So last night I was looking at old posts in the forum, and thinking about the idea of the French five piece wardrobe, ala Vivienne Files, which is a bit of a misnomer as a name from how I understand it: it's not a wardrobe but a buying plan, the idea that you should plan to buy five new pieces per season to update your wardrobe. And the basics/essentials (Angie makes a distinction; I'm not sure I do) in your wardrobe don't count as one of these five pieces; you're allowed to replace those whenever necessary.

(I think this idea is primarily based on the fact that in France they have two big sales per year in stores, one in late winter and one in late summer, and that's all that they're allowed by law. So your stereotypical small-closet-having Frenchwoman can buy all of her five items each season during the sales and be able to mix and match them all for the rest of the year.)

Obviously this revisits the question of what counts as a basic or an essential, and what would count for your five pieces. I guess my loose definition of a statement piece is something bolder than my average style; something that is strong enough visually that I wouldn't wear more than one of them in any outfit. So most of my jeans wouldn't qualify - unless they were a bright color or maybe that one pair of flares that I have to wear with heels (and thus rarely wear). Most of my v-neck tees wouldn't qualify, even if they're in a color not a neutral, unless they have some sort of unusual shape or detailing. A lot of my shoes would be basics, but the few that are bright colors or unusual shapes would be statements.

Last week-ish I was bewailing the fact that I had wanted to buy 'less but better' for 2015 and so far have failed at that utterly. I've bought 26 items so far in winter; that's already excluding undergarments, but counts everything else. But! If I look at it with a basics/statements lens, what do I get?
10 items I'd call statement items, and the rest are basics. Two of the statement items are dresses, one bag, two pairs of pants, one jacket, one shirt, one knit tunic, and two tees. So a bit more than a third of my purchases have been statements, and the rest basics/essentials. That sounds about right to me, given that I will wear 3-5 items in an outfit (counting shoes and bags) and usually only one of them will be a statement.

I'm not sure what I can do with this grand navel-gazing; perhaps I could use it future planning for upcoming seasons, and what I need to buy/replace.