I wasted my time trying to dye my clothes black with Rit dye again

Monday, May 27th, 2024, 19:20

Mood: Disappointed

I have described at length my really terrible habit of throwing My All™ into one aesthetic for about four to six weeks, then abandoning it entirely for months, but here's a refresher. Something in my head will decide that I need to hyperfixate on a given style, and I will spend extensive amounts of time researching its history, finding inspiration online, cataloguing different brands and silhouettes and everything in between. Since I've rushed into the change, I won't do a very good job of wearing it, and I will abandon it entirely after about a month, thinking I look like shit in it and I am too ugly to wear it. And then I will pick something new and move onto the next one. I don't know why I do this. I think it might be on account of having borderline personality, actually, the unstable sense of self and everyhing. Either way, it's kind of exhausting, not to mention I have way more clothes than I need--and I never wear any of them.

Currently, my "style hyperfixation" is '80s goth. I have a lot of very good reasons for hyperfixating on this aesthetic right now. For one, I do think I look good in it. It requires a limited color selection, all of which are in my dark winter palette (e.g. blacks, whites, very deep jewel tones). It's also an alternative aesthetic that I can wear to work, because wearing a lot of drape-y pieces in dark colors isn't against the rules. It can also complement either very striking makeup, like what a lot of folks on TikTok are doing these days--or, as is my preference, a more muted face. (I'm not good at doing makeup and I'm okay with not trying very hard anymore.)

A goth person with Bettie bangs and red lipstick and a caption that reads 'Wanted to go for OG 80's trad goth for school YIPPIE' A white goth person with pale makeup and a caption that reads 'You don't need to buy from 'goth brands', dressing goth doesn't have to be expensive' A white goth person with pale makeup and a caption that reads 'Finished look :]'

(As an aside, and I was just talking about this the other week with a TikTok mutual of mine, it's totally wild to me how, in this day and age, we just label ourselves by subculture. It used to be back in my day that you'd secretly endeavor to join that subculture, listen to the corresponding music and wear the corresponding styles, and then turn around and deny it--usually with some sassy retort like "Don't label me, I'm not soup!"--when others would call you on it. Now, we're all just running around calling ourselves goths and emos and whatever else.)

The problem is, like I said, because I have this awful habit of never sticking to one aesthetic, I have a bunch of pieces I haven't worn in a while and don't go with my new hyperfixation. A lot of these pieces are very flowy or drape across, but are in more muted earth tones. In fairness, most of these pieces were hand-me-downs, and I have not worn them in years, so it wasn't like I spent a bunch of money indulging my new whim like I really want to right now. Instead, in the name of reducing garment waste, I endeavored to, cue the Stones, "Paint it Black". (Er, dye. And them. Dye them black. The clothes, that is.)

Two bottles of black Rit dye, one natural and one synthetic A sink full of black dye Metal tongs picking up a sopping wet garment from the dye sink

Like I said, to start, these were mostly muted earth tone garments, whose fiber content varied between natural and synthetic. I purchased Rit standard liquid and DyeMore accordingly, and followed to package directions. I've done this before, with varying degrees of success. The results?

Erica wearing a purple long-sleeve crop top and black short shorts Erica wearing black long sleeves under a flowing black cottagecore dress Erica wearing black long sleeves and a black sweatervest tucked into a black long accordion skirt and several necklaces Erica wearing black long sleeves and a draping dark brown vest with the sleeves tucked into a black long accordion skirt and several necklaces

Hugely disappointing, as usual. I don't know why I expect anything differently. The two pieces that came out awesome--and they did come out awesome--came out that way from Rit dye in the past, and eventually faded. What's to stop them fading again this time? Only time will tell. Two more pieces did turn, but they didn't turn black; one turned a deep, mauve-ish purple, and the other an extremely dark chocolate brown. Granted, I'm more likely to wear these now than I was before, but they're not what I wanted. The remaining three pieces didn't turn at all.

All in all, it was kind of a disappointing waste of my time and I'm glad I spent my day off doing other things I can write about on here later. I also want to give some other dyes a try. I have heard that Dylon is much stronger than Rit, and there's a ton of stuff to choose from on the Dharma Trading Co. site as well. Like I said, my goal here is as much to reduce garment waste as it is to increase my collection. (At least, the collection I want as long as this silly phase lasts before I move onto the next one!)