We’ve all done it – bought clothes with good intentions and then only worn them once before relegating them to the back of the wardrobe.
We open our cupboards and declare we have nothing to wear despite a mountain of clothes staring us in the face. In fact recent statistics show that the average woman wears only 25% of what she owns!
Wouldn’t it be nice to wear 100% of what you own and never be stuck for an outfit again? Well, get ready to be ruthless! Here are some tips to help you clean out your wardrobe and re-organise it in such a way that you will always have something to wear. First of all, make sure you have all of the items listed on our checklist – you’ll need them all!
Your personality – your style Checklist
• Tips for your body type
• Tips for your colour palette
• Tips for your fashion personality
• A friend or relative who will be honest
• A free afternoon
• A garbage bag (or 2) for the clothes you won’t need anymore
• A full length mirror
Basically, what you need to do now is evaluate everything that is currently in your wardrobe by answering the following questions:
Is this right for my body type? Is this one of my optimal colours? Is this in line with my fashion personality? Does it fit well and how often do I currently wear this?
Added to this are additional questions regarding modesty such as:
Is this too short, low cut or tight? If you’re unsure, try the item on and scrutinise it. This is where your friend or relative will be a great help as they can give you their opinion as well. Mary Sheehan Warren, author of ‘It’s so you: fitting fashion to your life’ has a great list for getting in to the right mind set for the gruelling task of a wardrobe overhaul:
1. Less is more
2. Keep or plan out only items which you are absolutely excited
3. Less is more
4. Keep or plan out only items in which you look absolutely fabulous
5. Less is more
6. Don’t think in terms of replacing an item you have removed from your wardrobe
7. Less is more
8. Don’t keep or plan out items for your wardrobe that you simply ‘like’
9. Less is more
10. You should be able to see your entire wardrobe in one glance.
Get the picture?
This process could take a few hours but at the end of this time you should have a selection of clothes left that flatter your body type, colour palette and fashion personality.
At the end of the exercise you should find yourself with a wardrobe where most pieces compliment each other in terms of colour, work well in term of suiting your body type and the overall wardrobe will reflect your fashion personality. A few more outfit options will have presented themselves to you and you will no longer be drowning yourself in a wardrobe of clothes that are just not you.
Remember to sort out your accessories as well, scarves in particular! Bags and shoes are great ways in which you could sneak in your non-optimal colours if they’re favourites of yours. For instance, if pale pink does not suit, why not keep your pale pink clutch or shoes to set off the outfit?
Remember non-optimal colours are a problem near our face but can be included elsewhere in small quantities.
Don’t rush out now and buy any new items for your wardrobe either. Just because you have cleaned it out does not mean that you need to replenish straight away! Try our ten items challenge and see how many new outfit combinations you can come up with. And don’t forget to play around with your accessories too as these can really make an outfit!
Challenge: Ten Items Challenge!
Can’t be done? Well, try out our wardrobe challenge and see what you can come up with. By just selecting 10 items from your wardrobe you can come up with a number of different outfits that would be suitable for any occasion from smart casual for catching up with friends, right through to job or university interviews or a wedding.
Step one: Choose ten items from your wardrobe
We chose: A patterned floral skirt, a navy t-shirt, grey trousers, a denim jacket, a floaty floral dress, a purple cardigan, a black pleated skirt, a pink buttoned blouse, a dark denim dress and a green cardigan.
Step Two: Lay them all out and see how many different combinations you can come up with
Step Three: add a few accessories to complete the look and you’re all done!
We added only a few different pairs of shoes, two scarves and some jewellery to our outfits, but the end result was astonishing.
A few of our combinations are here:
(yes, we could have kept going but we decided 9 was a good start). These should give you a few ideas for your own outfits!)
Originally posted 2014-01-30 02:38:52.