I have struggled with Angie's concepts of essentials but I think I am beginning to understand after reading Angie's blogpost and everyone's threads. The lightbulb went off with Suz's comments that essentials are the pieces that are repeated “ the glue”, that you could not get dressed without them, and they are the clothing items that are key to your creating outfits (usually neutrals). Also Angie's comment that lots of people are making workhorse statement pieces as essentials.

So if I am understanding correctly my essentials would be:

Pants- all slim straight in silhouettes ~ 15” in hem width

· Jeans- black, medium dark wash polished & more casual,), med- light wash

· Black pants- yoga pants (at home wear), ponte, microfiber (dressier), spring/summer weight (linen), gear fabric (for travel)

· Spring weight pant- olive, grey

Tops- black and patterns that combine black/cream/grey (stripes, dots, marled, tie-dye etc)

Toppers- Unstructured 3/4 to knee length (kimono style, sweater coats especially)

· black (various weights), black/grey/white tweed sweater coat

Shoes-

· Black fashion sneakers, black booties, black sandals (dressy, everyday, and walking), snow boots, hiking shoes

· Cognac sandals

Outerwear- Puffer, raincoat, spring jacket

Gold jewelry- earrings, 2 slim gold bracelets to wear with my watch, necklaces

Black purse and Cognac purse

Essential categories- specific items may vary but the category itself is essential

· Comfortable JFE tunic length tops- various weights in cream, red, rust, light clay, teal, cognac

· Layering knitwear in same colors as above

· Unstructured 3/4 to knee length toppers- kimono styles, sweater coats single layer coats.

· Summer dresses

I would like to add more cognac items - tops (solid and leopard), a topper, leopard shoes, to give some variety to all the black. I would wear them frequently if I had them . The same thing would be true of a red cluster. If I understand correctly these would be statement workhorses, correct?