Thanks, Marlene, for that article - it's not really the direction I'm going, but it does provide some food for thought. I'm approaching this more in the "You can't have everything - where would you put it all?" vein - some combination of "what can I buy that will have the most flexibility" and "what can I afford to buy that's trendy, and that won't cause me too much heartache when it goes out of style, or doesn't go with anything I own anymore?"

Sal at Already Pretty addressed a variation of this today, too: Effective Inventories and Honed Style. I like that title: "Effective Inventories".

Interesting article from Marlene, though I think it's aimed at those who feel like they are drowning in clothes and spending loads. I have a fairly large wardrobe but don't feel as though I'm bogged down, I'm a social shopper who can browse without spending a penny while nattering with friends x

Katje, you've posted a really interesting question and I feel like we share some challenges in figuring out what "enough" in a wardrobe means. When I first started my YLF adventure I didn't just have a minimalist wardrobe- I barely had anything to wear. Years of putting kids first left me with an embarrassingly small wardrobe- and with nothing to wear when special occasions came up. Or any occasion. So for me, since I spent so long trying to make too little work, my viewpoint is a bit skewed. I know that it's easy to convince myself not to buy something, to make do with what I have. If I let the word minimalist get in there I'm afraid I'll go back to my old ways of scraping the bottom of the barrel , clothes-wise, instead of working on looking effortlessly stylish, which is my goal.

So I'm just saying here that if you're still in the process of finding your style and learning how to create outfits, it might not be the best time to worry about being minimalist. I've given myself permission to overdo a little because I think that'll just put me in the normal range. Does that make sense?

I think Sinead makes a very good point.

BTW I didn't mention it yesterday but I started a post on a very similar issue a while back
http://youlookfab.com/welookfa.....are-enough

Hope this might help

Sinead, yes, it makes perfect sense - I have some of that same tendency, and the idea of giving myself permission to spread out is part of what I need.

Anne, thanks for pointing to your thread - another facet of the same subject.