I'm so glad this idea was helpful for some of you, and thank you for sharing you thoughts and stories, which I've truly enjoyed reading!

I have done this before and discovered something interesting about myself. I do not wear the reserved items. For example, I eliminated white denim because solid white makes me think of the lab coats I wore in medical school and residency. I never liked them. I kept two pair of white jeans just in case but I have not wanted to wear them. They are going into the giveaway bin. I feel secure in my personal style and do not feel the need to mirror the people around me. If something does not spark joy, or does not fit my style persona, I have been culling it without remorse. Lots of clothing looks good on me and fits me because I’m tall and thin. However, when I don’t like it, I don’t wear it.

I must be more schizo than most here, because I enjoy pulling on a different style. I've worked out a winter style, but know that I also have summer and deeper winter styles/tastes that are different. And even in those shoulder seasons when the berries are so delicious (metaphorically speaking, and referring to clothes in those colors (that have great textures)), there are days when that just isn't what I feel like wearing. So I don't--I have other stuff around.

I never have understood the emphasis on honing one style as "your" style, as if we are always the same people, and want to emphasize the same part of ourselves. That just isn't me. There are situations (like at work, or at my kid's school) where I want to give a particular message consistently, but other times I just feel how I feel, and don't care to reel myself in to just one version.

The danger for me is in making up wardrobes to suit that one style. Besides wanting to edit everything else out, this can lead to me wanting to buy all the tings, just for the sake of having one style. For me, this is the wrong way to go, and would get boring after a while.

I 150% agree with this and have made the mistake more than once of trying to get the wardrobe too "perfect" (meaning Instagram minimalist closet post looking) rather than honouring my authentic style which includes some quirks and even contradictions! Thanks for articulating this so well!

Helena - that is it exactly!! Most of us have a few aspects of our life that require odd things. My Club athletics jacket (do I like it - not really, does it get worn - yes it does but not in any fashion conscious way). And even the most committed neutral wearer might have a day where a blue or red jumper is just the thing!!

I’ve never seen it put so clearly and eloquently!

I tend to pounce on certain types of botanical print - those are my outliers - and then I edit them right back out, and feel accusatory and impatient with myself for money wasted. Then I feel restless, wander into a store to “scratch the itch”, as you put it... and I re-pounce!

Thank you for putting up this post. This is a valuable realization!

Wow, you just might be on to something here, something that would totally work for me. Every summer, I see all the maxi dresses (for winter, sweater dresses) and I start thinking that I should go buy one (or six LOL).

Except I DON'T WEAR DRESSES! It's more about the emotional impact any dress has on me, because I'm often guilty of "manspreading" (or sitting in other very unladylike manners). I also climb things quite a lot (stools, countertops, trucks, tractors), which is also not conducive to ladylike mannerisms in a dress .

Prime example? This year, I bought a stinking boatload of maxi dresses at the thrift shop. Because it seemed like a good idea at the time. (In my defense, they had a plethora of dresses, like a whole fleet of boatloads of them, so all dresses except formals were 99 cents.) Of course, they went unworn.

I shall keep the prettiest one for the next time I see all the maxi dresses and decide that this is my season for dresses. Thank you for this brilliant suggestion
XO

Continuing to follow this discussion, and wondering about making more use of my holding zone, which currently serves as almost just a waypoint before items leave my life forever. I am thinking of an experiment in which I put a larger portion of my wardrobe in the holding zone — the stuff I rarely or never reach for, for whatever reasons, even though I really like it. This includes things that for some reason are not super easy to style, and items that I don’t wear even though I try them on and they look really good. I would leave the really slam dunk core pieces in my closet, and if I’m feeling bored, “shop” my holding zone instead of hitting retail. Sometimes a little time and fresh eyes can make something feel right again, or in time some style avenue opens (ie, the acquisition of a certain style of skirt or pants makes an old top useful again), or even a seasonal change brings up an opportunity to layer a previously-neglected “summer” top.

I don’t know if this sounds a little crazy, but I may try it, perhaps when I start shifting high summer wardrobe out of my closet in favor of fall/winter stuff. At the very least, I’m going to go through the exercise of pulling out all the summer stuff and grouping it into two sections — I wore it or I didn’t wear it this summer — to help me see exactly how much of my wardrobe is going unworn.

I like that idea Janet - I think it could really work. I sort of do it - I have a couple of winter options that I am sick of that I am going to put in storage soon. And I do this with evening occasion wear.