The keys to having the ideal wardrobe is to have a thorough
understanding of your lifestyle, some planning and editing and learning how to
maintain it. It’s not necessary to have
a large quantity of clothes to be well dressed, as long as you have acquired
the skill of mixing and matching elegantly.
I’ve always been envious of those who have a clear vision of
their personal (clothing) style and the appropriate edited wardrobe , at any one time I will have a couple of
different sizes of clothing and if not plentiful styles, more than one. Every
time I think of having a huge clean out I think ‘ what if I change my mind’.
And I’m constantly thinking of ways I can streamline my
wardrobe into its most perfect and purest form, without actually getting rid of
anything.
I enjoyed Euro Chic’s post recently where she went through
her wardrobe, listing under the bottoms which tops go. This seems a good place
to start, and shoes too I think. Different shoes go with different bottoms.
How do you know if your wardrobe works for you?
Do You Often Feel like You've Got Nothing to Wear?
A wardrobe does
not work if you find yourself often in these situations: guide to a basic
wardrobe
Taking a long time to get dressed (past forty five minutes).
In a constant state of "I don't have anything to
wear".
After you get dressed, you leave the house feeling insecure
and don't feel good about yourself.
You wish you were wearing something else but it was in the
wash.
You wonder what your friend will think of you because you
are wearing the same outfit the last time you met her.
You find it hard to match your clothes, bags and
accessories.
You have a random pair of shoes/bags/pair of earrings that
never get worn because they never go with anything you have.
You find yourself shopping for a new outfit whenever you
have to go to an event.
You don't feel appropriately dressed (because you have
nothing else).
You have a feeling that what you are wearing are too worn
out and should not seen outside the house.
Analyzing your
wardrobe
As you look at what you have, you may find you have too many
of something, for example, a pair of stilettos when you only wear them once a
week for cocktails, and not enough of linen pants for your elegant casual
weekend. You may want to further categorize your clothes into categories, 'Work
Wardrobe', 'Weekend Wardrobe', 'Cocktails/Dates Wardrobe' etc.
The purpose of this 'Guide to a basic wardrobe' exercise is
to know what you have.
E.g.
·
· Career/Work Wardrobe
Daytime Wardrobe
·
Evening Cocktails, Elegant Gowns
·
Sportswear
·
Housedress (what you wear at home)
·
Negligees (what you wear to bed)
Mapping Out your
wardrobe:
The guide to a basic wardrobe is to map out your wardrobe.
If you work five days a week, you could have possibly 5 to
15 outfits. (Note that outfits refer to combinations, so actual pieces of
clothing could be less, though not necessarily.)
Your weekend wardrobe can range from having 8 to 12 outfits.
A different outfit for every weekend for about two months!
If work from home, you can wear a few 'uniform' pieces,
white blouses, skirts, capris or sleeveless dresses making 5 outfits.
These wardrobe guidelines are not absolute, but you may wish
to map out your own guidelines and structure your wardrobe.
After mapping things out, compare them to your current
wardrobe and fill in the blanks. Once that is done
Organizing Your
Basic Wardrobe:
Separating them into sections for different activities help
you get dressed better and quicker.
Some ideas:
Have different drawers for different categories of clothes.
Buy five pink satin hangers and use them to separate your
clothes into sections
Make a Lookbook
Some of you are extremely creative and as long as you have
sufficient options, you can whip out a fabulous new outfit. Others, you may not
have the time in the morning to do trial-and-error in front of your mirror.
Whether or not you are creative, a look book is effective. It enables you to
'see' the outfit before trying it on. It minimizes efforts to 'put things
back'.
A few different ways to create look books
Take a snapshot of yourself whenever you are wearing an
outfit you feel good in.
Take a snapshot of everything you own and put them into
categories. When you are mixing and matching, flip the look book, take out
those photos and 'match' them together.
What actually made me think about my wardrobe as a concise
collection was planning what to wear when I go away on a trip. When I traveled
to my cousin’s wedding I flew there, so I had to take only what I would
definitely be wearing (as opposed to driving there, when you can pack everything
including the kitchen sink).This necessitates a plan, what am I doing for each
day and what should I wear, right down to accessories. My plan now is to do
this for my everyday wardrobe, which will be a little bigger, granted, but a
cohesive look that I want to portray to the world.
# Coletterie
#Wardrobe Architect
#MissShortieCampaign ..
