ggatShopify

ggatShopify — A Sartorial Battle Royale

#ggatShopify Logo

Leaving RBC and my 14-year Quality Assurance career for the possibilities that an Engineer Storyteller role at Shopify was a massive leap into the unknown. There was so much self-examination going on in my head. I was stepping away from the software pipeline and wouldn’t be part of software development leaving behind a whole pile of feelings: anxiety, the absolute joy of breakthroughs, pride of a job well done, the rush of adrenaline, and frustration (of course). I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about it later (spoiler alert, no regrets).

Shopify doesn’t have a dress code so I could wear whatever I want. Thinking about the things I couldn’t wear at RBC that were now fair game made me take a good look at the enormity of my closet and how much of it wasn’t worn often. I decided I would wear something different from my closet every day I went into the to the office. There were some rules. I didn’t have enough foundational pieces like shoes, denim, jewellery, outerwear, cardigans, and handbags to keep up with the extent of the clothing in my possession so, they were exempt. I made sure each outfit contained at least one garment not worn to the office.

This was a snap decision but my crazy mind began to get excited about this little sartorial game I’d play with myself. The game is a self-examination of style with the intention of rediscovering and editing my extensive collection of clothing. I guess I was doing some “spark joy” Kondo crap before I heard I learned of her extreme minimalism. I needed to examine everything and decide what I wanted to keep. The only way to be sure of a garment’s value is to wear it. I only wanted the best of my closet left when the dust settled— but with multiple winners. That’s how #ggatShopify was born.

I used Instagram to document my wardrobe with the hashtag #ggatshopify. I speculated it would me take six months to run out of things to wear. How silly and naive I was, it’s fucking laughable to think about it now in hindsight. The reality was about a year, and honestly, there are still some pieces I haven’t documented. After that year, I stopped posting, I pretty much wore everything.

#I decided to document #ggatShopify here on the blog, a platform I have complete control over. Initially, I was going to post the whole series in order, but I told myself that a year ago. I was seriously dragging my feet about it. I started contributing to the project again recently so, I’m finally sharing this random project of my clothing obsession on I want – I got. I’ll post my current looks and post the historical stuff over the coming months. I’ll let you know what pieces made the cut something won’t find out on Instagram

This entry was posted in: ggatShopify

by

Anita Clarke is an Engineering Storyteller and the founder of the fashion blog “I want – I got.” She was one of the first and most prominent online fashion writers in Toronto and Canada.