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