This Christmas I received a Wool& plum Brooklyn wrap dress (thanks Mom and Dad!). I have one other dress from Wool& and I love it, so I was excited to get another.

Getting Into Wool

Our family has added more wool to our wardrobe a little at at time ever since we got into backpacking. Wool is breathable for all seasons and safe to wear in the winter because it keeps moisture off of your skin (as opposed to cotton, which does not: “cotton kills”). Added bonus, especially when wearing a piece of clothing on repeat: wool doesn’t smell! It has antimicrobial properties that prevent it from stinking, making it great for travel and for not-having-to-wash-it-all-the-time.

Now, when I say “wool” I’m referring to merino wool, which is decidedly *not* itchy like other varieties can be.

My Brooklyn wrap dress is a blend of 78% marino wool and 22% nylon. The fabric is on the thin side, but it feels super soft and smooth and drapes very nicely.

The Challenge (and Dress Photos!)

I decided to try the Wool& 30 Day Dress Challenge: wear one of their dresses for 30 days, post the pictures online, and get $30 store credit. (For more info, check out their official rules here.) Sounded like a good deal to me! And a good way to jump right in to wearing my dress and learning to style it in a variety of ways. Here’s a collage of my pictures (or you can find them with descriptions on my Facebook page here).

Reflections on the 30 Day Dress Challenge:

Since I started this challenge in winter, I learned right away how to manage static cling by applying a small amount of lotion to the underside of my skirt and/or my leggings.

I love that the Brooklyn wrap dress is reversible. I usually wore a HalfTee under it when the V-neck was in the front. Didn’t need to layer when I wore it in reverse. The high neckline worked well with a long necklace.

Running shoes paired with a dress aren’t automatically frumpy–it can work. I don’t have to be afraid of it.

I can do a lot of things in a dress. See exhibit A below.

I still like jeans and for-the-purpose clothing when working out or doing dirty garden work that might snag or poke a hole in my clothing.

Tying the dress up to wear with jeans worked well, especially when I wanted to walk a lot and not have to manage the skirt all the time. And when I wanted that easy, back-pocket access to my phone.

Tying the dress up made wrinkles in it, and I was afraid I’d have to iron it the next day. But after hanging it up overnight it would be pretty well relaxed and ready to wear the next day!

My favorite outfits: paired with a jean jacket, dressed up with black, or layered and accented with cream/pearl.

Biggest single-day win: speaking at a homeschool conference and not having any anxiety over what to wear! I knew exactly what I’d wear ahead of time, so my headspace was clear to focus on my topics and my audience.

I eventually got tired of the challenge–I wanted to wear more colors, especially green or a true purple.

Wool dress over wool tights doesn’t work well for walking unless you wear a slip. The dress rides up. It’s not a problem over bare legs, but it is a problem when wearing leggings or tights or jeans. A longer skirt or heavier fabric might fair better for these situations.

This dress hits me just above the knee. I tend to only wear skirts or dresses that hit at or below the knee, so I thought maybe I’d only ever wear this dress with tights. But discussing it with my husband, he thought it was totally appropriate and told me not to worry about it.

The only exception to not worrying about it, I have found, is on windy days!!! I wear bike-style shorts under dresses anyway, but on windy days, I definitely would grab a handful of my skirt in order to hold it down!!!

Another solution that was a new experiment for me and turned out to be fun: wearing a skirt either over or under my dress. This was a great way to add color, length, weight, and/or warmth!

I thought maybe wearing a dress and posting pictures every day would prompt me to wear makeup more. But it didn’t. I just posted pictures without makeup anyway. 😛

Body image: I don’t care to post pictures of myself often. This was probably the hardest part of the challenge for me. But through the process, I had to look at myself and consider what I saw every day. And be ok with other people seeing what I saw. I’m overweight, and I can’t hide it. I think this was a good opportunity for me to own up to my current reality. And be ok with it. But also feel a bit of a nudge to do something about it (I’m tracking added sugars now with a friend).

Laundry: Wearing the same dress for a month definitely cut back on MY contribution to the laundry pile, though I still had some athletic wear, pajamas, socks, and accessories to wash. I actually only washed my Brooklyn wrap dress ONCE during the entire challenge. I spot-cleaned as needed and put it through the wash to deal with a stain (or a few spots acquired on a single day) that I really wanted to be thoroughly dealt with. The dress never got stinky!!! And washing in the evening and hanging to dry worked perfectly. It was dry and ready for action by morning.

How often will I wear Brooklyn now that the challenge is over? I’m not sure. I definitely want to wear dresses more often than not. I wouldn’t mind being one of those country chicks who dresses like a cowgirl for homesteading chores and then wears cute dresses most of the rest of the time. 😉 But we’ll see. I can definitely imagine keeping Brooklyn in the rotation on a weekly to biweekly basis. Especially with my denim jacket. 🙂

Wool& sent me a survey at the end of my challenge, and here’s what I said was my “biggest takeaway”:

“I discovered my favorite ways of wearing my Brooklyn dress: with jean jacket, or accented/layered with a neutral color: black, cream, or brown. That means I don’t have to think about so many other possible combinations with it. I now know what works and works well.”

Learning my go-to styles with this dress was a big win!

There you have it! Do you wear wool or try to focus on natural fabrics? Have you ever worn the same thing more than just 2 or 3 days in a row? I’d love to hear about it!