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Essentials: I do believe I’ve got it.

Stagiaire Fash

Veteran

The “essentials” post always messes with my head. I know what statements are, and basics, but not the stuff in between. I think I’ve finally figured out why—“essentials” are not the background pieces I thought. They are the supporting actors, not the bit players and extras in the background. According to the blog post linked up above (grey bar), the categories, in order of how much attention they grab, are 1. basics, 2. completers, 3. essentials, and 4. statements.

Knowing the correct order tells me that my wardrobe has far too many essentials for me to list here. I rarely wear a flashy, attention-getting statement piece. My moto jacket and combat boots are statement pieces, and my pink puffer vest might be as well, but that’s about it. On the opposite extreme, I don’t have many nameless completer “extras” either. My leggings and tights all have identities—heather blue cable, fleece-lined burgundy, etc. They are chosen as carefully as any other piece of an outfit, and are seen just as much. The Intimissimi tops I just posted about are also part of an outfit, because they are clearly visible. I think this pic of me wearing a white one is the only photo of them I have so far. I also wear them with cardis, similar to how I’m wearing this T-neck. I think pretty much everything I wear is an essential (or basic).

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Dressing

44 replies

Latest reply was from Stagiaire Fash

Anonymous

Not sure about this, as I see you as having a pretty statementy wardrobe, as opposed to a lot of classics/quiet pieces. An eclectic mix, like Shevia's! Are there pieces that if they wore out you'd need to replace them with same or similar to make outfits?

SarahD8

Veteran

Hmm. That metaphor is confusing to me. I thought completers were meant to be in between essentials and statements in terms of eye catchiness. Like a white button down would be an essential, a paisley button down would be a statement, and a lavender button down would be a completer (not "quiet" enough to be an essential but not attention grabbing enough to be a statement).
Fwiw I think my wardrobe has a lot of completers (by the definition I gave above) and yours might too.

Runcarla

Veteran

Looking through your outfit posts I see black long sleeved t’s, black bottoms - pants and tights, and black footwear grounding your more colourful berry outfits, as well as the busier geometric or colourful patterned garments. You might include your gray?/black? pinny since it comes close to a ‘one and done’ item. Maybe white or cream tops as well. Though you wear coloured outerwear, you also have black outerwear that ‘calms down’ some of your more hectic outfits.

I see you as a more maximal dresser than I think you see yourself! Your colour choices might be subdued when compared to - say Angie - but you do layer a lot of colour in your outfits, and pattern mix as well. There’s a lot going on in the photos you posted above! It seems (to me anyway) that given a choice, you prefer embellishment, pattern, and texture over ‘plain’. For example recent shoes (cutouts and studs), bags (floral motif) and tights (sparkles) under consideration for purchase or aquired. NOTHING WRONG WITH THIS! Essentials just make up a smaller proportion of your closet, and you have to work harder to put cohesive outfits together.

I would submit that your wardrobe strategy (keeping a heritage closet) means that you have more statement items, because they get worn less frequently, so don’t wear out. Essentials get worn out because you unconsciously reach for them for the role they play at being the ‘glue’ of the outfit. However, essential items aren’t FUN to shop for, whereas statements are. If you don’t budget for/acquire the essentials, but keep on acquiring statements - you ‘feel’ like you’ve got lots of clothes, which you probably do - however successful outfit creation can be very, very challenging.

Folks with essentials rich closets probably enjoy the calming affect of a cohesive minimalist closet where everything goes with everything - but then they wonder where the ‘spark’ is. This isn’t just about neutrals vs colours either. A neutral coloured garment can be a statement through embellishment, construction and other details. Jokes about red or leopard being ‘a neutral’ aside, colourful garment, no matter how elemental, or simple the design, can’t really be wardrobe essentials.

rachylou

Veteran

I think the thing about essentials is that they’re personal... a bit of a moving target. For example, for me, stripes are an unexciting essential that I use to bridge loud and opposing pattern. But for a person who’s into quiet neutral solids, stripes could become their statement item. I see your floral shirt as a completer and the red boots as a statement in the above pic. The cream top and brown pants I’d chalk up as essentials.

Christina F.

Veteran

I struggled with this concept too at first and I realized it was related to the fact that I lacked enough essentials for al my statements. (Not saying that you have the same problem, mind you.) I think suntiger’s question crystallizes it best. I also think of it like “glue,” as runcarla does.

