Do you have an outfit schedule? - YouLookFab Forum

Category

Dressing

About: Daily Outfit Variety and Your Style

Welcome! Read about what to wear and how to wear it on the YLF Blog. Join the YLF Forum to ask specific questions or just chat about fashion and personal style. Or check out the curated list of things we love in YLF Finds.

Outfits Ensembles Trends Advice

Do you have an outfit schedule?

trekkiegirl

Veteran

Because I do! It was something that I started a couple years ago, when I noticed that I had worn the same pair of pants with the same sweater 3x in one month. At that point, I decided to simply start alternating pants/skirts/pants/skirts then jeans on Friday, with dresses included in the "skirt" portion.

Now that my wardrobe has expanded significantly (and is in the process of being culled and refined), I've created a schedule to make sure that I wear a variety of outfits each week to satisfy my craving for such and to make sure I don't fall into a rut. It goes:
Monday - dresses
Tuesday - pants
Wednesday - jacket/blazer
Thursday - skirt
Friday - personality (this was kind of a free day, initially meant to wear something more offbeat or unique, but I am finding it's more of a pants day than anything more specific since I already feel that many of my outfits fall into the "unique" category)

Each day, anything can be combined with the required item, as long as that one piece is included.

When I first began, I sorted all my clothes into categories hanging in the closet: pants, skirts, dresses, button downs, knit tops, cardigans, pullovers and jackets/blazers. Jeans were separate, folded in drawer, as were leggings and layering tank tops. As I wore each item, I then placed it to the far right hand side of my closet space.

I've now gone through all of my pants and dresses, but not all the tops - of any kind - or skirts or blazers/jackets.

I'm thinking that I should either: expand on the outfit type, and be more specific i.e. "dresses with a cardigan" vs "dresses with a jacket" or "pants with a pullover" vs "pants with button down" etc... or maybe I should start working on capsules, which I feel even though I have read a multitude of posts on, I have no idea where to start.

I'm not sure what I hope to gain from this post... I guess I'm just rambling.

Dressing

26 replies

Latest reply was from Runcarla

trekkiegirl

Veteran

Oh! I remember now: What methods do you employ to make sure you are wearing the amount of variety you are happiest with?

Suz

(website)

Veteran

Great question. I don't have a schedule per se, because I pretty much dress by mood and weather. But I am doing three things that help me ensure that I'm getting (at least some) variety. (Sometimes the weather interferes and I'm stuck with FFB).

1. Track actual wears with paper/ pencil. I just keep a simple chart. I'm not really in any danger of "forgetting" what I have because it's all very visible in my closet. But looking at the paper, I might think of a combination I haven't tried, or remember that I really enjoyed such-and-so piece last time I wore it.

2. Take photos. I don't take a picture absolutely every day, but almost.

3. Join in with challenges here. I joined Alaskagirl's "silhouette" challenge in November and it was brilliant for me! Others joined in with Ingunn's January doldrums challenge. That was fun for them, too.

One more thing: Bottoms are the silhouette that it is hardest for me to vary in mid-winter. So I make absolutely sure to get some wears of my flares and wide legs when the ground is dry!

retailgirl

Veteran

I don't have a strict schedule like yours, but I do keep a spreadsheet with what I wore. At work, we have meetings on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I usually wear a jacket those days. On Fridays, it's jeans day, but I don't wear jeans, so I wear khakis or more casual pants with a sweater or more casual top. Right now, with this awful northeast weather, I am trying to get a few wears out of my more wooly or wintery things.

rachylou

Veteran

I have trouble going the other way. My instinct is to never repeat, but really good ideas should be (!)

Anonymous

ROFL no I don't.

AM

Veteran

Love your technique. Simple but gives you a little challenge. Great stuff.
As I am newly devoting more attention to my style and my wears -- this is good food for thought. I'm going to adopt something, just not sure what yet.

E

Veteran

Wow. I dress according to my mood, the weather, and any events I'll be doing that day, so I would feel crazily hemmed in by a schedule like that! I'm glad it works for you though.

