Week 5: The evolution of my wardrobe

So I have changed the name of this from wardrobe edit because it has become so much more.
I enjoy these posts from other people and have learned so much so I will keep posting my learnings.
On to what I learned this week:
1. The difference between casual, smart casual and my work wardrobe.
Casual - until 4 weeks ago I all but ignored and didn't have much - So this month has resulted in shopping to feel this gap - for the first time I actually shopped with a plan and not on impulse and it worked.

Smart Casual - What I were in the summer - because of summer hours and no students - A part of my wardrobe that basically does not exist. Again some shopping has happened to start filling in the gaps.

Work - Pretty much all my shopping the last couple years is for work clothes - Honestly I do work dress Monday - Thursday and Friday I aways tend more towards Smart Casual.

2. The difference between purge and edit. Editing my skirts is hard because 3 years ago when I finally decided to start buying quality clothes to match my position at work I made some shopping mistakes and those mistakes are expensive.

3. I have a shopping list I'm working on - It has already kept me from buying leather legging, black culottes, and several other things. I like to shop, but I want to make smarter choices

4. I'm trying to figure out what my repeat quotient is. This will help make some decision in my wardrobe. For instance I will have repeated my long grey sweater 3 times in a month and I'm okay with that - I actually think I could go up to 4 or 5 repeats of it at work and still fill okay.

5. I want to experiment with a wardrobe app so I can track how often I am wearing some of my clothes.

6. I am madly in love with my aquatalia short boots - They are everything they were cracked up to be - bring the rain and snow - 100% worth the purchase - Already have a pair of booties from them on my shopping list as the booties I want to purchase this winter. I am so much in love with them my uggs will mostly likely be retired (while I like them for the warmth the provide- they don't have enough support for my feet.)

Wow, that was a long list - this was a week of may revelations - also a week were I felt that I got all my outfits right and felt wonderful going to work each day and have felt great in my weekend clothes.

9 years ago

Suz

(website)

Veteran

It sounds as if you are making amazing progress, frannieb. Brava!

Are your Aquatalias from the NAS? And are they booties or the short Sweetie moto boot? I got the Sweeties. Have not worn them yet but know they will be a super useful item come the sloppy weather.

Alana in Canada

Great insights. I am so glad it is helping you be more intentional with your purchases. Way to go!

kkards

Yes, it's hard to purge the expensive mistakes. I think I keep them to remind myself not to stray to far from my core comforts.
And like you,a couple of years ago I realized that I had completely ignored the casual part of my wardrobe and focused totally on the work part. So Of course to fix that I went completely overboard on the casual part. I think since I've joined YLF I've started to balance that out. And I've become better at not buying for my fantasy life,but I've still not mastered the list. Good for you for finding, and employing so much wisdom!

Go Frannie! Sounds like the process will be so helpful to your future shopping too.

Alassë

Good for you, and thanks for keeping us updated!

frannieb

Thanks everyone one This process is helping realize what a impulse shopper I am - which is why I ended up with a wardrobe full of great pieces but didn't feel like any of it worked together.

Suz the boots I have are from the NAS so they are the sweetie short boot. They are exactly the same height as my black uggs which I have gotten tons of wear from and I have found to be a wonderful height for pants and skirts. I seriously cannot wait to wear these babies. I agonized over them because of the cost but they really are beautiful and will be all that and some in the winter.

lyn67

Ha, I loved to read your thoughts, as I was going through almost all your learning steps here for myself, too. I also am bad at editing/letting go the costly mistakes, and I am still agonizing over my wardrobe items and numbers (I even had a thread about all these not long ago) so I can say, it's very enlightenning to aknowledge the number of repeats you can tolerate in a season. Thanx for posting this, it's always great to see how others evolve in their style and decissions.

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