creature of habit

A lot of people have a staple piece in their wardrobe that they wear regularly. Maybe it’s a sentimental gift or a luxurious treat you bought for yourself. Maybe it’s a pin you found on a sidewalk or a seashell with a hole you found on a beach. No matter where this piece came from, you feel naked without it on… you feel incomplete and unnatural, like something’s missing.

There have been many different things in my life like this where I’ve developed almost unhealthy attachments, and usually the reason for the attachment ending was an unfortunate loss or damage that was pretty hard to get over.

It all started with a gold child’s ring my father bought me at a jewelry store one random night. It had a pink sapphire in it and I wore it so much the stone became a matte flat pebble. This ring was so tiny and how I managed to keep it my entire childhood but lost it in my adulthood, I don’t understand. My mother gave me many rings that she used to wear and I also wore them all into the dirt.

Throughout middle school, I wore a clear “Jelly Fish” Swatch watch on my right wrist, face down. I’m right-handed but it made more sense to be able to flip over my wrist when I was writing and I liked the buckle exposed to the world instead of the face.

I had to get the band replaced so many times and they eventually quit offering it so I moved to the black ”Nuni Nuni” that suddenly disappeared after years of wear. I was beginning to share a symbiotic relationship with this watch and things were getting a little gross. It was probably a good thing to move on.  

I then got a completely impractical yellow patent leather Swatch, the “Canard Laquer”. I new it was a bad idea when I was buying it but it was as if some supernatural force had taken over. In 1995, I had a big thing for bright yellow – strange cropped yellow wool jacket and mini paired with spiked combat boots, etc. I wore this watch constantly and it pretty much grew disgusting. The band couldn’t be replaced without a special order I was done with watches after that. I think I got a pager shortly after this (hahahahahahah), and that became my timepiece, much like cell phones today.

(Pics from this Swatch watch archive.)

In high school I also wore the teeniest silver band on my left pinkie. I got it at Exile and I think it was a size 2 or 3. On one terrible day, I lost it. Since I never took it off, it’s beyond me as to what happened but, I can’t remember how it disappeared and the indentation remained in my finger for a week. I have been unable to find the perfect replacement since and still sometimes look at my left hand and am momentarily shocked to see it missing.

I also wore a narrow black leather wrist band that snapped on, with round studs, also purchased at Exile.  It was extra small, feminine, and did that great thing leather does, conforming and tightening to my wrist perfectly. One sad day, the snap had loosened up a bit much and again, sayonara.

Exile provided quite a few staples in my life. They sell quality leather studded items as opposed to the cheap synthetic belts and cuffs from Hot Topic that fall apart and tarnish in a month. I have had my studded belt for over half my life now, and it still looks amazing. I wear it at least every other day and it’s a gauge on my weight instead of owning a scale.

Now, other than the belt, I wear a super-cheap pair of silver hoops daily. They’re 3″ in diameter – pretty big, and considering how many pairs of awesome earrings I own, It’s pretty sad how I always go for these. I have been given a few pair of sterling hoops. They were lovely but it hurt all the more when I inevitably lost one. With these cheapos, they can get tarnished, lost, bent and broken and I can toss them and grab the new $3 pair I have waiting in my jewelry box. I also wear a wide hammered silver band on my right index finger. This is the piece I feel most naked without. I have been wearing this ring for over 5 years now. It was on super duper clearance sale and was advertised as being 100% sterling. Not so much. It’s sterling over copper and the copper has subtly begun to show through in spots, which I actually really like.

This Christmas, I came full circle with watches again and was lucky enough to receive a watch that is now becoming a daily staple. Instead of being a routine item, it’s special, sentimental and gives me warm fuzzies. Thankfully, being stainless, I shouldn’t have the same disastrous results of regular wear. It usually is a good idea to stick with tragically cheap or extremely tough items that aren’t precious and delicate. Those types of things just make me nervous. I like to play rough.

You may also enjoy:

Tagged as: fashion, jewelry, Richmond, shopping, wardrobe