I don't really force myself to vary clothes (except shoes as I read shoes last longer if you switch pairs vs wearing the same one several days in a row): as long as I still love a piece and my closet fits it, that's reason enough for me to keep it. And I spend most of my time at home and live alone; unless I post pics here, most people are only going to see my outerwear when I'm walking. So I don't really have any internal or external pressures to force variety. Instinctively I remix though, so I don't wear the exact same combos very often. And I have a bigger closet (around 200ish I think), which is full of stuff I love, so that automatically pushes me towards more variety.

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

Oh. That's a fun way to dress throughout the week. Why not.

I have absolutely no outfit schedule. It all happens when I stare at my wardrobe after my morning shower and pick and choose.

Elizabeth P

Veteran

I'm way too dependant on weather, schedule of the day, and mood. I can't even plan an outfit the night before, as the weather and probably my mood will have changed overnight.

But I did enjoy using a modified version of Unas challenge in November to make sure I changed things up a bit. It worked well, and I may do it again if and when I feel bored and am depending too much on ffbo's.

gradfashionista

(website)

Veteran

What a great system to distribute wear. I don't take photos of my outfits, or log, because I spend all days at home writing, and feel like that doesn't count. But I I think your system would be easiest for me to follow, and a good way of forcing oneself out of the comfort zone, metaphorically and literally, ie jeans and a zip-up sweatshirt.

shipskitty

Veteran

No I don't have a plan like that.

I do try not to wear the same accessories as the day before (shoes & necklaces specifically) and I try to change up the dresses a bit between days. For example I have two black work dresses but I would not normally wear them one after the other. I have two floral dresses but again even though they are a different floral I generally try to space them out and wear other dresses in between to create more variety. But I might well wear the same jacket two days in a row over the top...

I have pre-planned my outfits in the past but now, particularly with my work wardrobe, it pretty much just 'works' so I can be lazy and just choose a dress, shoes, necklace/scarf and a topper (or layers of toppers if it is autumn/winter) and go.

Quietgirl

Veteran

I agree with Suz, the silhouettes idea has been a good way to encourage variety. Unfortunately, this has been a snowy period in my neck of the woods so unless I want to wear skirts and boots, I am stuck with skinnies for now.

(I am not in a daily work environment)

I am using the Stylebook app to record what I am wearing so I can look at the Stats of what I haven't worn. (It IS a lot of work to set up but I love it now that it is finished.)

trekkiegirl

Veteran

I suppose it is a rough equivalent of "outfit planning" now that I think about it. But if I based my outfits solely on mood and weather, I'd end up wearing the same 3 outfits pretty often lol. Black, black and more black. Maybe some purple if my mood was a bit more adventurous. Not because I'm depressed or anything like that, it's just so easy and I know black looks good on me. But I like the idea of going along with a challenge, and I do mean to sometime.

celia

Veteran

Makes perfect sense. I don't keep a formal schedule but try to change my outfits on a regular base. I do this more on the account of my sanity than any external factor( I work with men who couldn't care less if I wore the same outfit for the entire week, or maybe not, you never know).
There are items that are more practical to wear but not so flatering. Sometimes if I wear pants for too long I start to feel a bit butch, so I change to a skirt or dress the next day.

Anonymous

Okay, now I understand where you're coming from. It's just that I like color and variety, so I don't really have a need to keep track of what I'm wearing or make a schedule of what to wear. I can see where having the inclination to wear a certain color all or most of the time (black in your case) would create a situation where you're seen wearing the same outfits all or most of the time. I don't know what you have in your closet, but if you have mostly black, is there a way to create outfits that have black in them (to satisfy your desire to wear black) yet are colorful and cheerful? I'm just trying to think of an easy way to create the variety you feel you need without having to resort to using a spreadsheet. Hmmm...

Windchime

Veteran

I jot down my outfts almost every day in Evernote, along with any notes I want to remember about them.

Your question brought back a childhood memory, though. For a period of time in elementary school, I had a very routinized system. Every morning I wore the dress hanging at the far right of my closet. After school, when I changed into "play clothes," I would hang the dress on the other end of the closet and thus cycle through all my dresses evenly. I called it my "dress line." I would make exceptions for special days, such as school pictures or my birthday, and pick my current favorite to wear.

