That special something

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Since the beginning of the year when I started to put more thought into my wardrobe and how and where I buy clothes, I've started thinking more about having special, unique items in my wardrobe. Once you get away from the high of impulse-shopping you start to see how wonderful it is to have a one-in-a-million garment or piece of jewelery you can hold on to for longer than a few months.

I used to love thrift shopping, going on a hunt for a gloriously amazing dress or skirt or boots that was worn in juuust right and didn't look a thing like any of the outfits I saw people wearing on a daily basis. I have made some amazing finds in thrift stores; from a oversize leopard print blazer to a beautiful printed floral & clocks sundress and much more. I still love thrift shopping, but somehow online shopping and fast-fashion has taken over my life over the past few years. Now, I'm definitely not a person who would only dress in clothing from thrift stores- but I think the best fashion comes when you mix it up, wearing new and old, stuff from the mall and Value Village and Ebay, wearing a garment or two that has a story behind it.

http://theclothes.blogspot.ca

There's something kind of depressing about looking through your wardrobe and only seeing polyester-elastane duds that are so spot-on trendy. Give me some weird clothing, something you can't find in the stores right now, a vintage statement ring, a woven leather belt... let's tell a story with our clothes.

blog.freepeople.com

Wardrobe Challenges

If you aren't ready to hop on the 5 Piece French Wardrobe bandwagon, there are many other ways you can maximize your wardrobe while coming closer to a better vision for the way you dress. For anyone who wants to rethink how they shop or downgrade their shopping habit, one of these wardrobe challenges could be up your alley.

PROJECT 333

To participate in Project 333, you need to choose 33 items of clothing, hide away the rest of your wardrobe, and only wear your 33 chosen items for 3 months. Basically, you will be creating a capsule wardrobe that you can wear for 3 months at a time before you can switch out to another 33 items (if you so choose). This challenge is about learning to live with less, and slowly removing and donating clothes you realize you no longer need or wear.

The 6 Items Challenge

The 6 Items Challenge is going to test your creativity and reliance on fast fashion by challenging you to choose 6 items of clothing and wear them over the course of lent (about 6 weeks). You read that right, the creators of this challenge want people to consider the way we shop today, raise awareness about the working conditions for garment workers around the globe, and decrease your reliance on fast fashion. (And don't worry, the 6 items don't include shoes, underwear, or work-out clothes). They'll be beginning the challenge this March and you can participate along with them on the blog.

30x30 Clothing Remix

The point of the 30x30 clothing remix is to create new and exciting outfits out of clothing you already own- 30 outfits with 30 garments, to be precise, and to not shop for 30 days while you take the challenge. This challenge was started by Kendi of KendiEveryday.com when she wanted to start shopping her closet instead of purchasing new clothes all the time. In this blog post you can see all 30 outfits Kendi created during her fifth time taking the challenge.

The Unworn Clothing Challenge
In a bit of a more easygoing approach, Janneke began this challenge by dumping all the clothing she hadn't worn in the past 6 months, and proceeded to wear only things from the pile for the entire 30 days. Any unworn clothing was donated at the end of the month. She has included cute drawings of all of the outfits she put together over her time doing the challenge. This would be a great one for anyone with a closet full of unworn clothes that still have tags on them.


After doing one of these challenges you may realize your closet has a lot more to offer than you once thought. I think there is a chance I might try the 30x30 Clothing Remix in the near future- I see a a lot of possibilities for creating some new outfit combinations I haven't put together yet.

Curating Your Wardrobe: how I began

I don't remember where I read about curating your closet the first time, but I do remember feeling as though I had had a revelation. The 'perfect' wardrobe had been elusive to me for quite some time- and I kept buying more and more, thinking that I was one purchase away from having the most enviable wardrobe in town. But I never arrived there. My closet ended up filled with poorly constructed garments from fast fashion stores, a few thrift store pieces I kept meaning to DIY, dresses that were too short that I promised myself I would wear because they were so cute (sometimes I did, but having to constantly make sure my crotch and ass were covered meant I never felt comfortable). Instead of buying a pricey piece I loved because I felt the cost couldn't be justified, I ended up spending the same amount of money on various items that I didn't really care about.

Somewhere in there I knew I wanted to be laid back, cool, and chic. And yet I was none of those things.

