Looking forward to staying home a little bit this weekend and doing one of my favorite things - sorting my closet - which my bloggie friend Mise calls "pottering." (She's Irish.)
My first bit of advice when it comes to tackling your closet or your stuff in general is to embrace your current mood - either to purge or to hoarde.
The purge mood is pretty self explanatory. The hoarde state of mind, which I'm in right now, can be OK, too. This means you love your stuff. And isn't that the point of having a closet in the first place - to fill it with things you love?
The trick is you have to wear it. Wear everything. Everything. Make yourself do it. We don't do theoretical outfits when we live in tiny spaces.
Fortunately, there's lots of inspiration out there. Carly at Chic Steals made a whole month of outfits just out of things she never wore.
If you need to figure out how to get your pleats to go with your prints, there are plenty of high-style "outfit" blogs out there.
For example, for West Coast style, there's Atlantic Pacific.
For East Coast style, there's The Glamourai.
Then there's the uber-outfit blog, The Sartorialist.
All are lovely to look upon and hard to pull off.
For the average girl, there's always the "looks we love" section of your favorite clothing retailer's web site. You don't have to buy all their stuff, but you can figure out what goes with what. And then spice it up by wearing it backwards or something.
Where do you find inspiration for reinventing your wardrobe?
Oh thank you for joining me in my pottering; it's good to have a comrade for such an important pursuit! My wardrobe algorithm is: old reliables on weekdays and odd mixes of the neglected garments from the back rails at weekends. It makes me rather look forward to weekends and feeling zanier than I am.
ReplyDeleteI like to randomly pick something in my closet and make myself wear it to work somehow. It challenges me to layer things in new ways and spend less on new stuff. I just went through a purging binge too... and now have to find time to list the nicer things on ebay. One day.
ReplyDeletei do a little bit of 'all of the above', window shopping, monitor shopping, people watching in the streets and making my own clothes for the most part is what i like the best. i wear one of a kind pieces :)
ReplyDeleteI so have to rearrange my closet this weekend. It's going through a major overhaul :)
ReplyDeleteI don't follow very many style blogs but I do like that carla girl (do you know who I am talking about?)..I think she is west coast but man she has style.
ReplyDeleteHave a happy Tuesday!
I pared down much of my wardrobe back in January and it already seems like there's been a closet explosion since then...perhaps this post is the motivation I need to regain some order!
ReplyDeleteI love seeing how other people remix their wardrobes with the 30 x 30 challenge - do you know what I'm talking about? If not, see Kendi Everyday's blog --
ReplyDeleteLove that "pottering" word; that's one of my favorite activities.
ReplyDeleteI'm definitely more of a "looks we love" kind of dresser rather than a Sartorialist. I've also had some luck and fun playing around with the outfit builder on the Boden site. If nothing else, it makes me realize how unfinished an outfit can look without accessories.
Thanks again for a wonderful guest post!
I do different things to enjoy my clothes:
ReplyDelete1. When I was at work I put together my outfits for the week on Sunday afternoon. I pulled the left-most item off the rod and put together an outfit with it, repeat x 4. If there were really tough days with big challenges, I'd skip to my best confidence building items and use those for those days. If I couldn't find anything at all to go with the left-most item, I'd make think of what would make it work and then check to see if that new item would work with other things. If so, I'd put it on the shopping list. If not, the left-most item would have to go. (Note: I shop first a thrift stores, then at consignment shops, and only then in department stores; I prefer to live frugally).
2. I don't work now (made possible in part by living frugally) so I don't have to be so organised and my casual lifestyle doesn't suit all my clothes. This year I've selected a colour theme for each month (May is greens) and worked to wear that colour - even if only in a scarf or a pin - every day. It has made me aware of just how much use I can get from the only 3 green things I own and not get tired of them...but then it is only for a month.
3) I read library books (cheaper than magazines) to get ideas, particularly for understanding silouettes and new colour combinations. And of course there are a squillion brilliant blogs...
Wow. You peeps are so organized. Thanks for ideas and the blogs.
ReplyDeleteI also like alreadypretty.com for refreshingly snark-free style.
ReplyDeleteOh dear, my closet is by far the most embarrassing place in my loft. I throw everything in there and act like the rest of the place is clean.
ReplyDeleteOperation Pottering underway! (maybe...)