Not to share my clothing

The order of my large family goes: four girls, three boys, and then me (a girl).  Perhaps this is why I just cannot understand why girls share clothing.  It seems so odd to me.  I can understand needing a shrug to go over a dress, or borrowing a pair of pumps for a job interview, but even in saying that I shudder slightly at wearing another person's shoes.  Maybe it is my own selfishness, that someone else's body type will stretch or ruin my favourite pair of jeans in some unknown way, but I just don't understand why girls share clothing.

This concept has deep roots for me since I have been around this phenomenon for my entire life.  I watched my sisters trade clothes, although they were selective among the sisters. Clothes and the girls were graded hierarchically - this shirt is a ten and therefore no one but me can wear it, this sweater is a seven so if someone needs it for a special occasion I will lend it, this scarf is a one and anyone can take it at anytime so long as it comes back to me at some point.  That sister is horrible with stuff so she can only use things in the one to four range, that sister is responsible and a smaller size so she has free access, and so on. 

I also attended a boarding school and saw the same sweater worn by five different girls on five different days within one week.  And this event creeped me out because laundry day only happened once a week for the girls on campus, I would have hated to have been girl five on day five.  Not only would it be dirty, but it was highly recognizable, it was a red knit sweater with a huge blue e front and centre and I cannot imagine wanting to be exactly like the person who wore it yesterday.  I found it strange that emulation was important in a boarding school, you would think that differentiation would be valued highest, but it wasn't.

When I borrow clothes, I feel like an impostor.  As though someone will come up to me and say, "I know that's not your shirt" and I will have to make some strong defence as to why I am sporting it.  

Finally, I get excited on standing out as an individual, and not wearing the same shirt as fifty gazillion other girls in the world.  I don't like feeling like a copy-cat, and I don't like sharing clothes. 

That's all.