Building a wardrobe that understands you

a guide to choosing clothes that speak your language

Hello sweet reader :) I’m back with the first official post according to the new format of my rebranding. This format mainly focuses on clothing, handmade or otherwise, and how we wear it and where we want to go (our goals) with sustainable fashion. Occasionally I’ll have some updates, inspirational posts and the like, but this Substack is designed to help you achieve the sustainable wardrobe of your dreams. So let’s get started with today’s post!

If you like what you read today, consider becoming a paid supporter or purchasing one of my patterns at www.wearweregoing.myshopify.com.

Let’s get into the nitty gritty.

Getting dressed should be easy. Your closet should be an effortless expression of your personal style that when brought to life, just feels… right.

All too often however, we find ourselves in the sad cycle of not being able to find something to wear in a closet full of clothing. Amidst the array of things WE picked out from the store ourselves, there seems to be nothing we’re in the mood to throw on. Strange how that works.

Most people think of their wardrobe as having sections; the business clothing, the athletic clothing, the dressy clothing etc. The reality is though that this creates a natural incohesive set of clothing. Ideally, these pieces should come together and work as one so that the brain power put into getting dressed is minimized allowing one to focus more on feeling good in anything they pick out from their closet.

Modern day style advice advertises the concept of building a capsule wardrobe to easily mix and match and put things together, but a capsule wardrobe is about putting pieces together, not about enhancing your personal style and creating a wardrobe that matches your identity.

I created this guide as a starting point for you to work off of to find or inject your identity into your wardrobe. We can get into capsule wardrobes later. Optimizing your closet should start with YOU at the core, and include everything that entails. Your clothing identity begins with your lifestyle and the things that inspire you. Bringing these two thing together can help you create a closet identity that closely matches you at its core, and thus make it easier to choose garments from your closet. Let’s get into it.

PART 1 // ASSESS YOUR LIFESTYLE

The Pareto rule tells us that we only reach for 20% of our clothing 80% of the time due to most of our clothes not matching our lifestyle.

What you wear is a representation of your own intentions and daily routine. Since we all play different roles throughout each day between jobs, recreation, home life etc, adapting our clothing to our daily lives is key to establishing our wardrobe identity. If you’re keeping clothing that does not fit, is not wearable, is not season appropriate for your climate, and/or does not complement your body then you’re clothing is not meeting the needs of your lifestyle.

There is a difference between loving what we have on and simply wearing clothes. We bridge the gap between these two things by making our closet functional, and we cannot do that without assessing our lifestyle.

Viv The Mole wrote an excellent post HERE where she broke down how different lifestyles affect how one may dress by creating visualizations of 6 people and what they wore.

You can assess your lifestyle by what you do and what you wear in the following categories (all beginning with “w” so you can easily remember these key areas)

Weather - referring to the climate of where you life or frequently visit every day and each year. Both daily and yearly understandings are necessary because we are talking about your wardrobe as a whole, meaning it will encompass multiple seasons.

Work - referring to your job or place of business. Where you work and spend time making money.

Wind Down - referring to how you lounge or spend time decompressing. On the couch? A solo karaoke room? A corner in the house with a book?

Weekend - referring to the recreation you partake in or how you have fun. What do you do on the weekend? Who are you with? How different is it from your weekly routine?

EXERCISE: jot down specifics that apply to you for all of these categories to form an understanding of your lifestyle and the clothes you usually wear in these activities.

PART 2 // INSPIRATION

The list you just came up with will represent clothing pieces that best represent your day to day lifestyle, but may not represent YOU entirely as a person in color, style, and design. To do that, we have to now establish what we actually like to wear.

If you’re not sure where to begin in knowing what you like, decide if the items in your closet are comfortable, confident, chic (relative to each person), and a color palette you enjoy.

Let’s break it down…

Is it comfortable? Does it make you feel good when you wear it? Does it fit? Is there wiggle room if your weight fluctuates? Does sitting and standing feel good when you wear it?

Do you feel confident in it? Can you hold your head up high when you walk into a room wearing it? Does it make you feel powerful and happy?

Is it your definition of chic? Is it cute? Do you feel put together when you wear it? Can it be styled with existing accessories you own? Can it be customized to fit your style no matter the weather? Does it complement your other pieces in your closet in a stylish way?

What colors speak to you? If they don’t speak to you, put them immediately to the side. Many people find that their color analysis was a palette they had already been wearing regularly.

