April Analysis: My first wardrobe count

Although I've been reading many posts on minimal wardrobes, I don't think that's for me. However, I have no idea how often I wear things. So I decided to keep a simple tally of my daily outfits. Here's my findings for April which had high temperatures ranging from the 60's - 90's (F):

TOPS = 19 (14 prints + 5 solids)
11 items in neutral colors
Non-neutral = yellow/hot pink/turquoise/tomato red/deep purple/cobalt/hint of lilac
2 long sleeve/2 elbow sleeve/11 short sleeve/4 sleeveless

In warm seasons past, I have lamented that most of my tops were sleeveless and not enough sleeved options. Happy to see that I have acquired more short sleeve items.

I seem to be moving towards more neutral colored pieces but using prints to provide the happiness factor.

BOTTOMS = 13 (2 prints + 11 solids)

4 shorts/5 skirts/1 legging/2 skinnies/1 straight leg
5 denim items: skirt/2x skinnies/shorts/straight leg
9 items in neutral colors
Non-neutral = cobalt/orange/green/tomato red

4 skirts were worn for church, so I seem to wear shorts and jean options equally. Except for a denim skirt that I wore once, I rotated between 8 bottoms for everyday activities. This sounds quite minimal.

DRESSES = 2 (both solids)

A brown t-shirt dress for everyday and a black tank dress that I layered under a dressier top for church.

I would really like to find more casual, hot-weather-friendly dresses.

TOPPERS = 5 (all solids)

1 long vest/2 drape cardigans/1 boyfriend cardigan/1 knit moto

1 turquoise, rest neutrals

I love toppers as they help hide an apple belly and they really do add an extra finishing touch to an outfit. Unfortunately I live in a summer dominant climate.

SHOES = 8 (7 solids + 1 print)

3 dressy options: black pumps/black ankle strap flats/1 silver ankle strap sandals.

5 casual sandals

Black strappy flat sandals worn 10 times. Had a lot of kids' baseball games to attend.

New floral faux berkies worn 11 times. LOVE these. Looking at them makes me happy.

BAGS = 3

navy w/ white dots crossbody/black hobo/light denim tote

A busy month left me little time for bag swap outs.

NEW ITEMS (See Finds below)

I'm focusing my purchases on items that will serve me well in the heat.

The grey Target top has a nice drape.

I'm hoping the yellow stripe on the Style & Co tee will help draw attention away from the apple belly.

The scuba tee looks better IRL and this particular scuba material feels cool and soothing to the touch. I'm interested to see how far into the summer I can wear it.

Floral sandals have high happiness quotient!

I've worn this hat 4 times and it's cute with a side braid.

Thanks so much for reading all this. I'm excited to keep these monthly tallies going and see how the results will help me to reshape my wardrobe.

Macy's

Style&co. Petite Surf Spray Tee

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Top Pick

Macy's

Style&co. Printed Short-Sleeve Scuba Tee

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Top Pick

Target

Women‘s Bree Footbed Sandals

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Top Pick

Target

Merona Fedora Hat with Black Sash - Natural

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Top Pick

Target

C9 Champion Women's Performance Tee

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Top Pick

9 years ago

Dressing

12 replies

Latest reply was from Jeweled

TraceyLiz65

(website)

Veteran

a great analysis! Congrats on moving into pieces that work really well for you weather.
I am a die hard maximalist ( is that even a real word?) and proud of it...

9 years ago

Ledonna N.

Veteran

Oh I love to read detailed post. Taking the time to record what you wore is dedication. I looked at some of your older post and to me you have a great eye for style and proportions. What prompted you to look for a caspule? What will you do with the least worn items? Will you go and by multiple copies of the items that you wor most? What was your happiness factor when you wore the items? How do you think you looked in the item you wore the most?

9 years ago

Eva

Active Member

What a great idea! I love your breakdown and analysis of what you've worn.

"Proper" minimising is not for me either, but I equally don't want a wardrobe filled with clothes I don't wear. Perhaps I should try a count like this myself - it might also help me see where the gaps are as well, I keep wishing I had more long sleeved layers for instance. Hmm, food for thought!

9 years ago

Veteran

@Ladywone - Great questions!

My closet seems to get in a messy state very quickly due to excess and I'm getting quite tired of it. I hope that recording my actual wears will help me figure out what I actually need.

I live a very casual MOTG lifestyle, so items I wear the least will be evaluated as to whether they fill any type of need or else they will be donated.

I don't think I will buy multiple copies of highly worn items. I do hope identifying these will help me to figure out a sort of uniform/preferred silhouette that will help with shopping in the future.

This first month, I did not record the actual outfits, just kept a running list of how often I wore the individual pieces. For May, I will also make note of the outfit and how I felt about it. Thanks for the idea!

Please elaborate more on the the question "How do you think you looked in the item you wore the most?" Do you mean how did I come across to others (i.e.: presenting a certain style vibe) or if I just felt I looked good vs frumpy in it?

9 years ago

Anonymous

It's great that you're starting to track wears and purchases as well as counting up what you have. I only just started with purchase tracking last year and I've yet to have a go at keeping note of wears. I think your wardrobes sounds as though it's a nice moderate size and it sounds like it's serving you pretty well and a fair bit is getting worn regularly. Well done! The new purchases look really promising. I particularly like the scuba top design. Keep up the good work!

