.
When I’m not wearing scrubs for work or workout wear for ballet, I wear a long-sleeved black shirt and black pants.
My favorites are the Uniqlo HEATTECH T-shirt and Marine Layer Allison pants.
I don’t even wear jeans anymore.
It’s not a fashion statement. I didn’t set out to create a capsule wardrobe. I didn’t read Marie Kondo’s book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and decide to get rid of all my other clothes.
I just figured out what I like wearing and that I like wearing the same thing all the time.
That was 20 years ago. And apparently, I was ahead of the curve.
Remember when Mark Zuckerberg started wearing the same gray T-shirt every day and suddenly there were articles written about it?
People were fascinated. He had a uniform.
There were discussions about decision fatigue and productivity and how eliminating unnecessary choices could free up your brain for more important things.
Meanwhile, I was sitting there thinking: Big deal. This is old news. I’ve been doing this already for years. (insert eye roll)
I find it funny how often something I’ve been doing naturally (and probably many people do naturally) becomes a “thing” once someone famous does it.
I’m not particularly interested in fashion. I’ll browse fashion blogs like Petite Fashion once in a blue moon. Sometimes I’ll see an article about how to take an outfit from daytime to nighttime. Or see a video on TikTok of someone accessorizing an outfit in five different ways.
That all looks great. It’s just not me.
I don’t want to figure out outfit combinations or build an outfit around a trend. I don’t want to think much about what I wear. A comfortable set of a black shirt and black pants is perfect for me.
Of course I dress differently sometimes. I like dressing up for special occasions. I’ll wear a sweater in the winter and short sleeves in the summer. But my everyday clothes are essentially a personal uniform.
I’ve liked this for 20 years, so I’ll probably keep wearing the same thing for the next 20.
So yeah, Mark Zuckerberg had his gray T-shirt.
But I had my black shirt and black pants.
And frankly, I was there first.