Wardrobe essentials

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Angie is co-founder of YLF and its resident fashion stylist.

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Wardrobe essentials

— by Angie

on February 5, 2008

I’ve written several blog entries suggesting the minimum number of items you need in different categories in order to have an efficient wardrobe that covers all the bases. Of course, these suggestions are just a starting point. You may find that your wardrobe functions better with more items in one of these categories. Look at the details in the individual blog entries and adapt the suggestions to your specific situation.

1-4 pairs of jeans. The number will differ depending on your lifestyle and your preferences. If you love jeans and wear them daily, you’ll need four pairs. If you seldom wear jeans, limit yourself to one fabulous pair.
2 dresses. One for day and one for night.
3 coats. This won’t hold true for warm weather locations, but it’s a must if you live in a country that has four seasons.
3 handbags. This requirement cuts across all lifestyles and age groups.
4 “everyday” bras and 10 “everyday” undies. This excludes sports bras and special occasion underwear.
6 pairs of shoes. This excludes slippers, workout sneakers, wellington boots and gardening clogs.

You will also need tops, camisoles, jackets, knitwear, more bottoms and accessories to put together stylish ensembles on a daily basis. It is difficult to specify quantities for these additional items because they depend on lifestyle, dress codes, body types, personal preferences, your local climate and travel requirements. If you are building a wardrobe of the bare essentials, however, the list above is a good place to start.

Closet Organization · Frugal Style

15 comments · Add a comment

Sarah

Thanks for posting this Angie. This is great for me, because I’m finding that I basically need to start from ground zero with my wardrobe and replace everything (a little at a time, as budge allows). My closet is full of baggy tops, baggy pants and jeans, and ankle length skirts. Not good for a little lady of 5’3”.

February 5, 2008 at 8:44 am

Nicole

I also think everyone should own a pair of black dress trousers. I couldn’t imagine getting thru a week of my life without them.

February 5, 2008 at 4:36 pm

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

I actually don’t own a pair of dressy black trousers. But I do own 2 pairs of black baby pinstripe trousers which are my version of “dressy black trousers”. I would therefore go as a far as saying that dressy black pants also fall in the unique wardrobe item category.

February 5, 2008 at 4:52 pm

Lynn

(website)

Oh my, are you serious? My two older teen daughters and I gape in unison. We could never function with that wardrobe. For one thing, it just doesn’t seem functional as a distinctively feminine wardrobe. My 18 year old doesn’t like jeans and hasn’t owned a pair for years, and my 16 year old and I have one pair each, which we wear mostly for housework or outdoorsy stuff. We each keep about eight skirts of varying degrees of dressiness, and these carry our daily wardrobes through all sorts of occasions. And I cannot imagine any woman getting by with only two dresses — we wear them everywhere!

We have nothing against pants; we simply feel more comfortable and more attractive in dresses and skirts.

February 5, 2008 at 9:24 pm

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

I adore dresses and skirts too and it’s music to my ears that you and your daughters enjoy wearing them. I encourage the wearing of skirts and dresses whenever I can. Unfortunately you are not in the majority and there are many women who prefer to wear pants over skirts and dresses for a multitude of reasons. Perhaps your comment will inspire them.

February 5, 2008 at 9:53 pm

Hannah Michelle

I’m pretty much in the same boat with Lynn. (Your daughters rock!) But I totally understand that we are in the minority and that for the typical woman today this is the kind of wardrobe they can look to build on. The rest of us just kind of have to pave our own way in what the essentials are for our particular wardrobes. It’s challenging at times, but it can be done! And I for one still find plenty of inspiration in Angie’s posts.

February 5, 2008 at 10:52 pm

i also don’t wear jeans, but what i find essential is having trousers/skirts/dresses of different weights. it’s usually pretty easy to find heavy weight trousers and lightweight dresses, finding summer trousers and winter dresses is more of a challenge. cardigans are also a wardrobe essential given office AC.

