Reading Maneera's July update spurred me to post my own. I'll be out of town for the rest of the month, so today will pretty much wrap up the challenge for me.
Here's what I said I'd do in July:
1. Photograph daily outfits. I did this and it helped a lot!
2. Put together a travel capsule (mostly SYC) for the end-of-month convention. I'm packing based on the outfits I picked as my favorites each week. The convention is very casual and in a city that will be hot and humid for the duration, so no special purchases needed.
3. Post weekly round-ups to get a sense of my overall style. Here are weeks 1 and 2 and here's week 3. Hopefully, I'll be able to put together a week 3 collage today, after I photograph today's outfit. It's taught me a few things.
First, I'm happy with a small wardrobe. Even though I repeated clothing items often, I don't think I repeated a head-to-toe look all month (though that will change as I re-wear some favorites this week). I enjoy the simplicity of a slim, curated closet and like remixing pieces I love.
Unfortunately, I also learned that I'm not at all happy with many of the pieces I own, and I'm missing a lot of basics that would make it easier to get dressed each day. I've always been a careful shopper, but sometimes I buy so little and curate so much that I'm not keeping up with my own needs in terms of changing sizes and tastes. I don't need many clothes, but I do need enough. At the moment, I don't even own a real pair of jeans. I've made a list of essentials and have already ordered a few things to fill in the gaps.
4. Solicit feedback for help defining a style persona to guide my future purchases. I'm getting there. I still don't have any really solid style descriptors, but I do have a list of silhouettes to try on once school starts and I have a little more shopping time (that's in two weeks here!). I still wish I had a simple phrase to guide my purchasing, but I'll get there.