I also agree with rachylou that one person’s essentials are another’s statements. Confusing!

Stagiaire Fash

Veteran

Sarah, here’s the complete quote, from the article linked above “If your wardrobe is a movie set, the lead actors are the statement pieces, the supporting actors are the essentials, the film crew and the director are the basics, and all the extras in the background are the completers.”

I suppose we could argue, if we wanted to, about whether a patterned corduroy miniskirt was a statement piece, or if red suede boots are. I’d rather not do that. We can talk about statement pieces another day.

The point of this post is sorting out the difference between essentials and completers. There is always lots of talk about essentials and basics, but not about completers. Coming at it from the opposite direction, instead of starting with the category and looking for things to put in it, I’ve got the stuff and am looking for the name of the category. Most of your blood isn’t platelets or white cells or any of those action things. Most of it is plasma. I’m looking for the word for the wardrobe equivalent of plasma.

Carla, thanks for chiming in See RL and Christina’s comments about this: “colourful garment, no matter how elemental, or simple the design, can’t really be wardrobe essentials” or just look at any of Angie’s posts about essentials—she makes it clear every time that there are no hard and fast defining lines like you want to impose. So things aren’t essentials simply because of their shade. I do have some black, but looking at the roundup of WIWs in my goals post (which I think is a truer representation of what i wear than things I’ve thought about buying over the past year are), I think I wear it like a color. Same with jeans—for me, they aren’t the simple background canvas they are for many other people. I’m raising my eyebrow about “jokes” about red and leopard as neutrals too, when you look at the role they play in some people’s wardrobes. Also, I had to take a minute to figure out what floral bag you were talking about, because the pattern on the little leather waist pouch is so beside the point. I’m looking for one just like it in every other way but that (and price).

Back to the main point, I think part of the problem is that I don’t understand the thing about items you just can’t get dressed without. That just doesn’t make sense to me. My actors all have names,

Synne

Veteran

RunCarla is right on the money here with her thoughtful comment. This also applies to me, as I am also a maximal and eclectic dresser. I am still not sure what my essentials would be, but it's maybe easier to see it in others wardrobe. Based on your many wonderful WIW I'd agree your essentials are your long sleeved tees, tights, various boots, perhaps scarves. To ground and complete your outfits with your many fun statement skirts, dresses and jackets. A completer would be, say, a belt or a hat? To, you know, finish the outfit off for an actual day in the real world and the climate one have? The last part I'm not sure about though, so don't quote me on that

rachylou

Veteran

I pretty much freak out every year trying to remember what an essential is. It’s a very technical term on YLF.

It has a general dictionary definition that’s synonymous with basic. It’s often used, for example, in magazines to describe society’s minimum code for ‘universal’ acceptable dress (‘basically’ (haha!) you can go everywhere and do everything in a black skirt, black pumps, white shirt, and tan trench coat... be a maid and/or show up in court). And it’s distinctly neither of these two things here at this time of year (lol)... but my mind constantly wants to slip over to both of them.

One of the things I do to trick my brain into focus is to tell myself it’s a STYLE essential. It’s ‘what you need to get dressed’ in terms of actualising your STYLE. It’s not, for example, what I need to not get arrested... and I have to tell you, I am a person who gets bored because ‘I wear the same thing over and over’ because I... put on a top and bottom every day! Lol.

... sorry, I digress. I just wanted to tell you about my problems...

Jenni NZ

Veteran

Ha Rachylou you add some amusement to the discussion!
To me now FashIntern, they are the things that you want to replace with something very similar because you do have trouble making outfits without that item. I re-bought 2 things out of the 12 I bought in 2020 that were like that. For black ponte pants, they were in the holding zone because getting very scrappy leather patches on the bottom part of the legs, could only wash the top part of them in a bucket and would cost more than I had paid in the first place to dry clean, so I wouldn’t do that. But I pulled them out to wear under a mini length red winter dress. After that wear I thought no, they look scrappy and must go to clothes recycling, but I must have such a thing- which I found, black slim biker pontes.
And with white cropped summer pants, they are so crucial that I didn’t edit out the old ones until after a lot of looking I found a replacement. Certain summer tops really need white pants!
So I seriously couldn’t get dressed with that red dress or the certain tops unless I had those things. And there are other things that just do not look right in certain combinations without a particular jacket or cardigan which are often either black or white/cream depending if winter or summer.

