I think I never explained how I come up with my monthly outfits strategy. At the end of last year I started planning my 2021 purchases. I do strict one in and one out policy - I like the size of my wardrobe, numbers of items that I have in each category work for my life and my storage - so I want to keep it the same size. Because I am diligent tracker, I started the process by evaluating the items that I haven’t worn at all in previous year. Some I didn’t wear because I didn’t have the occasion or opportunity, so I ignored those. I concentrated on items that I didn’t wear because of some issue - wrong size, uncomfortable, worn out, lint magnet, what I was thinking color, clear mistake…
At the end, I selected 38 items that I wanted to replace and upgrade this year (2 shirts, 7 sweaters, 6 pants, 2 jeans, 2 skirts, 2 dresses, 3 blazers, 3 outerwear, 7 shoes, 2 handbags, 1 belt, 1 scarf ). This was about 3 items per month. And then I realized that I have enough variety in categories that I can sort of have a full outfit each month. And that the whole yearly set can be treated as one cohesive capsule. My main goal was not to have great stand alone outfits, but to have each item playing well with the rest. Because of that some of the outfits were basic and boring, but I was able to combine them in multiple ways. I was also more concentrated on solids and neutrals because my wardrobe was oversaturated with fun patterns and colors and was becoming dysfunctional. And because of shift to a work from home model, I realized that my casual wardrobe is lacking so I focused more on that. So even though shopping by outfits seems very simple, there were lot of planning, thinking and analyzing involved. And this really helped keeping me focused, on track and on budget. There were also frustrations - for example, for the life of me, I could not find shirts that would work with the outfit and with my wardrobe, and I kept switching arround and moving them to the next month’s outfit. So far I only found one even though I planned for two, and it doesn’t look good for the second. I am also way ahead- it is only June and I have only 10 items left to replace, so I am having a break until September, when I will start with fall shopping.
Here is my collection so far.