Do you have a wardrobe full of clothes but struggle to figure out what to wear and how to wear it? Today I’m sharing with you 7 secrets that I’ve picked up from my 10 years as a personal stylist, working with lots of lovely clients in their wardrobes.
7 Secrets to a Stylish Wardrobe
1. Discover What You Love
Pinterest is the best tool to help you amass pictures of styles of clothes, outfits and accessories that you love and find pleasing. You don’t have to stop at clothes though, also consider interiors and objects that delight you. When you’ve pinned 50+ pictures and you start assessing what it is that you love about each, what the trends are that you start noticing in your pictures. Not sure? Well why not write a few descriptive adjectives down about each picture, the feel, the look and see if the same words keep popping up for you. This will help you nail down your style statement which you can use when putting together your outfits and when you go shopping.
2. Use Your Research
Now that you’ve got a better idea of what you love, take some inspiration from the pictures you’ve selected and start trying out new ways of accessorizing or putting together outfits. Copy some pictures with what you already have existed in your wardrobe, you may discover that you already have loads of pieces but you will find new ways of wearing them. Try each day creating new outfits based on your research. See how you feel at the end of each day, take photos of your outfits, and assess how you look.
3. Clear the Clutter
Now that you’ve got a Style Statement (or a bunch of words that relate to your style), then clear out the clutter, the clothes that don’t resonate with that list. There is no point in keeping the garments that just aren’t you, even if they are in great condition. Let them go so you have more space for the clothes that are you.
4. Make a List
Once you’ve spent a few weeks working with what you have got in your wardrobe, creating new outfits, and trying new combinations, you’ll have started noticing your gaps, your wardrobe holes. Write these items down, specifically, so that next time you shop you can look for them, rather than buying random items, or replicas of items you already own. This will make your wardrobe work way more effectively. Check out 7 Popular Wardrobe and Outfit Planning Apps Reviewed here.
5. Work out What You Wear
Quite often we have no idea what we really do wear in our wardrobe, so you can start keeping tabs on what are the items that get wearing, and those that don’t. You can either turn all your hangers around and when you’ve worn an item, turn the hanger back.
Try the bread tag method. This requires labeling of your hanger so you put the same garment back on each time. Every time you wear a garment, add a little plastic bread bag tag (you know, they keep the bread bag closed when you buy bread) to the hanger, and then see over time how many accumulate on each hanger. Or if you’re in need of new hangers, buy a few boxes of a different kind of hanger (I love the velour ones as your clothes don’t slide off them) and after you’ve worn that item, remove the old hanger and replace it in the wardrobe on a new one.
After a few months, you’ll see what you haven’t been wearing that season, and you can assess whether or not the garment should still be in your wardrobe.
6. Buy Great Basics
The pieces you wear all the time, the staples of your wardrobe should be of good quality. If you’re a pant girl and wear them most days, then spend your money there and buy great quality trousers and have them altered to fit you perfectly.
7. Alter to Fit
We are not clones of each other, our bodies are not all created the same, yet we all expect to walk into a store, pick up a garment in our size and have it fit perfectly. Clothes that fit just look so much better. Understand where your fit issues lie, what can and can’t be easily altered, and have your clothes altered so that they flatter your unique body. Are your sleeve hems too long on your jackets? Do skirts hit at a dowdy point on your leg? Do your trousers drag on the ground if you’re not wearing super high heels? Do your tops cut across the widest part of your thighs? Do your waistbands gape? These things can all be fixed and will make wearing your clothes such a better experience.
If you’re still struggling with working out what to wear, you can call me and I can help you go through your wardrobe and work out what is and isn’t working for you, and what you may need to make it work.
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