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Comment by jskopek | Hacker News Reader

I recently helped a female friend move out of an old apartment, and I was absolutely astounded by how much clothing she had lying around. It surprised me because she came off as a stylish, but not terribly fashion-centered person. By my rough estimate, this list represented probably 1/5 of my friend's clothing.

Granted, a sample size of 1 is not terribly informative; however, my gut feeling is that a women's wardrobe will generally be considerably larger than a man's wardrobe.

On an unrelated note, I love hearing about life hacks like these. Reminds you of how much else there is left to optimize.

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...she came off as a stylish

The author is definitely NOT stylish by any reasonable definition of this word. Hence the difference in the wardrobe size. Things like "ethical" or "green" consumption only make situation worse.

That's a little harsh of you, don't you think? Her wardrobe isn't varied, but as long as the default 'works' there's no reason she can't pull it off.

Do you remember what your friends wore yesterday? From what I've experienced, clothing doesn't really matter once you get past first impressions.

So much of fashion is fit anyway, you'll be more stylish with a small wardrobe of clothes that fit well than a wide variety of ill-fitted stuff.

You misinterpret the word 'stylish'.

Hoodies and band shirts are not stylish and never will be.

...unless you mean to say something like: in the style of a young urbanite.

The word 'stylish' in terms of fashion refers to more than just clothing though, it's meaning is closer to 'swagger' and it has connotations to 'classical style' or 'classy', which is where band shirts and hoodies fall out.

Maybe not 'stylish' in the sense of glamorous high fashion, but certainly 'stylish' in the sense of having put effort into ones own personal style, and consistently dressing that way. So 'stylish' as opposed to slobbish, slovenly, careless, not as opposed to simple, everyday, cheap, downmarket.

The plural of anecdote is not data but...

I've changed my sex. I used to be male, now I'm female.

My wardrobe used to be "a collection of t-shirts and 4-5 pairs of jeans". Now it's a whole closet full of blouses, dresses, and skirts, plus a dresser with a few more things. I recently did a purge and got the stuff down in my closet to 100 individual pieces.

Very interesting. Why do you think your wardrobe grew so much after you switched to female? Do you think that you grew your wardrobe to better fit the image of a female in the eyes of others, or was it a natural impulse that came from within?

Edit: Probably the root of my question would be does a transexual person like yourself truly feel female? And if you do does the feeling of being female precede or follow the switch? As you said your wardrobe was smaller before you switched to female. It would be very interesting if it had grown before the switch and then you made the switch. Fundamentally I ask these questions because I want to understand at least a little about what transexual life must feel like because I can not imagine it personally.

Trans 101: Imagine one morning you wake up and you're a woman - but you're still thinking like a man. Everything about your body feels wrong, everything about how you're expected to behave feels wrong. That's it in a nutshell.

Part of the reason my wardrobe grew is that I actually like my body now and want to show it off. Part of it's that women are expected to put more effort into how their clothes coordinate, and generally allowed to dress more flamboyantly.

(There are also lots of nerdy transwomen out there who keep on dressing Geek Casual after the transition. I am not one of them.)

when my friend moved in with her bf, I took over her apt. First time when I went to see the apt, it seemed small. When I moved in though, it wasn't. I realized she had so much stuff, that it made the apt appear smaller when I saw the first time.

Women have lots of stuff - not just clothes, but everything (before someone complains - this is not sexism etc. just simple observation)

Looking round my man cave, I'd say I have a lot of stuff as well; several tonnes of books for a starter.

Time for a declutter I think...

Clothes: I like the smell of heavy wool jumpers and (Donegal) tweed jackets.

I have a few books too. I am not talking about books though - women seem to have many many things, and they also have many units of the same thing. For example, why does anyone need 10 or 20 pairs of shoes? A female friend of mine has 40 (yes, forty) different bags, and she still keeps buying bags. And no, she is not wealthy, and doesn't live in a mansion.

Edit: not complaining or anything. Just genuinely curious :)

Honestly, as a reformed female clothing junkie, I think it grows in part out of being intelligent -- thus easily bored -- and visually inclined. Getting a certificate in GIS and running my own websites helped cure me of interest in both fashion and decor. I can search for new skins for my blogs or twiddle with the font size or whatever instead of rearranging furniture and trying on the same pants with 27 different tops. It is just as mentally satisfying to that part of my brain. But clothes and decor were the only "appropriate" outlets for it when I was a homemaker/living like I was "supposed to" as a woman.

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