February 6, 2008 at 2:29 am

bifocalsandrippedjeans

I think it’s a great core wardrobe and the most minimal I’ve seen. As you can see, I’m a jeans devotee. So maybe I’m biased on that issue… But the black pants or something like are essential to me…I’d add a dark suit in a fabric that can both be dressy and be worn with the jeans. I’d get all 3 pieces – jacket, pants and skirt. It can be anything from evening wear to casual depending on the accessories. When I travel, I “build” my suitcase around one suit – black for the north and white linen for the tropics. It’s easy and versatile. It’s helped me pair down and pair down my wardrobe.

February 6, 2008 at 5:17 am

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

I’m impressed with how you get the most out of your wardrobe bifocalsandripped jeans. You have the need for a few suits and are putting them to great use. And it’s great to hear that you are adding accessories for evening occasions.

February 6, 2008 at 8:31 am

Meg from The Bargain Queens & All About Appearances

(website)

Angie, you know I’m a skirt/dress gal, but I’ll chime in again and say that dresses and skirts rock.

While I have a lot of jeans tucked away, there’s only one pair that I use, and that’s only been for band performances. For the same reason, I have a pair of black pants. Now, though, I’m planning to wear skirts for performances and have bought a denim skirt to more or less replace my jeans.

I have quite a few dresses, about 6 I wear regularly. They’re almost all jersey wrap (or faux wrap) dresses. I have quite a few skirts. Most are black, but I’ve found that gray skirts are the easiest for me to work with. I have one that’s brown, but it’s out of commission right now until I get it mended.

I have long black coat and my new fuchsia trench coat which I can’t yet wear closed. I have a lot of jackets and a few cardigans. While I don’t need coats often in Florida, there’s always some place that has the air conditioning set to 60 degrees when it’s hot out.

I guess I *could* cut back to 3 handbags: my fuchsia Longchamp bag, one of my purple clutches, and an equally colorful tote (maybe the purple/orange/pink argyle if it didn’t have gold hardware). (Plus maybe my huge beach bag tote which I’ve had to use way too much this semester.) I do have some neutral colored bags, but I hardly ever use them. My clothes are drifting more and more neutral, so my accessories can be bold and colorful.

Bras… I have quite a few, but mostly use two low cut ones, and two full coverage ones. In each case, one is beige, one is black. I have no clue how many undies I use regularly, but probably more than that since I don’t do laundry more often than I have to. Also, I need to get more modal ones from Target, because those are my favs.

Well, at least you’re not like my mom who thinks that all a gal needs is two pairs of shoes (she admitted to my husband that she could see how he needed his 4-5, though, so I don’t know how serious she was). Of course, many get by with one pair. I can’t seem to cut back any further on my collection of about 40 (not counting flip flops). I still have a few pairs in mind that I want to get. If you think that’s horrifying, you should have seen it before the great purge. I do wear them all, though. My style lately has been: basic clothes, awesome accessories. Works like a charm.

February 8, 2008 at 10:22 am

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Your wardrobe sounds like it works for you Meg and that’s great. If 40 pairs of shoes is how you like to mix it up with dresses instead of jeans then that’s fab! And you don’t *need* to cut down to 3 handbags. I have many more than that and use all of them all the time. I constantly run into people and clients who have only one, and it just doesn’t work, which is why I suggest a minimum of 3.

February 8, 2008 at 11:00 am

Smart reads for smart women

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[…] wardrobe essentials Angie lists the bare basics for any woman’s arsenal… how does yours […]

February 10, 2008 at 9:12 am

Emily

Hi Angie,

Thanks for this list! I wanted to add that people should consider tall, black, high heeled boots. I find that I can’t live without them! And for some reason I am more comfortable in them than just plain heels. I think it’s because they cover up more leg but still look chic! And they keep my legs warm during the winter! I do still love my heels and flats though!

March 27, 2008 at 7:57 am

Emily

Oops! I see that when I click on shoes you had knee high boots listed as an essential!

March 27, 2008 at 8:13 am

Katie

This is a fabulous post! I’ve been looking for something on true wardrobe basics – the bare minimum of a solid wardrobe – and all I’ve found are lists that include one pattered skirt and one solid skirt, a white button down shirt, or a suit. Those might be basics in some women’s wardrobes but they’re not true *essentials* that go for nearly everyone. I can take this list and the other tips on here and form my own basics list.

October 2, 2008 at 9:35 am

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