Getting back what I gave away

Sartorially, but also literally.

@lostjcrew

Early last month, I checked the weather report and there it was: an incoming block of low 70s days. Sunny. Perfect. The kind of anticipatory forecast that gets you giddy to finally, finally, leave your jacket at home.

What would I wear to celebrate the first stretch of warm spring days?

What came to mind surprised me, mostly because I no longer own it: a floral jacquard cotton skirt I bought in high school, long gone from my closet. I don’t even know when I gave it away—2005, 2010, somewhere in there? I suspect it ended up in the donation pile because it didn’t fit anymore which, okay, fair enough.

And yet—I loved that skirt. That skirt could do anything. You could graduate in it. Go to Mothers Day brunch in it. Wear it with a white tee and flip flops and ride your bike to 8am class in it. Even go to your restaurant job in it!

(I sure did, at least. The summer before college, I was a hostess at Chili’s, where I collected enough stories to write a book. The standard shift uniform was a ridiculously oversized pique polo shirt embroidered with a red chili pepper, tucked (always tucked!) into bootcut khaki pants. I hated that shirt, and regularly called in before my shift to ask the manager if I could “wear my own clothes” instead. Enforcing a dress code was apparently low on his list of things to worry about, so I’d show up in my pink skirt and a white blouse, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, ready to welcome diners into the comforting fold of Southwestern Egg Rolls and Molten Chocolate Cakes.)

Anyway, there I was last month, dreaming about the warmer temps to come, and I said to myself, I wish I could get that skirt back.

Would you believe after a few searches with keywords including ‘pink’ and ‘jacquard’ and ‘j.crew’ and ‘90s,’ I found one—new with tags!—on eBay, in a size perfect for me now?

Of course you would! Because this is 2024!