Forget comfort, flare, trendy. Forget your favorite colors and shapes which enhance your feminine form. Forget colors that clash with your favorite palette of eye shadow. Get rid of the unnecessary. Stick to the essentials. Today we are going to discuss the best Doomsday Clothes for Female Preppers.
One purpose
“Sooner or later, those who win are those who think they can.” – Richard Bach
It goes without saying that being prepared for any SHFT scenario should always be your main goal if you are into preparedness. Doing that changes how you look at the world and having a situationally dependent state of awareness as part of your mental processes is a great starting point.
Before you walk out the door, taking a minute to think about if you really want to be caught wearing the outfit you are wearing currently in the worst-case scenario – could be a good question you need to ask yourself. No one can select the right clothes for you to face a critical situation, so you definitely need to develop the right mental perspective to do that for yourself.
One body
“Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.” – Swami Vivekananda
Before thinking of any clothes, consider your personal physical traits and possible weight swings you could see in a disaster. If we are being honest, this is hardly a remote possibility. Normal variations of your ordinary diet could easily result in a consequential loss of pounds in a survival situation. Taking care of your body is the beginning of any emergency scenario that will be demanding, rough, and perhaps even cruel.
Avoid the temptation to acquire only stretchy & “skinny” clothes; even if they are more comfortable they may end up to being a nuisance (or a torture!) if temperatures rise. You would definitely regret being forced to wear them.
Stick to simple things, as they are proven winners in survival situations. Worst case scenario, you could always make adjustments in case you lose weight. Make your body – and your clothes – your allies, not enemies to fight against.
“Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.” – Lou Holtz
One attitude
Keep in mind that physical health is strictly connected to mental health. Being prepared starts with our minds, and only later on it reaches every single section of our body. For this reason, nourishing a positive attitude that will help you face mishaps and solve problems without becoming overcome with dread will certainly influence your selection for Doomsday clothes.
In fact, when you are in the moment, your attitude will guide and determine your ability to make the right choices and remove superfluous worries that can distract you from your overall goal.
Clothes can make a difference during Doomsday
“Buy less. Choose well. Make it last. Quality, not quantity. Everybody’s buying far too many clothes.” – Vivienne Westwood
Durability. Consistency. Lightness. Dependability.
Doomsday clothes should follow these specific requirements, focused on pragmatism and common sense. Ask yourself what to look for, what are your doomsday clothes expectations and take note of all of them. This will make things easier when the time comes to not only purchase them but – even more important! – to test and to overstress them.
Essential doomsday clothes requirements
Personally speaking, I think that good clothes sould answer the following points of interest:
• Comfort
• Breathability
• Foldability
• Durability
• Minimalism
If you purchase with those goals in mind, your doomsday clothes will be light to carry, comfortable to wear, breathable, easy to fold inside compression sacks or anything similar, layer well, and be solidly constructed. (avoid cheap quality items!) Finally, they should last for years if well cared for and stored properly.
Use your brain and not only your eyes or wallet in when considering what doomsday clothes make good investments. Periodically check the best outdoor gear websites, and spend some time reading reviews: this will help you to save money, and maybe take advantage of an extraordinary sale, which is always good!
Experience and systematic tests will surely help you and allow you to understand the value of our purchases.
Check, buy and test
The web has plenty of platforms to rely on when it comes time to look for new items, verify the existence of sales, and get a personal opinion based on the reviews of other customers. Amazon is surely a top place to comparison shop for doomsday clothes items.
Besides online shopping, you still need to see, and touch, to test your purchases. Our tactile sense still needs to verify. Some fabrics we may not be familiar with and you need to feel the texture, try it in real-world environments. We should underestimate the importance of trying all our gear out.
Additionally, what looks good in high-quality photographs could be deceiving in reality, even disappointing. Technical textiles are the last decades’ most cutting edge products, as they are tasked with the consumer demand for breathable shirts, trousers, underwear, and softshells.
Touching them can actually confirm to you that a certain fabric is extremely lightweight, but, at the same time, some of the poly based textiles can be dangerously likely to be ripped if you pass throughout vines and/or melted by, close proximity to any camp fire. Think about that when purchasing your doomsday clothes. I ruined several shirts in this way. And I learned from my own mistakes!