Closet Curation opened (a very polished and well sorted) closet door to the possibility that yes, the perfect wardrobe was in fact within my grasp. One of the very first websites I began reading about it was SortaCrunchy.net, where I learned from blogger Megan that:

• the curated closet is often edited
• the curated closet has a vision
• the curated closet shops with intention

and after that, Geneva Vanderzeil's blog A Pair & A Spare; with the blog post Wardrobe Rehab - 6 Steps To Your Perfect Closet:

1. Cull
2. Define Your Style
3. Gather Your Essentials
4. Organise Your Closet
5. Choose Color Palette
6. Focus Your Shopping (Quality over quantity)

Geneva goes into much greater detail with each of these steps on her blog. Seeing this all laid out in simple steps felt so exciting, and yet so calming knowing I could have a potential great wardrobe in the works, with less stress and anxiety about getting dressed each day.

In terms of the second step "Define Your Style"; I felt I had been doing that for years, but also while accumulating more and more that didn't stick to what I really loved. I feel that before you begin the 5 Piece French Wardrobe, you really need to define your style explicitly. How can you only buy 5 pieces each 6 months without knowing exactly what is going to work for you and your wardrobe?

I also feel like you really need to decide for yourself what your 'essentials' are. I've always been annoyed at those lists that tell you that you NEED to have a black pencil skirt, a white button down shirt, a black blazer etc etc (it's always the same list, wherever you go). But what if you don't need those things? What if they have no place in your lifestyle? You need to figure out what you need, what works for you, and not base it on what anyone else thinks you should have.

All in all, this should be a fun process, because in doing it you are getting closer to having a great wardrobe and closer to really personalizing your look. Go for it, with abandon!

The Journey Begins...

My journey began, sometime last year when I opened my overflowing closet and thought that I had nothing to wear.

Or maybe it began a few years before that, when I was hauling a trash bag (or two) to the thrift store every few months, and then popping in to buy a few more mismatched items.

Or maybe it was sometime in between then when I would try to recreate outfits I saw on style blogs using things I owned and realized none of my clothes worked together in fit or proportion.

I think over the past few years I had the idea that the more clothes I owned, the more creative I could be with my wardrobe. Anytime I want to create a whole new outfit, voila! There it is! I could go from a bohemian princess, to a punk rocker, to a chic and polished lady all in the span of a week just by changing my outfit.

It has slowly dawned on me that this is not the case.

Where I used to love getting dressed and putting together outfits, I started to become anxious and nervous- I needed to find the PERFECT outfit- there were many times when my floor and bed would end of covered in clothing (yet looking at my closet you didn't see a dent) trying to figure out what to wear; when I found a top that looked good, none of my skirts matched. I would decide to wear jeans, but they wouldn't go with the top. And on and on. And the amount of STUFF- clothes, accessories, jewelery- it was starting to stress me out. It was really messing up my zen. I used to get a kick out of putting together an outfit with pieces from all over including that one amazing "I found it at Value Village" scores; but now more often than not walking out the door in head to toe Forever 21 (boring!). Where was I going wrong?

And then I decided that I had had ENOUGH. It has taken me years to realize I am not content to be a clotheshorse, that I actually gain satisfaction from living on less. Last year I stumbled upon the phrase "curated closet", and had an a-ha! moment. I began unburdening my closet of various unworn, unloved garments with abandon. Since then I have read about the capsule wardrobe (no thanks...) and the French 5-Piece Wardrobe and have become event more committed to the task.

You guys, I think I may be a FAST FASHION convert. Here's hoping...

What is the 5 Piece French Wardrobe?

What the 5 Piece French Wardobe is:

1. Buying clothing with intention.

What the 5 Piece French Wardrobe isn't:

1. Dressing like a French person. (Beret optional)

French women are renowned for their timeless, effortless and chic sense of style, and shop completely differently from us North Americans. Instead of stocking up on fast fashion, they invest in clothing they will wear again and again over the years- things that speak to their sense of style and that will always be in style.

So in comes the 5 Piece French Wardrobe, meant to downsize your closet and upsize the quality of the garments you own. Here are the rules:

1. Basics don't count (a basic t-shirt is always allowed).

2. Accessories don't count. (personally, if I am spending a good chunk of money on an accessory I would count it in the 5)

3. Shoes do count.

4. Socks and underwear don't count.

5. Everything else counts.

The idea here is that you need to upgrade your basics, and over the course of 6 months only purchase 5 items to add to your wardrobe- these must be timeless, of good quality, and representative of your style.

Now for someone who considers shopping a sport, the 5 Piece French Wardrobe is a tough one. Instead of impulse buying everything in sight, I now have to stop, consider, and mull over each purchase I make (even the basics!). I am excited at the challenge yet partially fearful that I will fail miserably. The thought of opening a closet full of good quality pieces that feel special to me instead of a closet full of jumbled crap fills me with joy; and I will have to keep that in the front of my mind when those cheap n' trendy pieces start calling to me.