Thank you very much for your lengthy, detailed reply.

A few comments:

I don't know that I would say I am "passionate" about it. I am tall for a woman and have a genetic disorder and happen to know a lot about clothes (which might, actually, indicate I am passionate about clothes :-D ). When I am thin, it is quite hard to find clothes that fit properly. Men have "big and tall" shops. Women get "petite" and "women's" departments -- ie short or fat. Tall women -- especially tall, thin women -- get somewhat left out in the cold. When I am quite heavy, it is actually a bit easier to get clothes that fit me. I had a serious health crisis about 10 years ago which led to a diagnosis of a genetic disorder in my mid-thirties. The diagnosis empowered me to begin getting well for the first time in my life and I have lost several dress sizes. I expect in the near future to be thin enough again to have real difficulty finding clothes that fit well. Additionally, what I wear and how I deal with it plays a very large role in my ability to get well and stay well.

By trial and error, I have found that certain fabrics are tolerable and others are not. For example, I am actually allergic to wool and needed a good deal more medication than normal anytime I wore a lovely wool jacket I owned at one time. I finally got a clue and got rid of the jacket. We also gave up our washer and dryer and wash everything by hand. I considered getting an iron or steamer but decided against it. Every single thing I own has to be kept to a ridiculous standard of germ-free cleanliness in order to keep me well and off medication and I just don't think an iron and ironing board are worth it (at least not right now) when I know I can just get around the need to iron by shopping carefully. I have gotten off 8 or 9 prescription drugs and escaped a personal living hell. It would be difficult to convey how utterly miserable I was while accepting conventional treatments for my condition. Whatever hoops I have to jump through to stay well and off medication are well worth it to me.

But it is quite challenging and this wouldn't work at all if I didn't know a great deal about clothes. I have yet to write anything in particular on my health site about the whole clothing issue. I keep meaning to but I also think explaining to other people what I do with regards to clothes would be just another reason for most people to reject my approach to dealing with this genetic disorder because most people don't have the knowledge I have about clothes. So I have thought that offering a solution rather than just information might be something that would go over better.

I don't own a single jacket or blazer. They are too hard to keep clean. Most are dry clean only and I can't do that. I find that an undershirt works just fine in the cold weather here (it's pretty warm where I live). As a bit of an aside: The dress code at work is "business casual" and most men there show up in slacks and either a polo-style shirt or button down shirt. I can only think of a couple of occasions when I have seen the highest ranking men in my department wear a jacket or suit. In contrast, some of the high ranking women wear jackets and suits on a routine basis. To me, this just screams "I'm a second class citizen and I need to try harder because I was born with the wrong genitals". I don't think I have any realistic hope of climbing the corporate ladder and would rather go do my own thing anyway. But if I were trying to climb the corporate ladder, I would be doing my best to come up with a female equivalent of how the men typically dress and would avoid jackets on principle. As it is, I avoid them just because they are a nightmare to keep adequately clean for my needs. Nonetheless, even if do build a successful e-business and can live in shorts most of the time, I expect there will still be times when I need to dress appropriately for meeting people in a capacity related to my business. And I like dressing nice. So I don't expect this need to ever go away completely.

For a little bit of background related to me and my experience with/interest in clothes:

My mom apprenticed with a tailor for a time when she was young and she learned to sew so her kids would have nice things even though there wasn't much money. I stood for fittings and had most of my clothes custom made as a child. I don't have the money to pay people to custom-make my clothes as an adult. In my teens, I realized how spoiled I was and that I would be moving out soon. I began to toy with the idea of learning to sew or knit or something and making my own clothes. But I never did learn, even though I did try. It just didn't work out. I think my medical condition makes it problematic for me to handle the materials in the production stage. I think that's a factor in my failure in that regard.

I had about 20 books on clothes in my teens/twenties. For a time, I wanted to be an image consultant. I even gave a class on it once and used to help friends go through their wardrobes and taught my ex to dress well. I was a homemaker for many years and I used to think that if I got a job, I would finally be able to dress well because I would have some place to wear nice clothes. Now I have a job and I have found that is not true. Most of the stuff in magazines and on store shelves would violate dress code at my office. I have a tendency to attract attention, often unwanted attention, and have found that although other people seem able to violate dress code right and left and get away with it, I cannot. It gets noticed and I get pulled aside. Anything too tight/revealing or whatever and I'm in hot water. Meanwhile, other women can show up looking like hookers and no one seems to say a word. So I think there is a serious disconnect between what women need to wear for business and what is available and most women probably are less painfully aware of it than I am because dressing "normally, for a woman" doesn't get them into the hot water it would get me into. Women at work mostly either dress too sexy for the office or they wear suits in imitation of "how men dress for work/business" when that isn't, in fact, what the men are wearing at my office. I think women need another option, one that isn't "wearable art" (and to hell with practical concerns or comfort) and also isn't some attempt to imitate men.

But I also don't know that I want to put in the hours this would require. I just want to be able to get dressed in the morning but am frustrated by how challenging that is.