Funny, I remember that some days I'd be kind of bummed about what was at the front of the line but make myself wear it anyway, thinking for some reason that everything should receive equal wear. Other days, when my favorites came up, I was excited to get dressed.

Too bad I didn't know about Happiness Factor and culling back then!

trekkiegirl

Veteran

But I LIKE spreadsheets haha

Mary Beth (formerly LBD)

(website)

Veteran

No... but this reminds me that several years ago, I used to do something I called 'Rockabilly Thursdays", where I dressed in retro pin-up-inspired or rockabilly-inspired outfits and tried to do one fun thing, such as listen to some Brian Setzer or other modern swing, or watch an Elvis movie or something.

I may have to bring that back once the weather gets warmer. It was so much fun to do!

trekkiegirl

Veteran

Well darn... I had a much longer response typed up and that's all that posted

milehighstyle (Linda)

Veteran

I have a pretty varied wardrobe - color, pattern, and silhouette-wise. I think I do a good job of getting all my things into the rotation, but I'm one of those people who needs a lot of variety so I don't find myself grabbing the same things over and over again. I'm more like, what haven't I worn in a while? But I rely mostly on my memory so I like your ways of organizing your items to make sure nothing gets missed.

I'm probably opposite of most fabbers, where I have to force myself to wear pants every once in awhile because I feel best in skirts and dresses (tights and hose don't bother me so cold weather doesn't deter me unless it's seriously arctic, which happens maybe one week out of the year). So I'll sometimes make sure I include at least one pant outfit in the week.

Joy

Veteran

I have a loose system. First, I always wear a dress or skirt to Sunday mass and if we go out to dinner, a play or symphony performance.
Monday, Wednesday and Fridays I have set events where I need to be able to sit on the floor and wear a MOTG outfit or casual with a touch of dressed up.
Tuesday and Thursday may be casual stay-at-home or shopping and appointment days. Saturday is usually casual.
I also may change clothes 2 or 3 times a day to accommodate exercise, dog walking, etc. I have been breaking my days into 3 sections as I track what I wear. If a pair of jeans gets worn all day, it gets 3 hash marks. If I change into them after Mass but then change again for dinner, they get one mark.
I am also wearing more items by dividing my wardrobe into 6-8 mini seasons rather than 3-4 large ones. This gives me a smaller closet to pick from each day. Within those perimeters, weather and mood will affect what I pick each day. So will inspiration from Angie's blog and the Forum. I have been happy with this system, but have only been at it for about a year.

trekkiegirl

Veteran

Windchime - that's a great idea. I may start something similar.
I think I should really start evaluating the Happiness Factor in outfits and use that as a guide more often.

Helena

Veteran

I don't have a plan like that for clothes, but I think it's a fantastic idea - I use a similar technique in other areas (e.g. cooking) and it makes life SO much easier, while still allowing for plenty of variety within parameters. Thanks for sharing this!

unfrumped

Veteran

No set schedule because workdays vary in activities. So it's more, hours on feet, who I'm seeing, that sort of thing driving WIW.

Caro in Oz

Veteran

I generally do what Angie does - something usually says "pick me". The only time I plan is if I'm catching an early flight that's when I have an outfit laid out the night before.

For me until I knew what I really wore it was difficult to rotate through my clothing. I started tracking my wears & how I felt in each outfit in April/May last year & it has given me great clarity about what I need to be buying. It also allowed me to let go of the things that didn't work - even ones I theoretically loved. Since then I've been creating capsules for all the different areas in my life. So far it seems to be working for me

Runcarla

Veteran

Since I don't have a lot of time in the am, I have a Sunday pm routine of making up a capsule for the week. I move the capsule items to one end of my closet and mix and match from the capsule. I tend to do colour themes.

This week was cobalt and green in honour of DH's beloved Seahawks.

-cobalt skirt
-black ponte trousers
-jeans (for casual Friday)
-blue and white striped button down
-cobalt and black mariner
-Apple green sweater
-green and blue plaid button down

Next week I think I will play with black, white, gray, and yellow.

This post has 1 photo. Photos uploaded by this member are only visible to other logged in members.

If you aren't a member, but would like to participate, please consider signing up. It only takes a minute and we'd love to have you.