I started this blog because I’m in my late fifties and am having lots and lots of thoughts about retirement. After spending hours combing the internet and the library and bookstores, I found that there just isn’t a lot of information out there about ALL the considerations of retirement. Most of the information is about the money part. While I find that to be a very important part, it definitely isn’t the only worry I have.

I am having, what I hope, are the normal, all encompassing questions, why, how, when, where, what…The what seems to be the most frightening, because most of the hard to answer questions start with that word. What will I do? What will my family think? On and on. The hardest what for me, though, is, “What will I wear?”

Is It Just Me?

I thought it was just me. I thought of all the things to consider when getting the retirement plan developed, what to wear should be at the bottom of the list. Vanity be damned.

The truth is turning out to be different. I speak to a lot of women about this blog and in our conversations I have been asking them what their top concerns are. I get the usual, concerns about money, housing, family, time filling, etc. No one mentions their wardrobe, until I do. When I ask, “Did you worry about what you were going to wear?” I get reactions that are close to relief. One recently retired women threw up her arms and exclaimed, “Yes, that too! I had no idea how I was going to dress!”

It seems, that perhaps, this is a concern that we may be embarrassed to mention. We may be concerned that we’ll be considered vain or frivolous if we mention this dilemma out loud. I say this is an extremely important issue in our retirement.

Wandering The Desert

When we retire, statistics show that many of us are lost, like wandering the desert, looking for that magic cup of water that will tell us just exactly who we are supposed to be in retirement. This search can go on for years. A lot of who we are supposed to be is described in our clothes. Take a moment and bring to mind what you think a construction worker should be wearing. Now think about a banker. How about a housewife?

I’m sure each of these visions brought up a different mode of dress. Now you have to figure out just what mode of dress will describe you in retirement. So much of our self esteem and personal perception is tied to our wardrobe. Unless you want to retire to the world of couch potatoes, sweats are out!

Strive To Look Our Best

I sat down with my friend, Yelena Jackson, recently. Yelena is an image consultant and owns The School of Fabulous. https://www.facebook.com/theschooloffabulous/. Yelena believes that women of any age want to and should strive to look their best. She says that there is no reason that being retired should automatically turn us all into dowdy women. In fact, this should be a time of experimentation. A time when we can build a wardrobe that truly reflects our personality. Many of us were limited in our wardrobes by the demands and the, sometimes unspoken, dress codes of the jobs that we held. When was the last time you saw a bank manager in orange?

Case in point. I was always somewhat of a colorful dresser. I worked in the banking industry for 25 years. The bank held monthly meetings that the sales team were required to attend. At one meeting, I wore a dark purple suit. Another women, who was wearing a light blue suit, turned to me and said “I’m so glad you wore that suit! I didn’t want to be the only one in a colored suit.” I looked around the room, she was right, we were the only 2 not wearing navy blue or black suits. Nowhere in the banks dress code did it say we must wear navy blue or black, but it was an unwritten rule, that we had broken.

In Retirement We Are Free

In retirement we’re free of these limiting shackles. We can dress boho, or classic, or casual, or sporty. Whatever we feel reflects who we are or want to become. How awesome that is!

I’m not retired yet, but I think it’s time to start thinking about exactly what story I want to tell about myself with my wardrobe. I tend to keep my clothes around for a while, so this decision is an important one for me. The clothes I purchase now will probably be hanging in my closet on the day I do retire and I want them to transition easily into my new retirement lifestyle.

How about you? What story does your current wardrobe tell about you? Is that the story you want to tell about yourself?