My personal suggestion is to try multiple options out and test in various seasons and weather conditions. Experience will show you quickly how well the option will work for you.
Avoid picking one favorite immediately and sticking with it. Move forward: go out in the field and see if other products really match your expectations and if they are a valuable purchase.
Experience costs nothing
“Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.” – Rita Mae Brown
Early impressions, even if extraordinarly positive, need to be confirmed by facts. There’s no better way to than grabbing your new clothes, wearing them in austere conditions and test them. Dropping them in a bug out bag stash in your car is the same as forgetting about them.
The essential process of testing ALL your doomsday clothes garments you purchase is such an important step during the the identification of the pros and cons of each single piece you purchased.
If you really want to be diligent and scientific about this process, you can start a journal or create a excel file on your pc or phone.
Things to evaluate and write down:
• Brand
• Type of garment (boots, shirts, trousers, fleeces and so on)
• Date and Location of the purchase (f.e., Cabela’s, Amazon..)
• Price – and if you took advantage of any sales
• Personal expectations about each single item
• Annotations after 1st test, after 2nd test (and so on)
• Ultimate considerations on positive and negative aspects
Don’t think this is overthinking or trivial. In fact, these notes will be remarkable on so many levels.
More so if your tests take place after a long period of time.
An organized mind is the core of being prepared. Help yourself by setting things right in order:
My selection of Doomsday clothes
“Have a very good reason for everything you do.” – Laurence Olivier
Make sure to select clothes for all the different kind of weather conditions and seasons. Don’t understimate the possibility of a sudden drop off in temperature, even if it seems a remote possibility. Nasty weather can occur at anytime and Mother Nature does not care what day is on the calendar.
Consider carefully your choices from heavy warmer clothes to cooler, summertime options, and give extra attention to waterproof and insulated jackets, boots, socks and gloves. Fingers are, in fact, more prone to be highly attacked and dramatically damaged by hypothermia, frostbite and chillblains.
With those considerations in mind, my very personal selection includes the following items, starting from feet to head.
• light and warm socks up to the knee (in order to prevent yourself from tick bites)
• winter tights
• cotton and mixed wool underwear
• seamless bras (an honest suggestion to all the women out there: please avoid wearing any bra with underwire, as it increases the risk of developing breast cancer!)
• undershirts
• short and long sleeves shirts
• 2 trousers in ripstop Helikon-Tex Women apparel
• 2 leggings
• light sweater
• 2 hoodie fleeces Helikon-Tex Women apparel
• waterproof jacket Carinthia Pro
• foldable quilted jacket Carinthia Pro
• shemagh
• balaclava
• a pair of light and a pair of warm gloves – Oakley Tactical
• a pair of light and a pair of heavy boots – 2be Footwear
• Boonie hat
• wool beanie hat
I always go for ripstop trousers due to the durability of the material. The list above is obviously meant to be a starting point, as every one of us Female Preppers needs to update this list based on your necessities, physical traits, and personal considerations.
Mistakes to avoid
Don’t fall for the temptation of collecting your Doomsday clothes by grabbing stuff you don’t wear anymore from your wardrobe. They can have a better life elsewhere, surely not in your bug out bag or eventually on you in Doomsday!
It goes without saying to avoid:
• any items you have never tested before
• off-size apparel
• damaged or worn-out clothes and boots
• flashy shapes and colors – remember the grey man concept
• your husband’s old shirts
Make no mistakes. It is about your and your loved ones’ safety.
Conclusions
“Crises are part of life. Everybody has to face them, and it doesn’t make any difference what the crisis is.” –Jack Nicklaus
Be deliberate, strive to be wise and patient while testing your garments. It will give you the proper attitude not only to accurately estimate all the implications of a crisis situation, but also to better develop what we actually need and, most of all, what makes us feel comfortable and confident.
Never underestimate the power of feeling good with what we are wearing. This can, in fact, provide you with calmer, confidence, and serenity. That goes a long way to enhance our ability to make decisions with no rush, trusting in foresight, common sense, and accuracy of the analysis.
Valuing the opinions of friends and relatives is surely a good way to go, but reason with your own mind! Calculate risks and make no rash assumptions, especially if you feel anxiety and anguish. Don’t get influenced by YouTube videos too, because if caught up alone, you will need to be able to decide by yourself.