5 foolproof ways to update your wardrobe
"When I shop I just see all the trendy things I don't have! I would love to know how to style my current closet and pick a few awesome, unique pieces each season to update!"
Preach, baby girl!
This was a comment I recently received and I'm pretty sure I said YES! out loud when I read it. I believe this is how many women feel but they can't quite articulate.
It's a symptom of the every time I put it on it just looks weird so I take it off syndrome.
Listen. When you see trendy pieces on the mannequin, you buy them without truly considering how they'll it with your style or lifestyle or even body shape. So they sit in your closet with the tags still on slowly gathering dust.
Which is precisely why this babe hit the nail right on the head with her comment. How do we strategically update our closets with smart pieces each season (subtext: instead of mindlessly buying bags full of compromises)?
Know your style first. Y'all had to know this would be step one. I will preach this until the cows come home. If you don't know yourself and your personal style, you'll only continue to fill your closet with impulse buys. Remember, clothing is your chance to express yourself; to speak without words. What do you want to say? If you need help, grab your free worksheet on how to define your style. Oh, I also wrote you an ebook. Hoorah!
Assess your closet. This may or may not be a full purge (if it is, check out this free mini-course), but take a good hard look at what you really need. Take the Nisolo Paloma mules I'm wearing here, for example. I've been craving a pair of open-toed, chunky heels for at least a year. I own nothing like these and they're ethically made with a focus on sustainability. When I assessed what pieces I needed to update my closet for spring, these were a no-brainer. Clothes shopping without knowing what you need is just like going to the grocery without a list—you'll always come home with the tortilla chips already sitting in your pantry (or floral top in your closet, as it were).
Invest in the good stuff. I like to think of purchases in terms of Cost Per Wear (CPW). If I buy a pair of $30 sandals that fall apart after three wears, that's a cost of $10 per wear. But if I invest in a pair of $118 Nisolo sandals that I wear twenty times a year for five years, my CPW is $1.15. Investment pieces are classics that will stay with you for years to come (see next point). As someone who used to always shop based on how small the price tag was, I truly get the resistance to paying more. Believe me. But here's the thing, love. Paying "more" for fairly made products is actually the true price it costs to make products in a way that's safe for the planet and the people who make them. The low prices we have become accustomed to do come with a cost. Someone pays that cost, it just isn't you.
Imagine yourself wearing it next year. The problem with fads (which are different from trends, mind you) is that they are fleeting. Trends set the tone for a few years, whereas fads are gone in a matter of moments. When you shop according to the fad that's on the mannequin, you seriously run the risk of that piece being out of style next season (let alone next year) and not being a smart addition. If you can't imagine that top still working this time next year (i.e. it's not classic) put it back.
Find your color palette. Confession—I never bothered to figure out what "my colors" were because I truly believed, in my heart of hearts, that I had to stick to blues, greens, and neutrals because I am a redhead. Hahahahaha and also ha. This couldn't be further from the truth. Do I still look great in green? Well sure, I'm a redhead. But in doing my own color analysis I learned that I skew toward autumn colors—burnt oranges, olives, mustard, warm brown. Life. Changed. If you're stuck on one color (cough black cough) I'd challenge you to do a quick analysis—you might be surprised by what you find. Swipe my go-to color palettes!
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