Stagiaire Fash

Veteran

Synne, yes! ls Ts, tights, and boots are exactly what comes to my mind when I think about this category. I have far too many of them to list. What part of Carla’s comment are you referring to? As you can see, I wrestled with some of the turns. I guess an invisible belt would be a completer, but I don’t have any.

Rachylou, you are funny. It sounds like I’m overthinking the whole thing. But seriously, this essentials vs completers thing, can you help with that?

Jenni, I guess that’s the advantage of a larger wardrobe. I want to keep the berry level up, but can’t think of any item that I would run out to replace it it died.

rachylou

Veteran

I secretly think of completers as items that are interesting but not *that* interesting. They add visual interest but are ultimately ignorable. So like in your second pic, I think your pink sweater is a completer. It’s not a neutral colour, but it doesn’t compete with the skirt either for attention. At the same time it adds a lot to the whole outfit, makes it richer, more dimensional if you will.

But this of course is a complete shot in the dark...

Synne

Veteran

Are you asking what part of the comment from Carla I agree applies to your style? Maybe this is a language thing, so please ignore if I am misinterpreting you

I agree your style is far more maximal and statement'y than you maybe think. Your quote: "

I rarely wear a flashy, attention-getting statement piece." I whole heartily disagree! (And I see several others mention the same thing). But this is good! I think you have a fab and fun and fearless style. I'd even dare use the words funky, bohemian, urban, artsy, Woodstock princess. I don't see many essentials in your wardrobe at all. And the same goes for me. I can't figure out what they would be, how I would use them. And this is a major missing puzzle as to why I feel there's something lacking when I am styling my outfits, although my wardrobe is bursting at the seams with clothes.

I think Jenn is onto something, and I will also inspect StyleFan's list of essentials more closely, as they have some overlap to my desired style. Note that they vary greatly from Angies list of essentials (and Suz and Runcarla and others with similar Classic style) .

And to add, I see your black oversized moto as quite the statement piece. Agree your black boots could be considered essential to your style.

The only thing I would add to Carlas comment is that colorful garments CAN be essentials. For you, berry colours are the essential palette. As navy blue and cream are for Angie. Now, if you ever got your hands on an over-sized, berry coloured moto..... hm... Then I would need to reconsider!

Stagiaire Fash

Veteran

Thanks Synne, I think we are on similar wavelengths there. About berry as an essential—that was a question in my post on this last year where several people said a color can’t be essential and Angie jumped in and said that yes, in my case it is. That’s what I mean about rules really not working. I think Carla was saying that nothing colorful can be a statement, not commenting on a color itself as essential. It makes me laugh that people see my clothes as having “pow” but it is apparently so—they are statements. The two statements are two you suggested are of the three I listed as statements (and the third was just “maybe” anyway)—I think we are largely in agreement. But now I’m thinking further about the idea that I have mostly statements. That would explain why I wouldn’t necessarily replace an individual item if something happened to it, because statements are always unique and individual.

RL, looking at that sweater—maybe it is an essential, but then because of the color, rather than the shape. I’m thinking of getting a chunkier cropped ice pink cardi with some kind of big sleeves that don’t get in the way, like lantern sleeves with long wrist bands or a little puff at the top. So I want a short pink cardi, but it doesn’t have to be just like that one. It’s sort of in-between a supporting actor and an extra, like “break dancer on pier” or “Starbucks customer #4”. That’s more of a defined role than being one of 20000 fans in a basketball aren; but certainly still replaceable.

ETA. That conversation was 2 years ago—I’m a slow learner, lol. https://youlookfab.com/welookf.....tial-thing

On silhouettes—I like structure with swing. So if I wear a short skirt, it shows structure in my legs, but is unlikely to be tight. With body-con tops, I’m likely to wear looser toppers or swooshy skirts. But I’m not sure if that counts as part of my style—I think of it as a general rule of thumb.

SarahD8

Veteran

Oh yeah, I read the quote! What I was trying to say was that before reading it I thought I had a good handle on the different categories, but the theater metaphor really upended that understand and made it more confusing. Kudos if you had the opposite experience though.

