This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: The clocks have gone back, and suddenly getting dressed feels more difficult. The coat you wore constantly last winter is still hanging in the closet, but it no longer looks quite how you remember.
The boots you loved in February don't seem to go with anything, while a sweater that once felt like you somehow doesn't anymore. Perhaps we've all simply forgotten how to dress for the cold. But there is something peculiar about returning to clothes we know so well and finding them unexpectedly unfamiliar.
As seasons change, we go back to garments we have worn before, but we don't return to the same routines, experiences or even ways of feeling in our bodies. The seasons repeat, but our lives don't. In her 2007 book "Why Women Wear What They Wear," anthropologist Sophie Woodward observed women choosing their clothes in the privacy of their bedrooms.
She found that getting dressed was not simply about selecting an outfit. It involved negotiating how they wanted to look, what felt comfortable and how others might see them. Woodward identified the importance of habitual clothing: garments we reach for regularly because we've learned how to wear them.
By the end of summer, we know which pants work with which shoes, how a dress moves and which combinations make us feel like ourselves. Those choices have become familiar through repetition. Colder weather interrupts that familiarity.
We bring back coats, tights, boots and layers, but they belong to combinations we haven't practiced for months. We may remember liking an outfit without immediately remembering how to inhabit it. Woodward's research also helps us think about the different kinds of time contained within a wardrobe.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
