With hindsight, I can see that my mood heavily influenced my style. There was death and increased elder care responsibilities in 2021-2022 that precipitated depressed spirits. However, my mood lifted in 2023, when DH and I started travelling (for fun) - after a 3 year hiatus!

When I look at purchases made in 2022 (collection in Finds) the items are mostly navy and black! In 2023 (collection in Finds) early purchases were pale neutrals (golden beige, light blue, white) and I ended the year with colour (yellow! red! green!)

Although I don’t feel like I was working towards any specific goal, I did stay true to my practical, classic, minimalist roots and elevated casual style. With the addition of a few fun prints and recently more colour, I’ve reached a ‘happy’ place with my closet. The wear numbers are looking good, I haven’t bought anything new in almost 2 months, and I’m feeling very settled without the urge to ‘change things up’.

I won’t bore you with wear counts, but there were a few statistical take-aways: I wore dresses or skirts 4x more in 2023 than in 2022, doubled the number of times I wore the navy Lululemon joggers (paired with a jacket, they became my travel uniform) and new-to-me items (thrifted and gifted*)provided more happiness than any ‘new’ item I bought!

Below are 12 outfits representative of what I wore over the past 12 months, my colour story going into 2024 and in Finds (below) items with a high happiness factor acquired this year.

*special thanks to Joyce and nemosmom