Pay attention to repeat clothing pieces

What items do you tend to wear on repeat? What items do you prefer to wear on occasion? What pieces of clothing tend to make you feel the most put together? Once you have answers for all of these questions, then ask yourself why.

Note other pieces you gravitate to

What pieces make you stand out? What pieces make you feel bold but may not be everyday clothing? These are statement pieces and make great additions to closets for special occasions.

When you go through your closet, think about how each piece of clothing makes you feel. This can help you determine what you are NOT gravitating to and help you narrow down what may seem like a daunting task. Does that top make you sweat too much? Is the neckline too high or too low on that shirt? When was the last time you wore those pants and why don’t you wear them anymore?

Other things to consider…

A color analysis may help you break down the colors that speak most to your style and energy. Discovering your body type and the best way to dress it may be a good starting point for figuring out which garments you’d prefer in the closet. Keep in mind that there is no concrete rule to fashion or fit. This is about expressing your own personal style through clothing.

EXERCISE: Remove clothing that is taking up unintentional space. If it is too small, a color you do not like, or needs to be repaired beyond reasonable expectations of your life and schedule, it needs to go. Put together your top three favorite outfits based on inspiration alone, don’t worry about lifestyle.

PART 3 // BUILD YOUR NEW WARDROBE

Now it's time to put all of this together and start overhauling and reconfiguring or closet.

Be Realistic

REMEMBER: Sustainability is NOT about keeping clothing idly in your closet because getting rid of it is wasteful. It is about actively USING what we already have. If you aren’t using or wearing it, you are helping no one, so as you approach editing your closet make sure to create a donate and trash pile.

In the small amount of work I did wardrobe consulting I had a number of people say “well I like this… but I can’t wear it when I’m bloated” , “well I’m working out so I want to wear this dress when I’m back in shape” , “well I love this shirt but I just need to alter/get tailored/shorten/lengthen…etc” “I’m perimenopausal/on a diet/shifting my likes/changing my lifestyle/etc so my body is changing with my clothes” I could go on here for a long paragraph but let me summarize this way…

If you are not wearing it now, or have not in the past 3-6 months, you will not wear it regularly or consistently in the future. These are clothes you need to donate.

Develop a goal for your wardrobe

My style philosophy for sustainability lies in my personal belief that YOUR CLOTHING SHOULD GROW INTO EVERY LIFESTYLE WITH YOU. That’s not to say your preferences won’t change, but there is a baseline compass that every person has that guides them when choosing what to wear. Mine is comfort first, style later. I like elastic waistbands and oversized t shirts. Not only because they’re comfortable but because they can be easily styled and worn a number of ways. I prefer clothing that doesn’t only fit me when I’m one size but can be worn if I gain a few pounds or lose a few pounds.

What you want from your wardrobe is important to assess. Only you know what your style philosophy is; fun, color, comfort, ease of wear, to show off your body etc. What do you want your wardrobe to do for you? How do you want it to make you feel? What do you want your style to express to others when they see what you are wearing?

Curate, then shop

You’ve donated what you do not wear and you know what you want from what is leftover. Now it’s time to fill in the gaps. It helps though, to first know what gaps need to be filled and that begins with organizing your closet. You can do this any way you like but I personally like to organize my closet by color then clothing item. For example, all of my cream/white beige things go together and then I organize all of the t-shirts, the tank tops, the blouses etc together in those colors.

It’s pretty easy by then to find what you are missing because you can easily see the areas where there is less. Fill the areas, if you choose, with things you would like to see more of in your closet. Maybe it’s the same shirt in two or three more colors. Maybe it’s more long sleeved shirts since you have too many short sleeved ones. Maybe you’re lacking texture in the overall closet in general. Make a list of what’s missing so that when you go shopping for clothes, or make them if you’re a maker/sewist, then you know exactly what voids you are wanting to fill.

Building a wardrobe full of clothing that directly represents you can make getting dressed so much easier. By removing the distractions of what isn’t working for you and taking the time to find out what is working, you’re better equipped with a closet that creates a symbiotic relationship making each time you put on your clothes a dream instead of a nightmare - no matter how you’re feeling or what activity you’re doing.

Teaching your closet to understand you also lends to sustainability. Because optimizing your closet contributes to a loved wardrobe that actually gets used to the full. And using our clothes to the full equates to a better planet.

-Alexis

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Do you think your clothes represent you? What issues have you had if you do not feel that way? Share your trial and error stories, as well as any questions, in the comments.