9 years ago

Ledonna N.

Veteran

Well let me just say we must be twins when it comes to our wadrobe having to much, to many. When I have to much it takes it's toll on me mentally and physically draining. I just did a huge purge again and I am determined it will be the last time. The rest is just to cull and maintain I did not document it because frankly I was ashamed of my excess and I needed to evaluate the whys behind all of it.

I have identified the whys now, I only documented the jewlery under the title of My precious.... The Purge. I had 5 bags that I took to the Salvation Army and to church friends. Of shoes, clothes, bags, travel bags, coats hats and jewelry. I am on a shop your closet sort of. I now have to ask myself key questions sort of like I asked you. I had a good try on session with everthing and I mean everthing it took me about 14 hrs the jewlery took 3 but I am so content with what I have now.

How do you think you looked in the item you wore the most?" Do you mean how did I come across to others (i.e.: presenting a certain style vibe) or if I just felt I looked good vs frumpy in it?

I was in the process of building a vacation caspule and I took pictures of what I wnted to take before I tried them on. These were items I had worn previously but, not photographed in. So seeing myself in the pictures was somewhat disappointing but I felt happy and thought I thought looked good in the outfit before the pictures were taken. After not so much.

So did you feel good? I'm not a compliment person meaning I need to feel and look good and comfortable to myself. yes, what was your style vibe for your outfits? Some people say that they want to be comfortable not stylish and some say they want to stylish and not comfortable. Do you want to be either or? Or both? And are you?

Oh did I mention I can be long winded.

9 years ago

Veteran

This was so interesting to read AJ! Thanks for taking the time to write it up; I always learn a lot from these types of posts, as I compare myself to the poster. hehe I remember those Texan summers well so commiserate with you on toppers not being that practical for your climate.

I find myself more drawn to prints in the warmer months too; I think they help finish off an outfit when layering is out of the question.

And it's interesting that your tops & bottoms ratio is so close! I've realised that I prefer variety in my tops; I like to have at least a 2:1 ratio and am even happier with 3:1. I'll rotate the same neutral bottoms without a qualm but get antsy when I don't have lots of blouses and sweaters to choose from. So weird but now I just go with it.

Good luck with your quest for some hot weather dresses! They make such a difference come July & August.

9 years ago

Veteran

@ladywone - Here at YLF, we welcome those who are long winded!

I've taken many an outfit photo, so I understand what you mean about thinking you look good in an outfit and seeing a different reality when you see the pictures.

You know, I've come to realize a couple of things from the whole outfit picture taking experience:

Everyone's got their flattering side. No matter the shape or size, some people look slimmer from a front view, and some from a side view. I prefer my front view and dress for that.
Even pictures of models are altered or we don't notice that behind their backs are a bunch of clothes pins making the outfit fit their shape perfectly. So I try to be less critical of my outfit's less than perfect fit and focus more on the style vibe.

A couple of years ago I came up with 3 basic style adjectives for myself: casual, feminine, fun. As I mentioned before, my lifestyle is very casual, but I do know that I don't feel myself in menswear/androgenous looks, so there has to be some feminine flavor. A lot of times that is taken care of by my curly, long hair. However, I do like to wear dresses and skirts and I wish I had more activities besides church to get dressed up. The fun element usually involves a print or statement jewelry or pretty shoes.

So I do usually feel stylish because I have my style adjective parameters. I don't mind sticking out and being a bit more dressier than my peers, but I still need to evaluate fit and figure flattery. Sometimes I still get proportions all wrong.

9 years ago

Ledonna N.

Veteran

Thank you for the info on taking pictures it is challenging also for the afirmation on being long-winded.
Church was also my time to get dressed up so I feel you. With taking pictures I never cosidered the element of proportions. I have activities in my life where i can wear what is consider dressed up to most. I still go to events and people ask me why I am dressed up when in my head I think it is an casual outfit. Not even sure if I ever thought of style adjective parameters. Have to research and ponder on that one.

9 years ago

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

A brilliant analysis.

AJ, you have always struck me as someone who wears skirts and dresses in the best super casual way. Rock on.

9 years ago

rachylou

Veteran

Very interesting. I'm thinking you're on a two-week cycle before you repeat in general...

9 years ago

Jeweled

Veteran

This is really interesting and helpful, AJ! Thank you for sharing the results of your wardrobe count.

I haven't started a wardrobe tracking system yet, so I'm very interested in all the different ways my fellow YLF'ers are doing that.

Right now my wardrobe is small enough that I can just look in my closet and know whether / how much each item has been worn.

I did an almost total closet purge last year, and have slowly been rebuilding my new wardrobe. I'm not into wardrobe minimalism per se (that is, I don't aim for a specific number of pieces) - but I don't want so many pieces that a lot of them wind up never worn.

I think that now, while my wardrobe is quite small, is probably the ideal time to start my wardrobe tracking system. I just need to decide on a system that will work well (and that I will stick to), being a non-math, non-statistics, creative thinker. LOL

After reading about your simple tally method, I think that might be where I'll start with tracking my wardrobe. Thanks again for generously sharing your method and results!

9 years ago

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