“Here, mention should be made of the constant interplay between love and the desire for clothes, insatiable,” writes Annie Ernaux in Getting Lost. In the grip of a love affair, she shops “thinking about the caresses of the night before and dreaming of the ones to follow.” Her closet fills up with “skirt suits and blouses bought for a man…pointless clothes, worn only for the sake of fashion, in other words, for nothing.”
Clothes bought for love are never strictly utilitarian. My wardrobe proliferates with crop tops, silk shorts, a sheer body suit, a pink silk slip I bought to psych myself up to ask someone out (he responded ‘heyyy’ which put the purchase in perspective). Most of these can’t be repurposed as work clothes, which is the utilitarian alternative. But work clothes are also bought for nothing, worn for nothing. Your job won’t love you back. Maybe neither will your lover but at least that one is worth trying for.