This project came about from reflecting on my wardrobe: what goes in, what goes out, what is worn, and what isn’t. This reflection occurred at a time when my wardrobe was evolving rapidly. It marked the period when I began wearing clothes societally considered feminine. It was a complete shift in my clothing habits: I was purchasing a lot of items to fill a newly prominent gap in my wardrobe. After a few frenetic months, I began to question what I was actually wearing and how much money I was spending on items I barely worn. I started logging my outfits, and, in parallel, developing this website.
The aim of Le Petit Bonhomme Simon is to provide me with objective tools to analyze my wardrobe. It emphasizes the notion of price-per-wear—the idea that one should invest in clothing items proportionally to their frequency of use. The more frequently worn an item is, the more reasonable it is to spend a larger amount on it. Conversely, expensive items that are rarely worn (suits, wedding dresses, etc.) should be allocated less.
This website offers an accurate representation of what I wear and own (sometimes to the best of my memory). It’s open-source, and the code and the data can be found on this GitHub repository. Have fun exploring!
PS: If you’re curious about the name of this website, here’s a little story. When I was a kid my parents and I had a ritual. Every evening we would create the so-called “Petit Bonhomme Simon”, a smaller version of myself. The idea was to lay down on the floor the clothes I would wear the next day, in the shape of sticky figure. This website is the modern version of that ritual.