Anyway, I had decided that the essentials concept isn't actually all that useful to me in managing my wardrobe (not that it's bad, just horses for courses) and I wasn't going to get wrapped up in this discussion this year. So I should probably bite my tongue!

nemosmom

Veteran

I am another who sees your wardrobe as mostly statements, but I suck at this exercise every year

The whole thing gets very muddy in my mind. I see burgundy as a neutral, so if you have a lot of berry in your wardrobe, I would think burgundy essentials would count, but not pink or purple. Tights feel like basics to me. Again, I suck at this, so take my comment with a giant grain of salt!

Stagiaire Fash

Veteran

Sarah, lol. No—I didn’t feel like it cleared much up for me at all. The main thing it showed me is that I had the categories wrong, at least the two in the middle. That’s why I said the two “outer” ones are clear to me (even if other people want to say the same items would work differently for them) Also like you, I don’t see how putting the correct labels on our wardrobe pieces yields clarity, especially when the same item can be categorized differently by different people, and there is no magic proportion of each category a person “should” have in their wardrobe. So why am I doing it? I guess I can’t stand not catching on. Also, I thought that post that introduces the fourth, rarely discussed, category might be helpful to me and also to other people who are trying to figure this out, for whatever reason.

Nemosmom, thanks for commenting!

Christina F.

Veteran

I also think it's okay if you find that the way you think of your wardrobe doesn't correspond with Angie's definitions. I think she would say that's okay, too. Given your approach to your wardrobe, maybe having them all be "named actors" works!

I agree that "completer" is the hardest for me to sort out, maybe because I have SO FEW of them. I will ponder it when I'm reunited with my clothes. I think completer are probably most of what went into storage

Stagiaire Fash

Veteran

Christina, if I knew I didn’t want to think of my wardrobe the way Angie does, that would be one thing. But so far it’s just that I don’t get it. Maybe there is a thing that would be really good, if I just understood how all this works. I know she usually does annual basics and essentials posts, but I really can’t recall her doing one just on completers (and the site doesn’t allow searching the archive on a phone). Lots of people seem to be commenting on various posts that essentials have to be the classic neutrals and devoid of pattern. I’m pretty sure that’s not it. But if we keep commenting, eventually she’ll see this and say something, I hope.

LaPed

Veteran

I get stuck too, and like SarahD8 I'm kind of sitting out the essentials discussion this year because I'm not convinced the exercise helps me create the wardrobe I want. I could say I "need" black jeans or striped tops, but even if every pair of black jeans and every breton in the world disappeared overnight, I'd still get dressed the next day and manage to look like myself. If I get too fixed on "needing" to have certain items in certain cuts and colours, I end up buying placeholders and having pieces just because they tick boxes, if that makes sense. Because to be honest, most black jeans and striped tops won't work out, even if they are abstractly "my style". And it's better to have the right blue jeans and the right plaid top than the wrong black jeans and the wrong striped top... And then, like Rachylou, suddenly I'm just putting on a top and a bottom every day, but at least it's the right top and the right bottom!

Runcarla

Veteran

*comment withdrawn*

rachylou

Veteran

The pink could be an essential if you want another... I take that as a sign. I’m a clear maximalist and I think that made it much harder to sort out the essentials thing. White sweaters, until covid, were on my essentials list, but it took me a long time to see they belonged there. Almost all of my clothing has something unique about it, some detail or embellishment that *could* possibly classify it as a statement for someone. But in the case of the white sweaters, it eventually became clear through the sheer number of them, that I reached for white sweaters a lot. They outnumbered all other colours. Of course statements can be workhorses, but it wasn’t that I reached for the same white sweater. In my closet the special details were not really that important as to why I used them.

I think that’s probably the other thing about completers... if you have a lot of clothes like me, I’m thinking one doesn’t reach for completers as much as essentials. If you have a small closet and everything comes out often... that would make it hard to decide in my mind...

...yes, I’m thinking that completers are bit speaking parts... soloists, almost but not principal dancers... wait, what’s the fourth category? Argh! I’ve forgotten again! Wait again! I remembered: ok, how about Principals are the Statements, Soloists are the Completers, the Corps de Ballet are the essentials, and the off stage folk are the basics? Can you tell I got a subscription to the covid online season of the SF Ballet for Xmas? It started last week

Stagiaire Fash

Veteran

Rachylou, is that the order? The corps de ballet is what I started this post for, trying to figure out if that’s completers or essentials. Aren’t those dancers more like extras and soloists more like supporting roles? In that case, the corps would be essentials, wouldn’t they? In the threads I’ve seen, Angie lists them the same way she did in the one I linked to at the start of this page—basics, essentials, statements, completers. I don’t think that’s intended to show function, think it’s just the order they fall into because completers are the “oh yeah” category.

Carla, what’s up with the tone? In the thread you linked to, I said the same thing I have here—for me, black is a color.

nemosmom

Veteran

LOL Rachy! I will start referring to my bras and undies as "stagehands"

rachylou

Veteran

Wait. I’m so confused. Didn’t I make the Corps essentials? Lol. I need a head in hands emoji... or a wrist to forehead one...

ETA: In my mind is the fact that the season opener was Midsummer Night’s Dream... the whole second act is an add-on to make the ballet... complete, to give dancers a dance... lot of soloist parts in my mind are just thrown in there... ok this metaphor won’t stretch that far... it’s a big cast, some soloists are essential to the story... not all, but some... and there’s a principal part in the second act that is very beautiful and completely out of left field...

rachylou

Veteran

Lol, nemosmom! Now I’ll have to as well...

cat2

Veteran

Hey LP, it sounds like your essentials include black jeans and plaid shirts? An edgy puffer? Boots? The list doesn’t need to be the list you would prepare if you were a French Girl dresser! My city essentials list is really different than the list for the burbs where I am now. In the city the only colors that made the list were black and grey and I had different key footwear pieces.

Jenn

(website)

Veteran

To stretch the metaphor a bit, Fashintern, I think much of your wardrobe is less like supporting actors than like an ensemble cast...that is to say, a whole bunch of statements appearing to play bit roles. When Rowan Atkinson shows up in Love, Actually, he's "just" playing a shop clerk in one scene, but he's still Mr. freaking Bean, and they still put him on the cover of the DVD.

LaPed

Veteran

Jenn -- I was thinking ensemble too! I think there are a lot of people who don't necessarily aim for one loud piece against a quiet backdrop. I definitely prefer elements that play off each other without any one piece stealing the spotlight. I think Helena/Torontogirl takes this approach too.

cat2 -- It's not so much that plaid is an essential and stripes are not, more that I could get by just fine with either one, as long as it was the *right* one in terms of fit, colour, etc. But having both is better, because then when I get bored I can switch it up (the "Woodsy" and "Beachy" personas I mentioned on Angie's blog post the other day). Same with black vs blue denim, or olive vs toffee coloured pants. I could take a strict approach and put all my energy into having a closet full of perfect black jeans, but what happens when I feel over black denim? I'd rather have a couple pairs in black and a couple pairs in blue, even though I'm not reaching for the blue ones as much right now. That probably won't be the case forever, so why get rid of them? They're perfectly fine, if not exciting to my eye at the moment. I don't think they're less essential, just on the back burner. So is the essential just "jeans that fit the way I want them to?" That's too broad to be helpful, for me at least. As is "tops with linear patterns" -- because it still doesn't help me find the right ones. (Kind of like SarahD8 ran into when she compared those two fair isle sweaters, which looked like they could serve more or less the same role, but one felt right and one felt just a bit off.)

(Sorry, FI, threadjacking when I said I wouldn't get involved in the Essentials conversations this year! )

Jenn

(website)

Veteran

LaPed, (sorry to get all off-topic on FI's post, but this is really interesting to me) it helped me to start thinking about essentials as not what would be in my "platonic ideal" wardrobe, but what's in my wardrobe and functioning right now. A good example is my sandals. "Neutral, comfortable, flat sandals" are the real essentials for me. Right now, that role is being filled by my olive Miz Mooz sandals, so they're my essential. A year ago, that role was filled by my cognac Bed Stu sandals. Before that, sandals weren't even an essential for me, but neutral, slip-on ballet flats were. That's why we revisit the essentials every year. They're not constants, but a way of looking under the hood to see how your wardrobe is working right now, and a chance to do a tune-up if things seem out of balance.

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